Marriage For One

“I don’t frown.” He frowned as he said it.

Surprise, surprise.

I tilted my head. “Really? You’re gonna go with that? Why don’t we walk a few steps so you can stare into the nice, shiny glass windows and see for yourself.”

He sighed. “I’ll keep my frowning to a minimum, if it’ll please you. It’ll be fine. Come on. They’re not going to ask questions. Stop worrying. Remember, I told you, a potential client is joining us, too. They’ll be too busy with him.”

“So this is a schmoozing dinner. All the attention will be on him.”

“Schmoozing…”

“What?” I asked. “What?!”

He shook his head and sighed. “Your choice of words fascinate me. Are you sure you’re up for this?”

Maybe I was worrying over nothing. Either way, I was going to go into that restaurant and try to look like a happily married couple with a man who never smiled. And eat. I’d also eat. If my mouth was full or I was fixated on my dinner, they couldn’t ask questions. It wouldn’t be too hard to achieve either because I could already hear my stomach growling. Taking in a deep breath and letting it out, I thought I might as well get it over with as soon as possible. Only the first one was going to be this painful. After this one was over, I’d be a pro.

“Okay. Okay, you know them. I trust you.” I smoothed down my subtle waves and my bangs as Jack followed the movement of my hands.

When I met his eyes, he turned and walked away, leaving me behind. I looked up at the skies.

God, please help me.

I rushed to catch up until we were side by side. When someone opened the door for us to step in, Jack gestured for me to walk in ahead of him. I was trying my hardest to look like I fit in with the crowd, so I didn’t notice when Jack stopped in the entryway just before the hostess. Backtracking, I stood next to him again and tried not to fidget.

After he let the girl know about our party, someone helped me take off my jacket, and I started on the smoothing down process all over again.

“Rose?”

I looked up and got caught in Jack’s deep blue gaze.

“What?” I asked, leaning toward him.

“I…” His eyes moved all over me. All over. He’d already seen my tired face, yet he lingered the longest there. My lips, my eyes. My gaze caught in his and we stood still.

Stop looking, Rose. Stop staring.

Blinking, I broke the weird connection and felt my face heat up.

I cleared my throat. “Yes?”

He took a step closer. Standing too close for my comfort.

“You look beautiful,” he said out of nowhere, softly, but loud enough that even though there was laughter and soft music spilling out from the dining area, there was no way I could’ve misheard that compliment. I ran my hand up and down my arm to get rid of the goose bumps his gaze and rough voice had caused. The way he’d just blurted it out, I wasn’t sure if he had been waiting for a good moment to say it where other people could hear him or if it was an actual compliment.

“I…Thank you,” I whispered.

There was this weird feeling in my chest, this unreasonable excitement. Before I could process the unexpected shift between us and come up with an answer, his gaze dropped low. I followed his eyes and my heart started to beat faster—a whole lot faster when I saw his raised hand between us.

Tilting my head back up, I met his gaze and slowly, uncertainly placed my hand in his open palm for the first time since the ceremony. His hand was warm as he gently closed his fingers around mine. And my heart…my heart was having some issues.

The number of times Jack Hawthorne smiled: zilch.

Chapter Seven

Jack

Closing my hand around Rose’s much smaller one, I followed the hostess and had to pull a bit when Rose didn’t move with me. As the woman guided us through the front tables and deeper into the restaurant, I quickly glanced down at Rose. She looked a little flushed and unsettled with that small frown plastered on her face. I was unsettled too. Hell, maybe even more than her. The only difference was that I was better at hiding my emotions. You could read everything from just looking into her face, her eyes.

Her dress, and the way she looked in the dress had blindsided me, that much was apparent. And I hadn’t been able to keep my mouth shut. But that red flush on her cheeks, the widening of her eyes, the goose bumps she had tried to hide. Those little facts were really interesting.

“Are you okay?” I asked, leaning down close to her ear and giving her hand an involuntary squeeze as we took a turn to the right that led to the private area of the restaurant.