4
Angus pulled in a slow breath as Nora settled herself into a chair at table three in the east quadrant of the dining floor. No freaking way was she going to be sitting at the same table as Elisa.
A part of his brain couldn’t believe the TV producer’s tenacity—or was it gall? The rest of his brain kept returning to the fact he still had his arm around Elisa’s waist.
Hisfiancée’swaist.
Whyhadshe said she was his fiancée? A knee-jerk reaction to something? A slip of the tongue?
Going along with it hadn’t been a knee-jerk reaction though. His first reaction when she’d said she was his fiancée had been confused shock, followed immediately by a powerful sense of relief. If he had a fiancée, Nora would have to finally move on from her stubborn, deluded quest for him to be the bachelor on her show.
Kara snorted. “So, she reallyisjust going to sit over there and eat.”
“Seems that way,” Elisa’s identical sister muttered, studying Nora.
As if aware she was being watched, Nora looked over and waved.
Elisa’s sister waved back and then cast him a contemplative look. “Maybe you should poison her food?”
“Oh, I like you.” Kara grinned at Elisa’s sister. “What do I call you?”
“Zeta.” Elisa’s sister grinned back. “I’m the sane one of us triplets.”
“Ha” Owen’s fiancée, Bria, laughed. “Sane. That’s funny.”
“I’m so sorry,” Elisa murmured, slipping out of his loose embrace. “I don’t know why I… I can’t really explain why I said…”
She trailed off, her gaze jumping everywhere except to him.
“It’s all good.” He gently snagged her hand before she could get too far away. For Nora’s sake, of course. While the producer was here, they’d have to keep up the appearance of a newly engaged couple.
Sure. For Nora’s sake. It has nothing to do with the fact you like holding Elisa’s hand at all, does it. Or that when she smiles, you want to smile as well. Or that you want to control the situation? Jesus, brain, shut the fuck up.
“Don’t apologize,” he finished as her gaze finally rested on his.
“I still have no clue what’s going on,” Bria muttered, arching an eyebrow at Elisa. “But I’m enjoying whatever it is, so there’s that.”
“Yeah.” Owen pinned Angus with a level look—what Angus thought of as his stern-teacher stare. “I’m equally in the dark. Care to explain, mate?”
Angus opened his mouth, closed it, and looked at Elisa. “Elisa saved me,” he said, giving her a soft wink.
She bit her lip, the tiniest hint of playful mischief flickering in her beautiful blue eyes for a second, before she beamed up at Owen. “You of all people should be a believer in love at first sight, Owen.”
“She’s right.” Zeta pointed at Owen, and then Bria. “Seriously, you two were fucking like rabbits fifteen minutes after you first met, and engaged four days later.”
“Four days?” Angus looked at his best mate. “Fourdays?”
Owen shrugged. “Hey, why wait when you’ve found what you’ve always been looking for, right?”
“It probably would have been five minutes after they first did it, if he hadn’t thought he had brain cancer,” Zeta suggested, giving Owen a smirk.
Angus blinked. “Brain cancer?”
Owen snorted. “Old news. I’ll tell you about it later. Now, I want to eat.”
“Me too.” Zeta nodded.
“And while we eat,” Bria took Elisa’s hand and gently tugged her from Angus’s side, “Lis here is going to bring us up to speed. Isn’t that right, Lis?”