Page 32 of Reclaim Me

Of course, there are some people who fit that description, but I’m too happy with the way our conversation with Soledad ended to let it get me down. It also doesn’t hurt that within five minutes of us being in the room, we have drinks in our hands and have found ourselves in the presence of one of my old sparring partners from Hunter’s gym, Mallory Kent. As soon as we locked eyes, she waved me and Aaron over and introduced us to her husband, Chris, her sister-in-law, Sloane, and her brother, Dominic. Although Mallory and I never hung out outside the gym, and this is my first time meeting her husband and siblings, everyone is extremely welcoming and, once we realize we’re all NHU alums, conversation flows easily between us. The only interruption is the ringing of Chris’ phone.

We all watch him weave through the crowd, concentrating intently on whatever the person on the other end of the line is saying. Mallory’s gaze lingers the longest, and when she looks back at me, there’s pure adoration in her amber eyes.

“Chris is a doctor,” she explains, taking a sip of her champagne. “He’s on call tonight, which means he’ll probably be leaving us at some point because babies don’t care that it’s date night when they’re ready to be born.”

“They don’t care once they’re born either,” Sloane says, smiling ruefully.

Mallory nods her head in agreement. “True.”

“How old are your little ones?” I ask, genuinely curious, even though Aaron is shuffling his feet like he’s uncomfortable with the turn the conversation has taken. I glance at him, apologizing with my eyes because I didn’t mean to make things awkward for him.

Dominic is a quiet giant, but the moment my question reaches his ears, he’s got his phone out with a picture of a chubby little baby girl with his dark eyes and her mama’s curls.

“This is Ariel. She just turned four months old, and these little hellions are Eric and Jasmine. They were born two weeks after our demon child.” He swipes to the right, and the screen changes, displaying a photo of two equally chubby babies with Mallory’s ebony skin and amber eyes. They’re carbon copies of her, which makes me laugh. Dominic laughs, too, reading my thoughts clearly. “I know, right? It’s like Chris wasn’t even in the room when they were conceived.”

“Damn, Nic, leave it to you to whip out pictures of my kids before I can.”

He shrugs, unapologetic. “Don’t be mad at me because you got slow reflexes.”

Mallory gapes at him. “My reflexes aren’t slow. I’m just sleep-deprived.”

Dominic continues showing me photos, sharing stories about each one as he goes while Sloane and Mallory add details he’s forgotten to include.

“Do you two have kids?” Mallory asks once the baby show and tell is done.

I hate the way I pause because I’m not sure how to answer. Before the conversation earlier, it would have been an easy yes, but now I find myself hesitating, hoping that Aaron will heal what his words broke by whipping out his phone and showing everyone pictures of Riley.

He doesn’t.

Instead, he just sips his champagne and looks around the room, probably planning what group of unsuspecting business owners he’s going to infiltrate next, leaving me to answer, to wonder whether he even has any pictures of Riley on his phone to share.

“I have a daughter. Her name’s Riley,” I say, digging my phone out of my clutch and showing them the photo of her on my lock screen. It’s a picture of us taken on our last day in New York. I’m sitting on the sill of the window of her old bedroom, and she’s in my lap, grinning up at the camera.

“She’s beautiful!” Mallory says, and Sloane nods her agreement before saying, “She looks just like you.”

“Thank you.”

I tuck my phone back into my purse and try to hide how embarrassed I am by Aaron’s silence. Just as I pull myself together, he goes and makes it worse by making his first real contribution to the conversation since telling everyone his name an overzealous exclamation about some guy that just walked into the room with an entire entourage behind him.

“I didn’t know Sebastian Adler was going to be here!”

I groan inwardly. Here we go again with the Sebastian Adler talk. These days he gets more excited about a complete stranger than he does me. Granted, the stranger in question is a billionaire and handsome as all get out, but still.

“He’s always at these things even though he always claims he won’t be,” Dominic says, speaking with the kind of authority you only use when you know someone personally. He confirms my suspicion with his next words. “Do you want an introduction?”

Aaron’s eyes turn into saucers. “Seriously?”

Dominic shrugs like it’s no big deal, and judging by Mallory and Sloane’s calm reaction, I get the sense that it’s not, then he lifts his hand and waves the elusive billionaire down. Within seconds, our group has expanded, going from five to nearly a dozen. Sebastian greets Dominic first, dapping him up before turning his attention to Sloane and then Mallory, both of whom he greets by name.

“Seb, this is Rachel Prince and her partner, Aaron Scott,” Dominic says, which then puts me in the crosshairs of the intimidating but surprisingly friendly man. He extends his hand, and I take it, shocked at the warmth and size of it.

“Nice to meet you, Rachel.”

“Rae,” I blurt, nervous for some reason. “You can call me Rae.”

“Rae,” he repeats, smiling like he’s used to people losing their shit in front of him.

Aaron’s hand appears between us, and Sebastian’s brows dip down into a deep frown that Aaron either doesn’t see or has just chosen to ignore. “I’m Aaron Scott, VP of Business Development at Statler and Fawn.”

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