Page 16 of Power Plays & Proposals

I shook my head, not wanting to run the bill higher, "No that's all."

Now that it was Nate's turn to order he said, "How about one of your appetizer sampler platters for the table, a steak for me, and another brownie sundae to go."

The server wrote it all down, clarifying how Nate wanted his steak cooked, and walked away to put the order in.

Nate leaned back in his chair as he relaxed. "You can take the sundae home with you."

"That’s really sweet of you. You didn't have to get me a dessert." I told him.

"I believe it was part of the deal when we invited you to join us." He leaned forward, putting an elbow on the table so he could rest his chin on his hand. His smile was stunning, and I was glad to know what he looked like without the sunglasses. When he looked at me I knew I had the entirety of his attention.

I shook my head and put on my best smile. "I hear you have a big game later."

His smile got bigger, "It should be a good game. Do you like hockey?"

"I honestly don't know. I've never watched it."

He looked at me surprised. "So you just talk to your neighbor about hockey then?"

"Mrs. Jex was trying to distract me and cheer me up."

"What did you need cheering up for?" He asked.

I hesitated.

Penelope gasped. "Dad!"

He snapped his attention to her, and with her eyes wide she looked at me apologetically before handing Nate his phone.

"Mom got Lia fired!" Penelope cried. Erin was smiling at the screen as she walked in front of the salon talking about how important it is to protect children everywhere.

Nate looked at me. "You were fired?"

I nodded. "The bad press left my boss with no choice."

"I'll make this up to you. I'll get my lawyer on the phone and we'll make this right." He started tapping away on his phone.

"That's very kind of you. But I'll be fine."

"Lia, I'm so sorry you got tangled up in Erin's garbage."

I took a sip of my water, and added a lemon slice. "It's not your fault, and you aren't responsible for her actions."

He sighed, and the silence stretched on. I took another sip of my water, and looked around once more. People had noticed Nate, and I caught a couple of people trying to take sneaky selfies on their phones. I'd never been one for the spotlight, and the attention was uncomfortable.

The server brought the food out, he apologized for the appetizer taking so long, but we were just happy to have the food. The smell of Penelope’s lasagna had my stomach grumbling as I picked at my salad so I took a mozzarella stick from the appetizer platter.

Nate set his fork down "Do you want something besides salad? Charlie makes really good burgers too."

"No. The salad is great." My stomach just couldn’t get past the knots my anxiety had made earlier.

Penelope, bless her, decided to change the topic for us. "Look at my picture!"

She moved her pencils to the side of the picture to better show us, but the purple one kept rolling, until it fell right off the table. It bounced when it hit the floor before it rolled under the table. She was quick to shove her chair back and dive under the table. Her chair tipped and clattered to the ground. People looked in our direction to see what caused the commotion, and I could feel my face warm.

She was still looking under the table for it when I heard her. "Dad, it's by your foot."

Nate, more carefully, scooted his chair back and knelt down to pick up the colored pencil which had now rolled closer to me. I leaned down as well, and heard people gasp. I took a deep breath before sitting up and looking around to see phones pointed in our direction. Penelope got out from under the table, with her colored pencil in hand.

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