Page 21 of Simply Irresistible
“Stop apologizing. It’s not your fault.”
“But we’re going to belate, and it ismyfault!”
“Your boss called with a legit emergency. That’s not your fault.”
“I’m not so sure I’d call it an emergency,” I grumbled.
“She was in a car accident…”
I let out a sigh. “I know, and I’m glad that she’s safe. I’m just upset that it had to happen right when I’m meeting your family for the first time. I must seem like a complete tart.”
He laughed at me.Laughed!“My sister doesn’t think you’re a tart. Trust me. She’s totally cool with it, and we’re only thirty minutes behind schedule. We’refashionably late. See what I did there?” he asked, wriggling his eyebrows.
“You’re such a dork,” I said, rising to my tiptoes to kiss his scruffy cheek. “Are you sure it’s okay?”
He kissed the tip of my nose as we strolled side by side, my arm wrapped around his firm bicep. “I’m positive. Dinner is not until six. We planned for five so we could have cocktails, but it’s really not a big deal.”
“If you say so.”
We’d been dating exclusively for about a month and everything was going great. Aside from our difference in opinion about music, we had a lot in common and got along well. We compromised when it came to television and movies, which helped when it came to our at-home date nights, which were becoming increasingly more frequent. Simply put: we couldn’t get enough of each other. We hadn’t slept together yet, but things between us were getting hot and heavy and I knew that next step was right around the corner. Maybe tonight if I played my cards right…
“Here we are,” he said as we approached a brick high rise on Park Avenue. His sister and her husband must have been loaded. He hadn’t mentioned their wealth before. Suddenly, I felt more nervous. He stepped forward, but I stayed still. “Hey, what’s going on?” he asked, stopping outside the door and turning to face me.
“Your sister lives on Park Avenue?”
He shrugged. “Yeah. Is that a problem?”
I shook my head. “No. I just wish I’d known.” I looked down at my black pencil skirt and royal blue scoop neck blouse combo and felt like I was naked. His sister probably wore Chanel and Louboutin and there I was in my Melanie Katsaros original.Gah!
“And what difference would it have made?” he asked, running his hands up and down my bare arms.
“I don’t know.”
“You would have been stuck in your head about it a lot earlier, right?” I nodded. We really had been spending a lot of time together. He knew me too well. “Didn’t I tell you she was going to love you?”
“Yes, like a thousand times.”
“So it shouldn’t matter how much money is in their bank account, right?”
“Right.”
“You ready?”
“Yeah. Thanks for the pep talk.”
“Any time.”
He took my hand and pulled me through into the building, nodding at the suited doorman who held open the large door for us.
“Mr. Scott,” the doorman said.
“James,” Tyler returned.
My eyes went wide as I took in the white marble lobby. I’d momentarily forgotten that Tyler had moved in with his sister and her husband after his parents died. Helivedin this kind of luxury at one point in time. We stepped onto a gold elevator and a man in a suit identical to the doorman pressed the button for the penthouse.
Ohmygod.
“Relax,” Tyler said, turning his head and kissing my hair.
