“That’s amazing,” Reagan said whole-heartedly. “What a fairy tale, huh, hon?” she asked her fiancé, the one named Dwight.
He was quiet like Nathan. I hadn’t yet heard him say a word. Her, though, I liked.
“It really was,” I said. “She’s expecting their second this spring.”
As if on cue, the wives and girlfriends at the table all broke into a chorus of oohs and aahs while their men eyed me curiously as if to wonder about the genetic code I carried that attracted someone like Xavier Parker.
I didn’t tell them I was nothing like my sister except for the dark hair and green eyes. Frankie was petite and curvy, while I was taller and almost too thin. She was bookish, smart, and could offer far more in conversation with these people than I’dever be able to. Of course, she fit into Xavier’s world. That was where she belonged in the first place.
Unlike me.
But tonight, apparently, you wouldn’t know it. I was killing with this crowd. Well, most of them, I thought as I caught Charlotte giving me the evil eye.
I just smiled sweetly and took a drink of my cocktail.
“We tried to get the head chef to cater the Brooklyn Museum benefit,” said the blond lady whose name I thought was Stacy. Or Pacey. Crap. “Maybe you can ask your brother-in-law about that too.”
“Oh, I’ve been to that benefit!” I exclaimed.
Maybe I was a little too eager, but I was honestly just excited that I actually had something in common with these people.
Again, a table full of surprised looks turned my way.
“Well, not as a donor,” I admitted when even Nathan looked doubtful. “I was in the dance company that did a production ofGiselleas flowers.” I grinned at Nathan. “I was the peony.”
His mouth had fallen open in the most adorable way while he looked me over as if with new eyes.
“Your favorite,” he said.
I grinned. “You remembered.”
Nathan picked up my hand and feathered his soft lips over my knuckles without breaking his gaze. “I’d never forget.”
“I remember that too!” the blond woman put in. “Oh, you were exquisite! No one in the room could even speak while you did your solo. Nathan, have you ever seen her dance?”
Nathan’s eyes didn’t move from me while he replied. “I have.”
I bit back a smile. The fact that it had only been on a platform before I literally fell into his arms was our private joke.
“And she is exquisite,” he agreed.
It was a fake compliment. I knew that. A complete and total farce.
But every cell in my body seemed to shimmy with pleasure in response to it.
“Where did you study?” Charlotte interrupted our little moment. “A conservatory, I assume? That is, if you’resoaccomplished.”
Her face was pleasant, but I could hear the snarl in her voice. Even if no one else seemed to.
“Ah, no,” I said. “I grew up in the city, so I learned mostly at local spots. I’ve been auditioning since I was twelve or so, though.”
“Did you attend LaGuardia?” asked the blond woman, who, even if she was nosy, was reasonably nice. At least her interest was genuine.
“Tracy, don’t pester the girl,” chided her husband, whose name I barely remembered was Jordan. “I apologize. She’s like a child with a new puppy. Just crazy about the arts.”
“That’s okay with me,” I said, though my face was growing hot with everyone’s eyes on me. For some reason, this felt harder than the thirty-two fouettes inSwan Lake. “Um, no. I studied mostly at a studio near Fordham. And later worked with some teachers in Harlem, too.”
“The Bronx, really?” said Jordan to his wife and really everyone else at the table. “I suppose there’s more than meets the eye to this one, isn’t there? Congratulations, Nate. You’ve really found yourself a rose out of concrete.”
