Page 66 of Noah

"But maybe it's what I'm meant to be doing."

"Bullshit." He gathered me up in his arms and kissed my head. "You love this pub."

Burrowing into his embrace, I wrapped my arms around his waist and hung on. "I don't know what to do. I don't know what I'm doing wrong."

Brody squeezed me tight. "We'll figure it out together, all right?"

I nodded into his shoulder, relief coursing through my body, and let the tears that had been threatening to fall all afternoon soak his shirt.

I wasn't alone anymore.

Saturday rolled around after a week that had me feeling more hopeful. Brody had convinced me that staring at my computer screen did not constitute figuring things out. The income and expenses for the past week weren't going to change. Done deal. Move on to what I did have control over.

Instead of sitting at the bar, Brody had been eating his buffalo wings in my office, discussing how we could get a handle on costs. I had a business degree, but Brody was an organizational genius. There's a saying, don't work harder, work smarter. Brody knew how to encourage me to put my schooling to use and set up systems that would produce less waste.

We'd even been on a couple of dates. Something Brody called a work/life balance. It was a foreign concept to me. My parents had never demonstrated any such thing.

Even the gala tonight was largely in aide of impressing their business clients.

I looked at myself in the mirror. The tux still hung on me well. Although, if my mother had given me more time, I would have taken it to a tailor to ensure it was the perfect fit.

My gaze wandered everywhere, trying to figure out what Brody saw when he looked at me. Objectively, I was attractive. A bit more rugged than my parents liked but Brody had expressed that the slight wildness in my appearance turned him on. I had attempted to tone that down for tonight. I didn't need my mother fussing over how I hadn't even tried to be presentable.

If I looked anything close to Liam, my parents would probably be happier. Compared to his beauty and sophisticated presence, I was average. Yet, Brody had chosen me and not Liam.

My phone rang and I groaned, assuming it was my mother checking on me to make sure I was indeed coming and that my lovely partner was coming too.

The screen read, Pipsqueak.

I smiled. I'd been meaning to phone my sister, Frances. She was three years younger than me but seemed to have it all together. She'd been at the family firm for almost eight years. She used to phone to lament but since she and her boyfriend became serious, our relationship had cooled.

I put on my sternest voice. "What do you want?"

Frances squealed with laughter. "Oooo. Scary. For a second, I thought you were Father."

I hissed through the line at her.

Frances sighed, letting her glee bleed off. "Are you coming tonight, big brother?"

"Those are my marching orders."

"Mother says you're bringing your fiancé. Which is upsetting, because you never even told me you were in a serious relationship."

I groaned. I had to tell her. I couldn't lie to my sister.

"He's not my fiancé. He's not even my live-in partner."

Frances gasped dramatically then chuckled. "You lied to Mother? For shame."

"She's always on my back. Now that you're engaged, she's even worse."

"So … who is this guy you're bringing?"

"He's my boyfriend. His name is Brody."

"So, not an escort like last time."

"Nope. The real deal."

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