Page 104 of Lovestruck at Sundown
“Who’s Caleb?” Naomi angled her head to the side. I shouldn’t have mentioned him. But at the same time, talking about him helped.
“He was my bodyguard and one of my best friends,” I explained. “Caleb was like a little brother to Aaron. He died nine months ago.”
“Oh, no.” Naomi’s eyes went round with sympathy. “I’m so sorry for your loss.” Her two upper teeth pressed into her bottom lip as she, once again, looked in Aaron’s direction.
“The girls at school back in Paris would faint at the sight of him,” I said with a laugh, trying to lighten the mood. “He had an unofficial fan club, and I was undoubtedly its first member.”
Naomi laughed. “So who’s telling him?” She jerked her chin toward a pacing Aaron, who didn’t seem to know what to do with his free time.
“Who’s telling who what?” William leaned down to kiss my temple. He took a seat beside me, twisted open the cap of his beer, and took a long sip. “Can I get you guys anything to drink?”
Naomi and I were drinking water, so we were good. It was still early for me to start drinking alcohol. My headache had settled down, and I needed to hydrate before tonight.
“Aaron has a fan club,” I whispered.
“Not at all surprised by it,” William replied with a grin. “I mean, look at him. He’s a tall, dark, brooding, mysterious stud.”
Naomi snorted and picked up her glass of water to give it a drink.
“I mean, do wehaveto tell him?” I pondered. “I say we wait until tomorrow at least. Let him ring in the New Year in peace.”
“You never know.” William took another sip of his beer. “He might be thrilled.”
“You act like you don’t know him.” I laughed. “Let’s just … let him be. For now.”
“Yes, ma’am.” William smirked and saluted me with two fingers. “You sure you don’t want anything to drink?”
“You know what?” Naomi replied. “I’ll have some red wine if you have any.”
“Of course.” William stood. “I think I still have a case of Nemorino’s.” He winked at me and walked away to get the wine.
“Oh, I’d go easy on that one,” I warned Naomi playfully.
“Why?” She asked with a chuckle, looking at William walking over to us with a bottle, a wineglass, and his new automatic corkscrew.
“Because it makes you fall in love,” he said, singing the last word. “How else did you think I got this one to finally give me the time of day?” William jerked his chin in my direction, and I rolled my eyes.
“Um, okay. Now I need you to tell me everything about how you two met and fell in love.”
“I’ll tell youallabout it,” William drawled.
“Go cook and let me do the talking.” I Jedi-hand-waved him.
William laughed as he poured a glass of Nemorino’s for Naomi. “Bossiest woman I’ve ever met.” He shot me a playful stare as he slid Naomi’s wineglass in her direction.
“And I’m sure you love it,” she said, lifting the wineglass and taking a sip. “Don’t tell me you’d rather be with a fan girl who’d worship you on her knees all day.”
“Well, she does quite a lot of that, too.” William sipped on his beer.
“William!” I slapped his shoulder, feeling mortified. Naomi and I were friendly, but we weren’t blowjob-joke kind of close yet. She was William’s publicist, so I always did my best to behave myself in a somewhat professional manner around her.
Naomi burst into laughter, and William almost spit out his beer.
Something chimed in the kitchen.
“Saved by the bell.” William was quick to flee and resumed his self-imposed chef duties, leaving me and my burning pink cheeks to deal with the embarrassment on my own.
“That was my fault entirely,” Naomi said, easing out of the laughter. “I only thought about how bad it sounded a second after I said it.”
