Page 20 of Handsome
We emerged outside on the patio, where a buffet was set up that would feed a party, though there were only two of us. I swallowed, but he said, “You only eat what you want. No one’s going to be upset if you don’t touch a thing.”
He handed me a plate, and I held it to my heart as I asked, “What happens to the rest?”
He took a plate for himself and said, “Staff eats, and then they send leftovers to the food bank.”
I ignored the salad, and he put some cucumbers on his plate as he asked, “Are you going to continue to gawk, or fill up before Joshua wakes up?”
Right. I chose the lamb, because it wasn’t something I’d ever order for myself, and added mint jelly and a side of mashed potatoes. We sat a small patio off the dining room at a table that overlooked the ocean, and he put his phone out with the baby monitor running. Staff served us iced tea and water, and I pointed to the room behind him with the kind of table where countries ended wars and signed treaties and said, “That dining hall we passed earlier is huge.”
He took a sip of his water and said, “We only use it when all the family is here. Maman insisted we have a dining hall with enough room for all future wives and grandchildren. When we pointed out she couldn’t predict that number, she insisted she was happy to go back to the store and be proven wrong. We stopped discussing the table after that.”
“Pressure is kind of cute on you when you talk about your mom.” I put my napkin on my lap and picked up my fork to discover the meat was tender and fell apart in my mouth. I licked my lips and ate more. When I finished the meat, and took a minute to digest the perfection, I said, “I’ve never had a family like most people see on TV, and you clearly have lived.”
He raised his eyebrow and asked, “Do you want a family?”
Like his? Sure. His mother hugged me and asked about me. But until Cyrus brought me here, no one had hugged me in years. I lifted my chin and said, “I agreed to stay with you because I want you to bond with Joshua.”
“My son is the most precious gift I’ve ever been given,” he said.
We ate in more silence. I finished everything on my plate and glanced up at him.
With his pronounced cheekbones, he truly was handsome. But it was more than good looks with him. I'd been honest with him so far.
I took a sip of my water and decided to talk.
Words flowed out of me, “My brother and I had different fathers. He was younger, after my mother had decided she’d pick a better man to father her next child. Some months we all lived off the child support meant for him. Then his father got married, had children with the new wife, and when my brother was sent to live with them at sixteen, he was no longer interested in raising his son.”
I gulped the rest of my drink. I’d never talked about my life growing up. Then when my sister became a successful doctor, I realized no one would ever believe me. So I never talked, and I only shared the tip of the iceberg— until now.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
I reached across the table and squeezed his hand while I said, “It’s not your fault. I only told you this because I want you to know why I agreed to come here. I don’t want to ever take advantage of you.”
He beckoned, and staff put ice cream brownie sundaes in front of us.
My pulse zipped. I’d never been on an ice cream date before… not that we were on a date.
I picked up the clean spoon.
He whispered and said, “You’re not the kind to take advantage, Sarah. I didn’t have to invite you in the limo that night. I did it because I want the best for Joshua and for me, and I realized right away that included you.”
I tilted my head to study his expression while awareness zipped through me. “Why? What happened to you that you'd trust a total stranger like me?”
He gave a half shrug. “My instincts about people are never wrong.”
“That’s a bold statement,” I said, and then we both devoted the attention they deserved to our sundaes. The ice cream was fresh and clearly not the cheap stuff in plastic served at the diner where I worked. And the brownie tasted freshly baked.
I gobbled my desert like I’d never had ice cream before.
Dessert finished, Cyrus sat back and said, “In time people always reveal their character. The biggest issue I see regularly is grief that has been so internalized it affects the heart.”
Cyrus was a sweet man, and he noticed details about people most of us stopped caring about. I smiled and asked, “Why did you go to medical school?”
He whispered and glanced around. “Come closer. I don’t want the staff to report my answer.”
I moved my chair and settled beside him. The hairs stood on end where our arms touched, but I whispered, “Okay, here I am.”
He moved closer, and our knees touched. For a second, I couldn’t breathe. Then he whispered, “My mother pushed and said being a doctor was a respectable job if I didn’t want to do business like my father.”
