Page 20 of His Jewel

“No, stay, I won’t be long.”

She tucked herself out of sight of the camera.

He opened it to see his entire family sitting there at their dining room table. Shit. He’d forgotten all about their catch up.

“Hey, Pete, Lola. How are you? Where’s ... ah, hi, Mom, Dad.”

Their laughter exploded out of the speakers.

“Sorry, interrupting you, are we?”

He frowned at the scene until they stopped. His mom beamed, looking excited, as did Lola.

His brother spoke up. “Well, tell us about her, then, unless you’ve decided that red lipstick is your new thing, which, hey, no judgment.”

He wiped his mouth. Shit. The reddest, ruby red lipstick. He was covered in her. Ruby.

Her eyes widened before wincing. “Sorry,” she mouthed.

He muted the call.

“No, no hiding. I don’t want to hide this, if you don’t?” His heart hammered against his ribcage. This was so new, so fresh, should he even really be asking these sorts of questions? Plus, he was having this conversation in front of (granted, he was muted, but still) his family.

What the fuck was happening? He ran his fingers through his hair and her hand caught it, stopping the motion.

“No hiding,” she confirmed, sitting up so that she was sharing the screen with him.

He put his arm around her, squeezing tight, before clicking the “unmute” button.

“This is Ruby, my girlfriend.” His throat bobbed up and down, but she didn’t flinch, didn’t even look at him, she was looking at his family.

“I’m very pleased to meet you all.”

“We’re so pleased to meet you, Ruby. How beautiful you are. Josh, you’re a lucky man.” His mom smiled.

“I see we have the same taste in clothes,” said Lola, “So I think we will get along just fine. Oh, let’s go shopping when we next come to visit, yes?”

“I’d love that.” Ruby grinned.

“So, how did you two meet?” asked Pete.

Ruby glanced at him. He nodded. “I’m his PA, so we met at work. Not so dissimilar to you,” she said, smiling at his mom and dad.

“That’s right.” His dad nodded. “Sometimes love comes out of the most unexpected places.”

Love.

Love.

Oh, God, they didn’t know how new this was ... but love? He could see himself falling for her.

His hand tightened around hers, and they shared a smile, one only meant for the other. Again, it just so happened to be in front of his family, watching like a captive audience to some romance movie. God, he hated being watched. The problem was that Ruby had a habit of making it feel as if they were the only two people in the world.

He cleared his throat. “Great to talk to you all, but things are busy here.”

Pete scoffed. “Yeah, we can see that.”

That earned him a smack on either arm from his mom and Lola.

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