Page 36 of Marry Me, Right Now

His eyes lowered, and he waggled his eyebrows as he checked out my dress. “That is pretty sexy. Are you trying to hit on my friends?”

“No, I’m too tired for that after all of that exhausting flower arranging. I’ll just stick with you.” He seemed to adore when I teased him, his eyes sparkling with delight.

Giving my hands a little shake, he dropped them. “Ready for the show?”

Shrugging, I said, “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Remember, they’ll accept everything we feed them. They already like us.” He caught the frown that I tried to smooth out the second it took hold. “What’s wrong?”

“Your friends like you. What if they think I’m not good enough for you? They’re likely all high society people.”

Sitting us down on the couch, he pulled me close, speaking in a low voice so the caterers couldn’t hear. “They liked my last girlfriend well enough, even though she was a crazy bitch who only wanted me for my last name and my money. But she laughed at their jokes, bought rounds of drinks, and kept everything light at parties.”

“So I just have to be a bubbly bimbo?” I laughed.

“At first, a little bit couldn’t hurt,” he joked. “But once they see how great we are together, and that you can actually discuss things of substance, and have your own opinions, they’ll adore you.” His eyes grew tight for a moment. “Just one thing though. A couple of them do brag about things they’ve bought. If you could try not to judge them too much, at least not visibly, it would be helpful.”

“I shall do everything in my power to be excited for them, and ask important questions such as what color is their seventh car.”

Jacob’s arms wrapped around me in a little hug. “You’re the best,” he whispered in my ear, before getting up to go open a few bottles of wine to breathe.

I went to check my hair and lip gloss, then heard someone knock at the door. Showtime.

JACOB

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COCKTAIL

PARTY

Mia seemed born to be a party hostess. Not only could she arrange flowers at a nearly professional level, she continually gave little hints to the servers to circulate the perfect hors d’oeuvres, pour certain wines, and to keep a pitcher and glasses in the center of the breakfast bar counter so that it was a visible reminder to have an occasional glass of water.

She was a vision, her long cinnamon hair tossing over her shoulder as she laughed at my friend’s jokes, her gorgeous eyes flashing with interest as they described their latest ostentatious purchases. But her greatest trick was to find two people who I would have guessed had nothing in common, and give them a connector topic to discuss.

Her laugh was like bells ringing through the room as she introduced my old school friend Barry to one of her friends with shaggy orange hair.

“Barry, I think Jacob told me that you recently went to the play, Kensington Strangers.”

“Yeah. I don’t get out to many of those, but it was amazing.”

“Well, this is Collins, and she was the lead.”

They shook hands, immediately discussing the unusual venue and the ornate sets, then Mia fluttered off to make more introductions.

She must have studied everyone’s social media pages, combing for clues, taking notes, and looking for common threads. Any other woman I’d ever dated who was suddenly set up in a luxury home would have done nothing but shopped and lounged, but Mia had obviously been working her hot little ass off.

I snuck over to where she was making sure that Rayanne and Lauren had enough wine. Wrapping my arm around her waist, she looked up at me with that grin that melted my insides.

“I was just telling them about how you’re a big liar.”

Clutching my hand to my heart, I pretended to be offended. “Moi? Never.”

Rayanne laughed. “Sneaking the ring home so that you could propose properly is adorable, so we’ll let it pass just this once.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I know that you’re her protectors, so if I ever get out of line, I expect that you’ll tell us both immediately.”

It seemed as though they were thoroughly charmed, then I remembered. “Wait,” I said, turning to Mia, “We haven’t really announced our engagement yet.”

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