Page 42 of A Night to Remember

“How so?”

I shrug and make microadjustments to the silverware in front of me. “It doesn’t sound like you ever knew Alli that well?—”

“I didn’t!”

“I know,” I reply with a smile. “But she’s a really interesting person. She speaks French and German and got her library science degree in Germany. She’s curious abouteverything—kids who come into the library know they can quiz her on all the weird dinosaurs nobody else has ever heard of and ask her stumpers like, I don’t know, where did the alphabet come from. But she never showedanyof that to the guys she dated before Tom. He’s the only man I’ve ever seen her be herself around.

“And I don’t know Tom as well, but he was always the kind of professor everyone was afraid of. Strict, you know? But it turns out he’s just a huge teddy bear. Like, if that man isn’t walking around with a toddler on his shoulders in the next five years, there is no justice in the world.”

Gabe beams at me. “I hope Allison’s cool with that.”

I smile back. “Okay,obviouslytheir family planning is none of my business.” I twist my water glass between my fingers and try, again, to explain the change I’d seen come over both of them when they entered each other’s lives. “You know when you’re listening to a song on the radio, but the station isn’t coming in all the way, so you hear a bunch of static and noise too? And then you drive a little further, and suddenly all that noise falls away,and you’re only left with the good stuff? That’s what they’re like together.”

Gabe leans back in his chair and gives me a warm, tender smile that’s so sweet I have to look away. “The Navigator has satellite radio,” he jokes.

“Of course it does,” I reply, and fling my napkin at him.

After that, we’re able to enjoy our meal like normal people. I realize at a certain point that I’m actually having fun.

“And when I saya fit of apoplectic rage,” Gabe is explaining, describing his niece’s reaction to the 2019 remake ofThe Lion King, “I mean I had to wrestle the remote out of her hand before she hurled it into the screen of Adam and Lucy’s 98-inch state-of-the-art TV.”

“That’s totally understandable,” I reply, deadpan.

“Is it? I don’t even remember Scar’s song from the original. Is leaving it out really a reason to commit a class E felony?”

I shrug. “She probably has a crush on him.”

Gabe stares at me like I have three heads. “On…?”

“Scar.” I stare back, munching my sub-par Caesar salad.

“But he’s… a lion? And has an evil plot to murder his brother and nephew?”

“He also has a debonair British accent and great hair.”

“That’s amane, Johnson.”

“I’m just saying, she wouldn’t be the first. The heart wants what it wants, Wilson.”

“Didyouhave a crush on Scar?” he asks in a low voice, leaning over the table with a grin and reaching out to steal one of my croutons.

I slap his hand away. “No comment,” I reply, smiling back.

He drops his voice to a sexy rumble. “Do you want me to growl during sex?”

“Can you do it in a British accent?” I murmur back, matching his tone. He laughs out loud, catches my hand in his, lifts it to his lips, and kisses the inside of my wrist.

“I can try.”

I’m having so much fun, in fact, that I almost forget my encounter with Adam. But his story about Maddie brings our argument right back to the front of my mind. I can practically hear his ugly insinuations ringing in my ears.

“Wilson,” I say carefully, my hand still in his. “I just want you to know that I didn’t start talking to you again, or come here tonight, because… well… because I expect… I mean, I know what this might look like to other people, but…”

“Johnson, what are you talking about?” He’s still smiling at me, but his brows pinch together slightly.

“I just mean that I don’t expect you to help me with my financial troubles… financially. Not that you offered! But, you know, a poor girl, a rich guy, some people might think?—”

“Did someone say something to you?” I hear an edge to his voice as he grips my hand tighter.

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