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“Happy?” she supplied for me.
I nodded.
“I’m happy that you’re happy,” she said, squeezing her hand.
Tears prickled my eyes. “Thanks, Mom.”
“Let’s find our seats. And watch Walker fall head over heels in love with Charlie.”
We strolled to our table. Patrick helped us with our seats since Bones and my stepfather were both MIA.
Charlie waved off her father and took her seat. She drank from her champagne flute, looking bored and in need of a distraction.
Walker Anderson swooped in, not taking his eyes off Charlie.
Charlie couldn’t take her eyes off Walker, either.
“Walker, I’d like you to meet my best friend, Charlie. Charlie, this is Walker.”
“Nice to meet you,” she said, boldly perusing him.
“Nice to meet you, too,” he said. His eyes lingered a little too long and Patrick cleared his throat.
While my mother was making introductions, Charlie met my gaze and fanned herself and pretended to swoon.
I bit my lip to stifle my grin. Walker took the chair next to Charlie and the two of them immediately jumped into conversation.
I looked at Dina and held up crossed fingers.
She blew me a kiss.
Bones returned to the table and slid into the chair next to me. “Have I missed the weird, tiny bird yet?”
I shot him a grin. “They haven’t even served the salads.”
He set his arm on the back of my chair and leaned closer to whisper, “How long do we have to stay before we can leave? I want another taste of you.”
Shivers danced down my spine. I turned my head to reply, pitching my voice lower. “There’s a break between dinner and dessert. We can slip away then.”
My stepfather returned to the ballroom just as they were serving the salad course. His face was chalk white and when he reached for his newly poured glass of white wine, his hand shook. I tried to catch his eye, but he never met my gaze. He was quiet, letting my mother direct the flow of conversation.
At some point during the main course, Bones placed his hand on my thigh and let it wander toward the juncture of my legs. I glared at him in warning, but he looked remarkably composed as he ate his food, like he wasn’t tracing circles on my thigh and tantalizing me.
Dina and Patrick were regaling us with tales of their early courtship.
“He was a complete and utter ass,” Dina said with a laugh. “There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do to get my attention.”
“Like streaking across the football field at Notre Dame’s homecoming game with her name painted on my behind,” Patrick said with a wide smile.
“I could’ve been happy never knowing that story,” Charlie said, causing a round of laughter at the table.
“Kellen tried to talk me out of it, but I wouldn’t be deterred,” Patrick said. “We were roommates at Notre Dame. Thick as thieves.”
The words were out of his mouth without any thought and a pall fell over the table. I glanced at my mother to see how she felt about my father’s name being mentioned.
“It was one of his favorite stories to tell at Christmas, after one too many glasses of sherry,” she said with a fondness I rarely heard from her. Not because she didn’t love my father, but because the mere mention of his name usually made her clamshell.
“How did you two meet?” Bones asked my mom, gesturing to her and my stepfather. He took his glass of wine and held it to his lips while he waited for the story.
