Page 94 of Rosabel and the Billionaire Beast

“Don’t what?” She looked at me with wide chocolate-brown eyes.

I was a putz for those eyes, for the gleam in them, for the long lashes that framed them.

She slipped the black folder toward herself, retrieved her card from her purse, and inserted it into the clear pocket inside before handing the folder to the waitress.

“I know I don’t owe you anything,” she said. “But we’re here as friends, remember? If I were going out to eat with any other friend, I would never let them pay for me all the time.”

“Friends,” I said, both knowing the necessity of that word and hating it all the same.

I wanted more than that. I wanted to slip my hand across the table to take hers. I wanted to stand and lead her into the openspace where a few other couples were dancing to the soft music being played by live musicians on the corner. I wanted to press my lips to hers.

“Yes, friends,” she said. “And just like friends do, I’m worried about you. You hit a snag today, and I can tell it’s still pestering you.”

She thought I was still hung up on losing the house.

If she only knew what I was hung up on losing. What would she do if I told her what my problem really was?

It didn’t matter.Couldn’tmatter.

I sighed, deciding to allow her to think what she would. It was the safer option.

Besides, she wasn’t wrong. Iwasworried about my relationship with Grandmother.

“I need her to know how sorry I am,” I said. “That house would have completely lit her sky if she’d gotten such an incredible birthday present. I don’t know what else to give her.”

“You don’t have togiveher anything to say sorry. That’s the beautiful thing about apologies. If the rift is big enough, that one little word can have more power than any gift.”

My breath bottled in my chest. “Regardless, it’s her birthday. I’d like to get her a present.”

And make up for all the other presents I’d neglected to give.

“That’s not hard,” Rosabel said without breaking a sweat.

She smiled. That sparkle in her eyes magnified, striking my entire system like a gong to a bell.

“You don’t know my grandma.”

Evangeline Hawthorne was the woman who’d fired her staff for failing to iron the sheets. Her exorbitant standards made royalty squirm.

Rosabel rolled her eyes. “Give me some credit,” she said. “Your grandma may have her quirks, but she’s a woman. Ahuman being. And people like it when you say sorry. That’s all you have to do. Just say the words.”

Was she right? Would a simple apology be enough?

I doubted it. I’d tried to make amends while we’d been at my parents’ the day before, and Grandmother had waved off the attempt.

“She and I were the closest of anyone in my family,” I said, trying to explain, to help Rosabel understand. “She taught me how to read, taught me table manners, made sure I did my homework. She practically raised me.”

“And is she the one who insists you call her ‘Grandmother’ instead of ‘Grandma’?”

“You got it. So much of her is in me, Rosie. I was soangrythat Grandfather had sold that house because I knew what it meant to her. Never mind what it meant tome. Her birthday present can’t be just any gift. The gift has to mean something.”

Rosabel perked up, plastering on a smile that lit her entire face. A prick of attraction struck me as it always did, and of interest, too. I pushed both sensations down.

She did what I couldn’t bring myself to. She reached across the table for my hand.

When her fingers claimed mine, the touch streamed through my entire body. I knew I should pull away. I wanted to weave my fingers through hers like I did before, but that had been hard enough.

This was her gesture, not mine. So I considered it strength enough that I didn’t steal her hand and never let it go.

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