Page 58 of Resisting You
For the millionth time this morning, Victor’s eyes narrowed in thought. “But at the end of the day,heis your client. Not my daughter.Hesigns your checks. And if something were to happen, your job is to make sure Noah Blue comes out of this marriage looking like a hero. Not my daughter.”
Kristen shifted in her seat and I had to admit, I didn’t see her rattled very often. And she looked like she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
“I would never let that happen,” I chimed in, handing Francesca a Diet Coke before taking my seat on the other side of Rosa.
“Easy to saynowwhen you’re currently happy and newly wed,” Victor said.
“I’d be happy to assign Rosa her own PR manager from my firm?—”
Rosa snorted. “That’s really not necessary?—”
“Fromyourfirm?” Victor interrupted her. “Your firm would still protect your most influential client which as I see it is likely to be the actor on major network television. Not a little counselor?—”
“Psychologist,” Rosa corrected him through clenched teeth.
“—who’s never in the public eye.” Victor kept right on talking, ignoring the fact that his daughter had said anything at all.
I curved my hand into Rosa’s, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “If Rosa wants her own publicist, we can definitely arrange that,” I said.
“Great!” Victor clapped his hands together. “I’ll have my girl give you a call this afternoon?—”
“Rosa?” I asked, interrupting Victor. Which probably wasn’t the best idea, all things considered. But I wanted her to know this was her decision to make. “It’s totally your call. Not your father’s. Not mine. Not Kristen’s.”
A little smile touched her lips and she nodded at me. “I’ll think about it.”
“What is there to think about?” Victor threw his hands up. “It’s a no-brainer?—”
“I said I’ll think about it,” Rosa said, louder this time. “You did bring up some good points. I’m not ignoring that. I just don’t want to jump into a contract with anyonetoday.”
Victor sat back and regarded his daughter for a long, uncomfortable breath. But before he could press the matter further, Francesca leaned into Rosa, flailing her hands in the air. “Okay, okay, let me see the rings!”
“Well,ring. Singular,” Rosa said carefully, holding out her left hand to her mother. “It was last minute, so I didn’t really have an engagement ring?—”
“No engagement ring?” Francesca’s mouth formed into a pout and she looked over to me. “Well, there’s always time to change that.” Holding Rosa’s hand up to the light Francesca’s brows creased. “Huh. The stones aren’t diamonds?”
“You know,” Rosa said, wrenching her hand back, “We went with the rings we liked. Not the ones that were most impressive or whatever.”
Actually, we went with the nicest rings the man with the suitcase had after midnight on Friday outside the 24 hour chapel, but something told me that wasn’t going to win me any favors here.
“It’s refreshing,” Victor said. I blinked, surprised he would come to our defense at all. “And you can always say that you went for conflict-free stones.”
Rosa rolled her eyes. “There it is. Theangle.”
“It’s naive to not consider it.”
“We’re getting off-topic!” Francesca said.
“There was a topic?” Rosa echoed, just as confused as me.
“Yes,” Francesca said. “Your father and I didn’t just come here for a quick trip to meet your husband.”
“You didn’t?” Rosa asked.
With a glance at Rosa, she looked just as confused as me. California to New Hampshire was a long flight. You could fly from Boston to Ireland in less time than it takes to go cross country in the US. That’s a damn fact. The flight from Boston to Dublin is 6 hours. LA to Boston? Just shy of 7 hours. And that doesn’t include the fact that New Hampshire is another two-hour driveafteryou land in Boston.
Point being, I doubted they came all this way just to say hi and meet me. Which only begged the question, whywerethey here?
“We came,” Francesca started to say, “to throw you… awedding reception! Ahhh!”
