Page 92 of Receiving His Mercy
“Sit.”
“I can’t sit. I’m supposed to be working the room.”
“Working the room?” Travis asked. “Who said that?”
“Oliver,” she told him.
Travis made a scoffing noise. “Let him keep working the room. He loves the attention.”
He did. And Oliver was much better at talking to people than she was. Even though he’d say that they all wanted to speak to her.
“You don’t have to stay if you’d rather not be here,” she told Travis, noticing how he was frowning at everyone.
“Are you staying?” he asked as he gently pushed her into the chair.
She didn’t put up any more of a protest because her feet were killing her by this stage. It had been a stupid idea to wear high shoes tonight. However, she’d thought Oliver would kill her if she wore her favorite orange sneakers with this outfit.
“Yes,” she told him with a grimace. She kind of had to stay.
“Then so am I. I need to find Jace. You need a drink and some food.”
“Oh, I couldn’t eat right now. But a drink of water would be good. I can get it, though.” She attempted to stand and he shot her a look. Okay, then. She sat back. “Or someone else can.”
Jace appeared with Rory and Travis waved them over.
“Hey, everything okay?” Jace asked, shooting her a concerned look.
She didn’t know Jace that well. Even when they were younger, all of her attention had been on Travis. So his concern was surprising but not unwelcome.
“Caren is exhausted. She needs a drink. Can you grab her some water and food?”
“My stomach is in knots,” she said. “I’ll throw up if I eat. Uh, sorry, that was probably too much information.”
“Don’t worry, I get like that too when I’m stressed.” Rory sat in the chair next to her as Jace headed off on his mission. That was after he’d shot Rory a look and told her to stay. “Also, I am not a dog.”
Her lips twitched. “These Andrews guys like barking out orders.”
“Barking out orders?” Travis asked with amusement.
“Yep. Woof-woof.”
He let out a chuckle and she was aware of Rory staring at them both. Then a buzzing noise came from Travis’s pants.
“Shit,” Travis said as he drew his phone from his pocket. “I have to take this. I’m going to stand at the end of this corridor where I can see you both. Do not move.”
“See?” Rory said. “Sit. Stay.”
“They’re intense, aren’t they?” she mused as he moved away. He did fill out a pair of pants very nicely, though.
“Yeah. So is this exhibition. I didn’t expect so many people. And they all want to talk to you, Ms. Popular.” Rory lightly bumped her shoulder against Caren’s.
Caren let out a small laugh. “Believe me, I’ve never been popular.” She had been anything but at school. “They just all think they want to talk to me so they can claim to know me. But I think they’re all secretly disappointed when they find out I’m boring as heck.”
“Well, so are they. Except that guy. He’s a hoot.” Rory gestured toward the guy with the tiara. Whose name was Bob. Yep, actually Bob. He was awesome. Hilarious. And super rich so even though everyone here was giving him strange looks, no one dared say anything about the sparkling jewels in his glorious hair.
“He sure is.” She decided she’d had enough of talking about herself, though. So she turned to Rory. “How are you doing?”
“Ahh, Travis told you about my arrival in New York? And how I had everyone searching for me for two days?” Shame filled the younger woman’s face.
