Luckily, we weren’t seated with Biles, although I’m sure Laurel would have liked being with Dru. We were seated with three other couples, of various ages, all of whom were strangers to me.
Next to me was an older woman, I’d guess around seventy. Once I was in my seat, she turned to me with a smile.
“Well, aren’t you a lovely couple, have you been together long?” she asked, looking pointedly at our bare ring fingers.
I chuckled and replied, “Actually, yes, we’ve known each other since we were kids, but we only recently began seeing each other.”
“Don’t dawdle, young man,” she advised, tilting her head toward Laurel. “A beauty like her should be spoken for as soon as possible, or before you know it, some other bloke will turn her head and offer her things you won’t.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied, biting back a chuckle as I heard Laurel hiccup beside me, and knew she was fighting laughter as well. “I’ll do my best.”
“See that you do,” she said haughtily, then looked around me at Laurel and stated, “Don’t let this one lead you astray, make him put a ring on it.”
I heard a squeak out of Laurel, and knew she was struggling, so I shifted toward our dinner companion and said, “I promise, I’ll be a perfect gentleman.”
“Oh, no, dear boy, that’s not what I’m saying at all. Be a rake, for every woman deserves one. All I’m saying, is make sure you’re giving her what she needs, and making an honest woman out of her, like my Roger does for me.”
I looked around her to the small, balding man next to her, who was trying to butter his bread and not listening to a word his wife was saying.
“How do they say it?” she asked, pulling my attention back to her. “Be a freak in the sheets, but a gentleman on the streets.”
“Something like that,” I managed to say, hoping I masked Laurel’s bark of laughter.
24
Laurel
It had been a wonderful day, followed by an amazing night, and topped off with fabulous sex.
Honestly, I couldn’t have stopped smiling if someone paid me.
I was lying in bed with Dillon, again, snuggled up against him, again, and I was the happiest I’d ever been.
I closed my eyes, savoring the feel of his fingers caressing my back, and his bare skin against my cheek. Dinner had been delicious and I’d actually really liked the ballet, even though I had to nudge Dillon a few times when he started to nod off.
“Did you have fun tonight?” I asked him softly, not a hundred percent sure he hadn’t drifted off.
“Yeah,” he replied, his tone somewhat drowsy. “Doris and Roger were a hoot. Could’ve done without the ballet though.”
I chuckled and lifted my head to look at him.
“It wasn’t so bad,” I said, but he just made a face, so I laughed and put my head back down.
Because we were in this new place, no longer fighting, and Dillon obviously no longer thought of me as a younger sister, I felt safe and wanted to share. So, I said, “The last time I went to the ballet, it didn’t go so well…”
“What happened?”
My stomach began to tighten at the memory, but I took a cleansing breath, then replied, “Well, first, after I’d spent an hour getting ready, Travis told me I looked fat in my dress and needed to change, but the next dress was too slutty, so I
ended up wearing slacks and a long-sleeved shirt. Then, while we were at the ballet, Travis complained the whole time about how boring it was … I mean, not just voicing his displeasure, but saying repeatedly, and loudly, how stupid it was. For the entire show. Afterwards, he told me I was never picking what we did on date night again, because obviously I was too stupid to do it right.”
I felt Dillon stiffen beneath me.
“Jesus,” he said, then added, “Laurel…”
But I cut him off and said, “You asked me before what happened in Houston, and why I came back home. Well, I’d gotten pretty used to Travis and his comments. If someone tells you often enough that you’re worthless and can’t do anything right, you start to believe them. It got so bad that I wouldn’t even listen to Jazzy when she tried to tell me he was an asshole and I should leave him. My parents loved him, and he said he loved me … I thought I loved him too, for a while. Then one day I checked my savings to see if I could afford a down payment on a cute space that had just opened up downtown, and it was gone. All of it … all the money I’d saved for years to open my business.”
“He took it,” Dillon guessed, and I nodded against his chest.