Wait For Me

“My dress,” she says, looking down at herself. “It’s ruined.”

“It’s not ruined.”

Dad mode kicks in, and I set down my plate of food and grab a few cloth napkins. She grabs another one, and together we work at cleaning her up the best we can.

“Don’t wipe it, blot it,” I tell her.

“You’re good at this.”

“Yeah, well, when you have three kids, stains are a part of everyday life.”

“What is going on here?”

I whirl around to find Nora a few feet away. Her pale face stares at me before dropping to my hands, which are way too close to this woman’s breasts.

Shit. I yank my hands back.

“Nora,” the woman says before I have a chance to respond. “I don’t know where you found this guy, but he’s a keeper. Can you believe I was clumsy enough to spill wine on myself? But here he was, your knight in shining armor, ready to swoop in and save me.”

“It wasn’t quite that dramatic,” I add.

“If you two are done here, the show is over. You should probably get to your after party, don’t you think, Shaylee?”

Shaylee? Aw, fuck. This was the woman I was supposed to stay away from.

“Probably,” Shaylee says.

“It was nice meeting you. Good luck getting that stain out.” I drop the napkin and take my place at Nora’s side.

Shaylee frowns and disappears down the hall.

“That wasn’t what it looked like.”

Nora looks at me. Her bottom lip trembles, and without a word, she turns on her heel and walks away.

Fucking hell.

“Nora, wait.”

She spins when I reach for her wrist, ready to give me a piece of her mind.

But not here.

“Hold that thought.” I take her arm and guide her to a small room at the end of the hall. Looks like another banquet room, but it’s empty, so it’ll do. “You’re mad.”

“I’m not mad. I’m disappointed, and I wasn’t expecting to walk out and find you groping Shaylee.”

“First off, I wasn’t groping her. She spilled her wine, and I was trying to help her clean it up.”

“I’m guessing she did that on purpose.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Second, I had no idea who she was until you said her name.”

Nora huffs and looks away. “I don’t like her, Grayson. She’s always been rude to me, and I don’t trust her. When I saw you touching her it…it…”

“Made you jealous?” I ask, putting my face in front of hers.

“Yes! I was jealous! Are you happy now?”