Page 138 of Awestruck at Dusk
“We’ll have to wait and see what she has to say about me rejecting Nathan and coming here after you,” I said with a frown, “because I do care about her opinion. She’s your sister.”
“If she cares about me—which she does—she’ll be glad to know we’re happy.”
He was right. If we were both happy, Zara shouldn’t have a problem with that. I just didn’t want things to be awkward, but I couldn’t control everything. I needed to relax and stop being so hard on myself.“Has it been weird for your brothers? I haven’t talked to any of them about this.”
“I guess they’re still dealing with the shock, but they love her. They always have, and she’s been doing better now, knowing how everything turned out fine after letting everyone know.”
There was a knock on the door, and a server walked in, rolling a cart with our meal. The delicious smell of exotic spices being carted in invaded the room.
“Good evening, Mr. Sjöberg,” the tall man said with a nod.
“Thank you, Johnny.” William grinned. “This is Billie Murphy.”
“Nice to meet you, Johnny,” I said, offering my hand to him.
“The pleasure’s all mine, Miss Murphy. Welcome to Ellerman House,” he replied with a firm handshake.
Johnny explained what everything was as he placed the plates on our table and left promptly after that, promising to bring dessert up in a while.
“You’ll love the South African strawberries that I ordered for dessert,” William said, serving a spoonful of Cape Malay chicken curry on my plate. I widened my eyes at him, and he laughed. “I’m just messing with you. I told themnostrawberries on our dessert.”
“You’reobsessedwith strawberries,” I said, trying the curry.Mmm. It was heavenly.
“No. I’m obsessed with the fact thatyoudon’t like them. But I have a feeling I might be able to get you to like strawberries someday. Just give me a chance to figure something out for you.”
“I’m open to it,” I said, putting my fork down and taking a sip of my wine. William chuckled. “What?”
“Nothing. I just remembered how hard it was for me not to laugh whenever Zara called you sis.” William snort-laughed as he served more food on my plate. “Because the odds of her ending up being your sister-in-law one way or the other were high. And it was so funny to me that you both were clueless about that little fact.”
I shook my head at him as I chewed on my food.
“Deep down, I’ve always wished for us to end up together,” he tossed in, leaning in to kiss my cheek. “I’m glad you’re here right now.”
“I’m glad to be here too.”
“So … you said we had a lot of things to talk about, and I’m ready to hear all about it,” he said, trying the dish that Johnny explained was calledbobotie. His eyes rolled up with pleasure, and anmmmsound escaped his throat as he ate.
I loved how passionate William was about food and cooking, and I had a few questions about that. I had a few questions abouta lotof things, and I wanted to eat the world in one day, but there were other more important topics to cover.
“There are two things I want to talk to you about, actually,” I said, readjusting myself on my seat. “So I’ll start with the easiest one.”
William replied with a nod as he dropped his fork and lifted his wineglass.
“You are having dinner with Haute Magazine’s photographer of the August 2010 swimsuit edition,” I said proudly, sticking my tongue out to him afterward.
“I’m aware. Joel mentioned something about it.” He said with a grin, putting his wineglass down. “Congratulations!”
William wanted to know the details of how it happened, so I explained how Lily asked me to go with her and told himeverythingthat happened that day. Including the details about Lily’s psychopath ex-boyfriend.
“Joel wanted to go after the guy. Like literally find him and beat the shit out of him,” he said with a troubled expression on his face. He seemed upset about everything that Lily had to go through with Leonard, her ex. “I know I’d want to do the same if I were him.”
“I know. But the lawyers have taken care of it. I’m sure that Leonard will stop harassing Lily after this.”
William looked away and licked his lips. He raised his wineglass again, took a sip, and quickly changed the subject. He asked me a ton of questions about the photo shoot, how I felt while I was doing it, and about my internship at Haute. I answered all of his questions and didn’t leave anything out. I also showed him the published photographs. He seemed so proud, but confessed to having seen them already.
Then, I chuckled under my breath as I remembered how we had to name-drop William at the shoot to spark Becca’s interest.
“Lily told one of Haute’s employees that you and I used to date. And—I didn’t deny it.” I lifted my gaze to meet his and offered him a small, crooked smile. “She remembered me from Tobias’s premiere, and I’m convinced that’s why they gave me a chance. So thanks, I guess.” I laughed.
