Well, almost the perfect gentleman.
I shrugged. “Nothing. Not that it’s a problem. It would complicate things too much.”
I also wish I believed that as much as I thought I did.
“Are you sure about that? You don’t think it might make things…better?”
“Kate, please. You know what he said. How is it going to make anything better for me to go down that path again? You think it’s easy, watching him with her? I already know what it was like being in love with the man before he was a wonderful father. Now…” I shook my head. “He can’t love me. He said so.”
We both watched Sofia giggling into her dad’s shoulder while he tickled her lightly and made some sort of joke. Both of their eyes gleamed.
“That doesn’t look like a man who can’t love to me,” Kate said. “It looks like a man who is completely besotted.”
“With his daughter,” I told her. “We are not the same person.”
“No, you aren’t. But that doesn’t mean he can’t love you too.”
I could only shrug. I knew the score. Xavier was attracted to me, sure. But sex wasn’t love. I’d already made that mistake with him. I wouldn’t ever do it again.
“Well, in case you meet someone else tonight, I wanted to let you know that I’m bringing Sof home with me,” Kate said. “I’ll take her to Nonna’s in the morning. You can take your time tomorrow. Sleep in. Or, you know, not.”
I turned. “What? Why? I don’t have any other plans after this.”
“Yet,” she added meaningfully. “You don’t have any plans yet. Don’t waste a good red dress, Frankie.”
Before I could argue, she strode off into the crowd, swishing her drink and her hips, clearly satisfied with putting me in my place.
“Brat,” I murmured, but didn’t chase her down. To be honest, I could have used a night alone. My emotions seemed to be all over the place. I needed some time to think.
“Frankie?”
I turned around to see the last person I expected to find in a place like this.
“Adam?” I wondered. “What are you doing here?”
Adam Klein looked completely different than he did at school. Dressed in a sleek gray suit, light brown hair combed back neatly. Only his tortoise-shell glasses remained of the messy art teacher I knew. He actually looked quite dapper.
“My dad knows some people. I pulled a few strings. It’s a bit much, isn’t it?” He gestured around. “The flowers, I mean.”
I glanced around at the walls with their vibrant pinks and purples. “I think it’s nice. It’s for Sofia.”
Adam frowned. “Sofia? You mean your kid?”
I sighed. “I—well, yes. The owner is her dad.”
Adam’s brows popped up well above the rims of his glasses. “Oh, that’s right. I almost forgot. You’d never know.”
I frowned. “You can’t see it? Most people think they look like twins.”
Adam only shrugged. “Honestly, I just thought she looked beautiful, like her mom.”
His sideways glance was full of meaning. But I did my best not to meet it. I knew what he was doing.
“I have an idea,” he said. “What about a drink and a dance instead of coffee?”
I glanced around, spotting the rest of my sisters mingling in the crowd. Joni was cutting a rug on the dance floor, twisting back and forth between two eager partners, while Matthew and Nina were swaying slowly together in one corner, uncaring for the tempo and utterly lost but for each other. Kate was at the bar, handing her card to one rich prospective client after another. Marie sat with Nonna nearby, both of them devouring plates of Xavier’s scrumptious menu with glee, while next to them Lea and Mike were busy trying to keep their kids from scaling the walls.
And of course, in the middle, still held by her father like a precious bouquet of the flowers that covered the walls, was Sofia, arms wrapped around Xavi’s neck while she giggled and bounced and grinned like I’d never seen.