Page 10 of Four Weddings and a Baby Shower

I let out a long sigh. “That was close,” I said as I grabbed Silver’s hand. We slipped into the crowd and away from Maribel De Ville to a table hidden away in the corner.

“You almost blew it for us,” she barked when we were out of earshot of anyone.

“Maribel dragged me out there. I couldn’t help it,” I argued.

“Oh, so you are on a first name basis with her. Are you into older women now?” she snickered.

“What? No! She’s Tobias’s sister. I had to be polite.”

“His sister? My god.”

“I know, right? Looks like their traits were not evenly split. He got too much boring stiffness, and she got all the crazy.”

“She seems like fun,” Silver huffed. “I hope I'm crazy like that when I'm her age.”

“I hope you aren’t quite that crazy when we are old and gray. But I’ll learn the tango if you want,” I said.

And there it was. I’d slipped up and given myself away.

“When we’re old and gray, do you really think we’ll still know each other?” she asked softly.

“I’m counting on it,” I said. And I was.

She brushed me with that look that said the topic was closed. “Well, while you were doing the tango with Maribel, I was getting close to-”

“Close to Tobias’s play boy son. Yeah, I saw that,” I muttered.

“Don't make me slap you upside the head to get some sense in there,” Silver said. “I was getting information. Isn’t that why we’re here?”

I was sufficiently smacked-down for the evening. “Yeah. Tell me what you found out.”

“They aren’t happy with your old employer, Telaros. So, half of our job is done. Now we just have to turn them to the dark side,” she said, letting a sly, sexy smile slip across her mouth.

“Not the dark side. To Chase Enterprises, the Cameron side.” I gave her a wink.

“Like I said, the dark side,” Silver said.

A waiter passed by with a tray of champagne glasses, and I gestured him for two. He set them down and went along his way.

“A toast then,” I said, raising my glass. Silver raised hers to mine. “To the dark side,” I said.

“To the dark side,” she agreed as she clinked her glass against mine.

I took a sip while I stared at her over my champagne glass. She was so beautiful. So funny and smart. Weddings were known to be a hot place for singles to hook up. And these weddings were crawling with billionaire bachelors that women swooned over. My thoughts darkened. I didn’t like the idea of that at all. Especially these society type weddings. I’d grown up around these types of people and they could be assertive. Both men and women, as the dear Maribel had exhibited tonight.

“I think for the purposes of these weddings, we should present ourselves as a couple,” I said. “To prevent any sort of unnecessary outside entanglements,” I said. I smiled inwardly and gave myself an imaginary pat on the back. Man, that was brilliant.

“You mean, you don’t want me picking up any guys?”

Way to rain on my parade. Silver was too clever. And she knew me pretty well. I wasn’t exactly the jealous type, but I did protect my woman. She knew that about me, and she knew why, too.

“We aren’t here for that,” I said.

“I hadn’t planned on it. But pretending to be a couple?”

“I think it will help when we present our proposal. A family business. If we are engaged, it will give us something their family can relate to, if we get stuck talking to any of them at the weddings.”

Silver’s face was unreadable. She knew exactly what I was doing. And the night was in her favor. She’d had a nice little chat with Henry Donovan, Tobias’s son. One of the most eligible bachelors in the country. And me? I’d almost had to tango with his eccentric sister, Maribel De Ville, who was probably old enough to be a great, great grandmother. Clearly, this was a win for Silver.

“What do you mean by family?” she asked.

I leaned back in my chair with the champagne glass in my hand, trying hard to be suave. “Almost family. We’re engaged to be married. We can relate to all the crazy wedding planning, as well as running a family business. It will be a perfect way to get our foot back in the door with the Donovan brothers, since they are going through it all too.”

“I’ll think about it,” she said. She took another sip of her champagne. “You know, I really don’t mind if you want to tango with Maribel at the next wedding.” The twinkle in her eye told me she knew she won this round, too.

“Fine then,” I said, raising my glass. “To more Maribel,” I said.

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