Page 34 of Just One Look

“Better?”

“You know, about everything.”

She flashed a smile. “Ice cream does have a way of making everything look brighter.”

His phone dinged and he glanced down at it.

“Do you need to take that outside?”

He shook his head. “It’s Paige. She’s already gone to work on the event. Grams and the Governor suggested using the ranch ballroom instead of the country club to save expense, and she’s already gotten responses from a handful of Steer Den’s best customers that they’re in.”

“Wow. That’s fast.”

“Paige has a way of making things happen.”

“I have a feeling you all do.”

“I suppose.”

“I suppose nothing.” Her expression softened. “I watched you last week. Just like your cousin, within hours of tragedy, you had wheels turning and plans coming together.”

“Thank you. I’d hoped it would be enough, but without the insurance money, even having the new location secured and ready for a restaurant, there is still too much needed to open the doors.”

“How long do arson investigations take?”

He shrugged. “I have no idea. I would guess faster when the prime suspect isn’t the policy holder.”

“You’re probably right.” She swallowed her last dollop of ice cream and glanced down at her ringing phone. “Oh, foo.”

“Need to take it?”

“It’s Mr. Belker. The owner of that exquisite old mansion that his teenybopper wife wants to disfigure.” She blew out a deep sigh. “Give me a minute to take this.”

The phone to her ear, he watched her pace outside the window. Her head kept bobbing, but her facial expression gave nothing away. When she came back and sat down her expression seemed a bit lighter, but not thrilled.

“What did he want?”

“To tell me that they’ve decided to take a quick trip to Italy. Something about a fashion show in Milan. They won’t be back for a few weeks, so that old house has been given a reprieve. Though I’d rather have a stay of execution.”

How he wished he could do something to fix her dilemma. Unsure, but willing to take a chance, he let his hand fall gently on hers. When she didn’t react, he squeezed it and smiled.

Her face brightened a bit more and she wrapped her fingers around his. “On the upside, this means I have some time to help Paige. Do you think she’d let me?”

Would it be totally inappropriate for him to jump out of his chair and kick his heels up? A few more weeks. Working with Paige—and him. He and his family might wield a lot of power and connections, but only the grace of God could have kept Liz here longer for him to win her over. “I’m sure she, and the rest of my family, will love it.”

Even though the truth was, no one would love it more than he would. Now he had all of a few weeks to make her fall for him, all he had to do was figure out how. It wasn’t much, but holding her hand seemed as good a start as any. At least he certainly hoped so.

Chapter Fourteen

“Holy Moses.” Her hands on her hips, Liz surveyed the tables across the far wall of the Baron family ballroom. Once she’d gotten over the fact that the family home had its own ballroom, Liz was able to spend more time oohing and aahing over the wonderful donations that had been arriving steadily since Paige got the word out that the Steer’s Den was in need of aid. Who knew that many rich people cared about one restaurant owner.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” In a pair of jeans and layered shirts, Devlin’s grandmother was amazing. Liz had no idea how old the woman actually was, but since most of her grandchildren were in their thirties, and none of their parents had been child brides, Lila Baron had to be at least eighty years old and didn’t look a day over sixty-five. Not only did she have limited wrinkles, her posture was so erect, Liz found herself constantly straightening her own shoulders whenever Mrs. Baron walked by as though she had an invisible book on her head.

A small, blue velvet lined box of what looked to be tiny crystal barbells stared up at Liz. For the life of her she could not imagine what the heck were these supposed to be for or why would anyone want to bid on them. Though upon studying the box, she did discover the crystal was Baccarat. Liz might not be rich and famous, but even she recognized the probably enormous price tag that came with anything Baccarat. She fingered the box of crystal barbells. “It’s all lovely.”

“My mother had a set of knife rests very similar to those. I think we gave them to Andrew as a wedding gift.” With a twinkle in her eyes, Lila Baron smiled at Liz before picking up a box and carrying it across the room to another table.

Liz cast her gaze on the barbells again.Knife rest. Somehow that made sense. Especially with a fancy white linen tablecloth at stake, but looking over at the older woman speaking animatedly with one of the family maids, Liz had the distinct feeling that Mrs. Baron knew all along that Liz had no idea what they were and extremely politely informed Liz without making her feel stupid. That’s what Emily kept saying good manners were all about. Making the next guy feel comfortable. When everyone knows what is expected of them, no one is uncomfortable. Maybe being rich wasn’t about one-upmanship. Maybe it wasn’t anything like the movies made it out to be. And better yet, maybe fitting in wouldn’t be so hard after all.

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