Her Heart's Desire

“Exactly. You two are family. What’s she going to do to a person who isn’t related to her by blood?”

“She will be on her good behavior. Now stop worrying or I’ll have to…relax you.”

“Oh, no, you don’t.” She sidestepped him. “We’re not going to be late for your going-away party. Not gonna happen, Romeo.”

He stalked her with slow, predatory steps. His eyes were alight with mischief. Tiffany started to giggle and backed up.

“Stop it. I mean it, Ivan. I’ve got to go check on dinner.”

She t

ook off running out the bedroom before he could stop her.

When Ivan reached the kitchen, Tiffany was checking on her roasted lamb.

“I don’t know why you didn’t let me hire waitstaff to help you.”

“Because this is my first dinner party in who knows how long. I wanted to do it all myself,” she explained. “It’s important to me.”

“Okay,” he replied. “But you’d better not be too tired to wish me a bon voyage later. As a matter of fact, we’ve got time now to—”

Tiffany glared at him. “No, we don’t.”

Luckily for her, the doorbell rang. They opened the door together to greet their first guest. Cole entered and escorted their grandmother inside.

Ivan hugged her and took her shawl. He wrapped his free arm around Tiffany.

“GiGi, this is Tiffany Gentry. Tiffany, this is my grandmother, Cecile Mangum.”

Tiffany reached out to shake her hand. “I’m delighted to meet you, Mrs. Mangum.”

“It’s wonderful to meet you, too, Tiffany—finally.” She directed the last word at Ivan. “I’ve heard so much about you, and I can see now that Ivan and Cole didn’t exaggerate. You are lovely.”

Tiffany blushed. “Thank you.” She showed Ivan’s grandmother to the couch while Ivan went to hang up her shawl.

Norma Jean and Heathcliffe came in next, and then Milán and Adrian. Ivan introduced the group to his grandmother.

“It’s wonderful to finally meet another member of Ivan’s family,” Norma Jean said, sitting next to Cecile. “You have wonderful grandsons, Ms. Cecile.”

“I agree, dear, but they’re a handful.” She chuckled. “Just like their father.”

Milán found Tiffany in the kitchen as she was taking some appetizers out of the refrigerator.

“I’ve got that,” she said, scooting Tiffany out of the way. “You go help entertain your guests.”

“Are you sure?” Tiffany said uncertainly.

“Of course. Now get going.”

Tiffany hugged her friend and returned to the living room. She sat on the arm of Ivan’s chair. He placed an arm loosely around her.

“Tiff, Ms. Cecile was just telling us a lively story about the first time Ivan tried to cut his own hair.” Norma Jean laughed.

“Honey, it looked like he had two Mohawks on the top of his head,” his grandmother said.

“Mom was furious,” Cole added. “We were scheduled to get family portraits taken the next afternoon.”

“Oh, no,” Tiffany said. “What happened?”