Page 155 of It's About Time
She rolls her eyes. “Fine. I guess there are worse things that could happen to me.”
“Don’t act like you falling for me wasn’t already the worst possible scenario,” I say as I place the letter on the coffee table and crawl over her on the couch.
“It definitely was,” she says through a laugh while staring up at me.
“I love you,” I whisper, leaning down to kiss her softly.
“I love you too, Elliot Thorne, no matter how much I didn’t want to. The truth is, I don’t think I ever stood a chance. Your Grumpzilla alter-ego lured me in and that’s what sealed the deal.”
“Yeah, well your vulgar mouth and accusations of my drug ring activity sealed it for me.”
She giggles. “We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?”
“We have. And we still have a lifetime to go.”
Chapter 33
Dilynne
Calming Down Gorilla Man
“To our girl,” Nick says, reaching across the table to clink his glass against mine.
Carol smiles proudly on his right. “God, I’m so proud of you, Dilynne.”
“Thank you.” Lifting my glass of champagne to my lips, I take a sip and am immediately transported back to two nights ago when Elliot dribbled champagne on my breasts and then licked them clean while we were celebrating him taking over the office. My body shivers from the memory. “I finally deposited the check today too, so it’s truly official.”
After coming home from Motorlux, all of my energy went into helping Elliot confront his father. Honestly, he handled it better than I thought he would, but we still have a long way to go.
Twodays after his father was arrested, the District Attorney came back with legal paperwork to transfer ownership of the law firm to Elliot since his father wouldn’t be able to manage anything from inside of his jail cell.
Elliot seemed reluctant about the new responsibility at first, but these past few days he’s slipped into the role seamlessly, which I couldn’t be more proud of him for, vowing to make sure that the staff finds their way back to how his grandfather built the practice, including volunteering for the community law council in Charlotte regularly.
But tonight, he’s actually at the office taking care of a few things, so it was the perfect time for Nick and Carol to have Henley and me over for dinner tonight to celebrate as a family. As much as I wanted Elliot here too, part of me is eager to talk to my brother without my new boyfriend around.
Yes, Elliot isjustmy boyfriend now. As much fun as playing the fake fiancé was, I think it’s smart of us to take this new relationship down a notch and start from the beginning. Although, the other night after reading the letter from his grandfather, he made it very clear he plans on marrying me someday.
That’s right. One day I will be Mrs. Elliot Thorne, a sentence I never thought I’d utter. My body sure likes the idea of it, though.
But one step at a time, including making sure my brother knows where I stand on his conversation with Elliot before I got a chance to break the news to him.
However, Henley, Elodie, and my niece are running late. They told us not to wait for them to eat, and they’d bring dessert from Bites & Bliss to make up for it.
“Look, before Henley gets here, I wanted to run something by the two of you.”
Carol sets her champagne glass down before picking up her fork. “You know you can tell us anything.”
“I do, which is why I want you to know this before Henley gets here.”
Nick furrows his brow. “Is everything okay?”
Chuckling, I say, “Well? You know how Elliot and I have been pretending to be engaged?”
Carol fights to hide her grin. “Yes…”
“It turns out there might be some, uh…” I nervously clear my throat. “Actual feelings involved that I didn’t see coming.”
“Who has feelings?” Nick asks before taking a bite of his spaghetti.
