Chapter Twenty
Harry
Later that evening, I sit in the corner table of the restaurant, moving my finger around the edge of my wineglass and letting my gaze move over the room.
The restaurant is one of the finest in the city, called The Dorchester after the town where owner and head chef grew up. It specializes in English cuisine and James Baker is a personal friend of mine, sporting three Michelin stars and having some of the most elite clientele in the city.
Other people would have to wait several months, or even a year, for a table like this.
I suppose I should feel bad for jumping the queue just because of my football career and my celebrity.
But fuck it.
Only the best – and this is theverybest – for Grace.
We’re in the upper section, just across from the silver-railing balcony that overlooks the wide open room. Three chandeliers hang from the ceiling, glittering brightly, and all around us women in their glittery dresses and jewelry laugh like flappers.
I glance toward the bathroom, feeling a visceral hunger inside of me whenever I think about Grace.
She looked so damn elegant when she laid her wineglass aside. “I just have to powder my nose.”
I tilted my head at her, grinning. “Wait a second, Nancy Drew,” I chuckled. “Just because I take you for a fancy dinner, suddenly it’spowder my nose, is it?”
She sat up straighter, tipping her head back.
In her black dress that clings bewitchingly to her heaven-sent curves, it took all my self-restraint not to knock the table out of the way and pull her into my arms.
“I’ll have you know,” she said, making her voice old-money posh, “that I am, in fact, the ladiest lady who ever ladied, thank you very much.”
I had to put my wineglass down without sipping anymore, just in case I ended up spitting it all over the damn place.
I turned to watch her go, her hips swaying side to side in the material.
Now I take out my phone and scroll to the horoscope site. Part of me wonders if my love for horoscopes is going to fade now that the camp is over. When autumn comes and turns Central Park brown and leafy, will I still check into the site as faithfully?
I don’t know about that.
But I do know one thing about autumn.
There’s no damn way I’m spending it without Grace.
You are a good person and you deserve a happy ending.
I would’ve laughed at that before, called it sentimental bullshit.
But that was before Grace came into my life like a hurricane of fresh air, becausebreathis too tame a word to describe her.
I ignore the peal of laughter that sounds from the other side of the balcony and let my eyes drift over the horoscope.
It’s time to stop fighting it. Happiness is there, just waiting to be embraced. Welcome it with open arms and do what you know is right. No more second guessing. No more excuses.
I slide my phone into my inside jacket pocket as Grace approaches the table.
With her hair falling down over her shoulders and some elegant makeup applied to her face, she looks so damn beautiful I could roar. She’s ringed her eyes in eye-liner, something I never normally notice or care about. But with Grace, every touch is just an added flavor to her beauty.
I stand up and walk around to her side of the table, gripping the edge of her seat.
“Hmm,” she says, stopping just shy of it. “Are you going to yank that away when I try and sit down, playboy? You’re being very suspicious.”
