Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 35550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 178(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 119(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 178(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 119(@300wpm)
“I don’t think it is. Do you know what my parents are like? They’re going to want to meet you, and all of a sudden, we don’t have this friendship anymore. They’re going to want us to date.” She covered her face again. “Have you seen my cell phone?”
He went and grabbed it from the sitting room where he left it. She had three missed calls and a dozen texts.
“Yep, all from my parents.”
“What do they say?”
“’Why didn’t you tell us you were dating Brice Ivory? He’s good for the company. An Ivory-Knox merger would make us all unstoppable.’ They honestly go on and on, talking about how good it would be for us to get married.”
She put her phone on the counter, then dropped her head down.
Her hair was a mess. She hadn’t brushed it.
Danielle was certainly breaking a lot of his firsts. He’d never seen a woman straight out of bed like she was. He liked her natural look. She didn’t need all the makeup that women seemed to enjoy wearing these days.
Reaching out, he stroked her head.
She lifted her head up with a sigh.
“It’s going to be fine.”
“I want to go home.” She pulled a pastry from the bag, taking a large bite. “Here’s the other one. You must eat with me.”
“Why?”
“Because, you’re just as doomed as I am.”
He took the pastry and started to eat it, seeing the sadness in her eyes. “I don’t think you really need to worry all this much.”
“I’m not worried about the newspaper or the gossip. Believe me, if I did, I’d be a nervous wreck by now. Some of my shows have been heavily criticized in the papers.” She shrugged. “You win some, you lose some. What worries me is my parents. They’ve been wanting me to get married for some time now. I’m thirty, and they keep telling me I’m too old. That I shouldn’t be working so hard and that I really need to focus on starting a family. I’m an only child. It sucks.”
“Why don’t we get married?” Brice asked.
“What? Are you even listening to yourself?”
“You think I don’t have the marriage talk?”
“Brice, this is a commitment. I’m not ready to make it, nor do I want to do it with a guy I just met and someone who, no offense, was dating a model when we did.”
“Think about it.”
“I’ve thought about it and no thank you.” She finished her pastry and coffee. “Will you take me home?”
“Yes, I’ll take you home.”
He wasn’t done though, not by a long shot.
Staring at Danielle, he wondered if he could get her on board with his plan. Actually, scrap that, he had no chance of getting her on board, but her parents, however, that was a whole other story.
****
By the time they arrived at her home, Danielle took one look at her parents’ car and would gladly have Brice take her wherever he wanted to go. The thought of facing them filled her with dread.
You’re a grown woman. Stop being a wuss.
Climbing out of the car, Brice didn’t drive off like she hoped.
“Do you know who that car belongs to?”
“Unfortunately, yes. If you don’t want to meet my parents, I suggest you run. You run and don’t look back.”
“It can’t be that bad.”
She saw her mother, Rachel Knox, coming to the front door, a look of pleasure in her eyes at Brice behind her.
“Yeah, it really is.”
“Oh, honey, we thought we called ahead and told you we were stopping by today.”
Her father was behind her mother. He held his arms out in surrender. Clearly, her mother wanted to jump all over the story of the newspaper.
“Yeah, about that, today’s not a good day.” She glanced over at Brice.
“Well, introduce us. I mean, I can’t believe I had to find out the truth about my daughter’s relationship from a newspaper of all places. What is wrong with picking up the phone?”
“We’re not—”
“It’s just the start,” Brice said, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. She hadn’t expected the move and quickly forced a smile to her lips.
She couldn’t call Brice out in front of her parents. It wouldn’t be fair, even if that was what she wanted to do.
Instead, she pressed her lips together and waited.
“So, it is true?”
“We’re keeping everything quiet, you know, just in case things don’t work out.”
She was going to kill him. Seeing the happiness in her mother’s eyes, yeah, this wasn’t going to end well.
“You hear that, Andrew? Brice and our girl are together.”
“Yes, and our girl looks thrilled by that news.”
She stared at her dad. He clearly saw through the ruse.
“Thrilled,” she said.
“What on earth have you done to yourself? I know I took better care of you, sweetheart. Look at you. You haven’t even done your hair, and in front of Brice too.” Before she could stop her mother, she was being led into the house by her.