Page 129 of Grand Love

Nina: Are you two at home together?

Luce: Yup!

Megan: Yup

Scarlet: Sorry, girls. I just finished studying. What have I missed?

I leave the girls to fill Scarlet in and go to reception to get the food.

Mason is laying the cutlery on the table in the living area when I enter the penthouse and Ellis is sitting at the head of the table.

“He sits in your seat?”

Mason’s smile is full of pride. “Of course. He’s the boss around here now.”

I pop a brow. “Is that so?”

“For the majority of the time, yes.”

Biting my lip, I pull open the bag letting the delicious smells assault me. “Hmmm, you ordered Italian?”

“I thought Ellis would like the lasagne. I got you the meatballs.”

My mouth waters and I take a seat next to Mason at the table.

“I got you another wine.”

I smooth my hands over my thighs where he can’t see. “Thank you.”

Ellis sits quietly in his chair, and I wish for once I had a fussy baby. Simply because it would give me something to do. He sits patiently waiting for Mason to feed him another mouthful.

I don’t allow the silence to stretch, nervously jumping in and blurting the first thing that comes to me.

“So, have you spoken to Scarlet recently?” I ask, taking a mouthful and then wiping at my lips with my napkin. I inwardly cringe at my topic of choice, but I need to put some feelers out to know where we stand on the ball. The sooner he knows, the better. If I had it my way we wouldn’t keep it from him.

“You know I haven’t,” he calls me out, throwing me a smile and offering me a lifeline.

“Sorry.” I take a sip of wine, trying to find anything else to talk about.

“I plan on going to see her soon.”

“You do?” I lean forward in my seat, invested in his every word. “I came here tonight hoping it meant maybe you’d want to come to the estate with us the next time we go?” I force my hand to stay in my lap again, annoyed with myself that I’ve even lied.

Maybe I’m not lying exactly, but I know that in about an hour’s time I’m going to ask him to the ball, and he will be thinking about how I prepped him for it. God, if only this was a trashy romance novel, and I could hit backspace on my stupid words.

“I’m actually looking forward to it.”

“You are?” I ask, surprised.

“Yeah. I don’t know how much of the estate you’ve shown Ellis, but I want to show him it too.”

Well, this is progress!

I nod, watching as he feeds our son another mouthful. “I could never do it justice. You should definitely do that.”

“I’m worried about Scarlet,” he admits, running his tongue across the front of his teeth.

I give him a soft pitiful smile. “Scar’s doing okay.”

---