Page 18 of Trust

“I’m going to head out,” Jakob said. “The day is catching up with me, and since we have a ton of things to deal with tomorrow for the wedding, I need to get my beauty rest.”

Royal looked between them. “Don’t worry. Lani can handle them.”

“No, she can’t,” he said smoothly. “Plus, I have meetings to deal with tomorrow. So, I’ll take a rain check. Perhaps in exchange for a dance with the bride at her reception.”

Damn, he was smooth. Lani wanted to rage at Royal, but instead, Jakob had backed her into a corner.

“Of course.”

“Lani’s going to give me a ride home. I gave my driver the night off.”

“Oh, I thought we could talk some stuff over, sis.”

She frowned at her brother. “Work or wedding?”

“Work.”

“I have a teleconference tonight with the Aussies, so I need to get ready for that.”

“Why would you do that? I mean, you could have that meeting anytime,” Royal said.

“No. The original time was tomorrow morning, but since you insisted on the final fitting to be so close to the wedding and insisted that I be there, I had to change it.”

Royal opened her mouth to no doubt bitch at her again, but Jakob stepped in. “Must get going. Great to see you again, man.”

Then, he hurried them out of the restaurant. As they stepped outside, a woman gasped. When she glanced over, she saw a teenager with her parents. From their sunburned faces, she assumed they were tourists. When the young woman spoke, her accent was pure Texas.

“Oh, wow! My friends will never believe I saw Jakob Wulf.”

He slanted Lani a look before he smiled at the teenager. “We can’t have that, can we? Do you have a phone? Want a selfie?”

The girl squealed in delight as she handed her phone to Jakob. Lani stepped back as the family crowded around to take a pic with Jakob. He glanced over at her and shook his head.

“Hey, folks, this is my very good friend Lani Kingston. Do you mind if she were in the selfie with us?”

“Kingston,” the father said in the same tone of reverence his daughter had uttered Jakob’s name. “Kingston Surfing?”

Lani nodded.

“You are looking at the granddaughter oftheBenedict Kingston. I’ve known her for years.”

The wife smiled. “He’s a huge fan of your surfing invitationals. He can’t surf to save his life, but he loves the stuff you do for the invitationals around the world. He’s an environmental lawyer.”

The man was still looking at her in awe. They all crowded around the camera, and Jakob snapped a few shots. Afterward,they walked to her car, and her horrible feeling from dinner floated away.

“So, we agree.”

She glanced at him.

“About what?”

“I get a car ride home, and you get a slice of cheesecake.”

She smiled. “Yes. Wait, no. I want one to eat and one to take back to my place.”

His eyes sparkled. “You got it.”

Five

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