Even though he couldn’t see her, she shrugged. “I just get tired of the gossip—even in business magazines, which should be above that sort of thing. Your relationship with your parents is nobody’s business but yours.”
“I agree.”
She didn’t add that she found his filial sense of obligation rather touching, especially considering the pain his self-absorbed parents must have caused him in the past. Not for the first time, she was grateful for the family she had. Her sister, of course, and their parents who might not have been wealthy or socially prominent, but had always provided them with whatever they needed in addition to unconditional love and support.
So she would have dinner with Bryan and his parents. After that would come the wedding, and then a few more very public dates. They would keep the act going for a few weeks after the wedding, and then they would bring it to an amicable end, answering media questions with vague smiles and polite “no comments.”
And then it would be over. As it had to be, she assured herself. No regrets.
Yeah, right, Grace.
Chapter Twelve
“It wasn’t quite as bad as a root canal, I suppose,” Bryan murmured as he drove Grace home from the exclusive downtown restaurant where they had spent the past two very long hours.
Grace ran her tongue experimentally over her teeth. She had never had a root canal, but she wasn’t sure it could be much worse than dinner with Bryan’s parents. Her cheeks still ached from the fake smile she’d worn all during the meal. It hadn’t been easy—especially when his father continuously spoke to her as if she had the IQ of an average five-year-old and his mother asked a string of utterly inane questions about the shop.
Normally she would have let anyone else know exactly what she thought of their patronizing behavior. But these were Bryan’s parents. She had restrained herself for his sake—and because she had solemnly promised Chloe that she would behave.
It had been a struggle, but she’d managed. She was rather proud of herself, actually. And thoroughly relieved that she would never have to go through that again.
“You really were great this evening,” Bryan commented, proving that he’d been thinking along the same lines. “I know it wasn’t easy for you.”
“It wasn’t too bad.”
He laughed and reached over to give her a companionable pat on the knee, through the thin fabric of her summery, light-colored slacks. “You’re a liar. But I still appreciate what you did tonight.”
“I just hope we accomplished something. Except for the photographer who stopped by our table to snap a photo of your father toasting us—you predicted that to the last detail, by the way—no one seemed to pay much attention to us.”
“Don’t you believe it. Nearly everyone there saw us and recognized us. The ones who didn’t were informed of our identify by the serving staff and other diners.”
“And you think they’ll talk about seeing us all together?”
“Oh, yeah. They’ll suspect the dinner was specifically arranged for tonight because of that journal article, but it was obvious that we were all being pleasant and cordial. We might not have looked like a Norman Rockwell family, but we obviously aren’t estranged, either.”
His hand was still on her knee. Grace picked it up and set it firmly on the steering wheel. “Are you ever going to tell your parents why you and I have been seen together so often during the past few weeks? That we aren’t really a couple?”
Still grinning at the byplay with his hand, he shrugged. “Probably not. They aren’t really that interested in my social life. Who I see, or why. Unless, of course, there’s a chance that I could introduce Mother to someone from Hollywood. You know how she feels about anyone who’s ever been on a movie screen.”
“Yes, she makes that clear enough.” It hadn’t escaped Grace that his parents hadn’t even asked how his injuries were healing. She hoped they had asked during telephone calls, at least, or had expressed some concern for their son’s well-being. After a moment, she asked a question that had been bothering her all evening. “How did you end up so different from your parents?”
He shrugged again. “I didn’t spend a whole lot of time with them. I was raised by a series of nannies and housekeepers. Spent some time with my paternal grandmother until she died when I was eleven. Mostly I just raised myself.”
She would not feel sorry for him, she told herself. It would be a tremendous waste of time to feel sorry for Bryan Falcon. Instead she said merely, “You spoiled yourself rotten.”
He laughed. “You aren’t the first to say that.”
He pulle
d into the parking space next to her car and killed the engine. “Are you going to ask me up for coffee, or are you going to bolt again?”
She gave it only a moment’s thought. “I’m going to bolt,” she said, unbuckling her seat belt and reaching for the door handle.
He caught her arm, holding her in her seat. “What are you so afraid of, Grace? What do you think will happen if I come up?”
“We’ll fight,” she said promptly. “You’ll start lecturing me again about how reckless and irresponsible I am when it comes to the security measures you want me to take, and that will make me mad and we’ll start yelling at each other.”
“What if I promise not to fight with you? We’ve already settled the issue of security as far as I’m concerned.”