Page 30 of His Vivacious Angel
Forest sets two plates of a variety of foods in front of me, then goes back to the buffet line. I divvy up the food, cutting the sausage patties, pancakes, and fruit into smaller bites for Sebastian, and give Benjamin half a banana to gum, before I dig into my own breakfast. Forest returns with as many glasses as he can hold of juice for the kids and cups of coffee for him and me, then returns to the line again. A girl could get used to this. By the time he sits to eat, I’m already halfway through my meal.
“You’re not hungry?” he asks Josephine, who has only eaten a slice of bacon and half a pancake before pushing the rest of her food around her plate.
She shakes her head.
“Do you want something else?” I ask her, rising from my seat. “They have oatmeal, cereal, and waffles.”
“I’m not hungry,” she says in barely a whisper.
Forest and I finally make eye contact. It seems neither of us is sure of the right thing to do or say here.
“Ah, Sherman, I thought that was you,” says a man a few years younger than Forest as he makes his way toward our table, dressed in an impressive suit that rivals Dad’s.
Gabriel is one of those fancy, bigger-city types with an expensive haircut and a gleaming gold watch. He looks good, and he knows it. His ID badge for the conference hangs on a red lanyard around his neck, and it sways forward when he reaches to shake Dad’s hand.
Dad stands and claps Gabriel’s shoulder. “Good to see you, Gabriel.” He sweeps his arm toward me. “You remember my daughter, Autumn.”
“That I do,” Gabriel says, reaching across the table.
We’ve run into him several times before, and I’ve even gone out with him once when he invited me to share a nightcap at the hotel bar at the last conference. He wasdisappointed when I didn’t want to go back to his room afterward, but unlike Tobias, he took the rejection well.
I rise, smoothing down my skirt, to take his hand. With thick black hair, warm mahogany eyes, and a square jaw, he might not have been a bad choice to start up my wild oats phase, had I taken him up on his offer.
Gabriel catches me silently appraising him, and he smiles slyly as if he knows exactly what I’m thinking. Heat settles over my cheeks, though it’s more in embarrassment than it is in attraction.
Forest’s fork of hash browns hovers midway to his mouth, and he clears his throat loudly, then clenches his jaw. I don’t want to examine why I’m relieved he interrupted the moment. He stands next, surprising Gabriel, who has to step back quickly to make room for the taller man.
Forest juts out his hand. “Forest Woods. New Senior Advisor at the firm, and Autumn’s…supervisor.”
Oh geez, kill me now. What is he doing?
“Right. Nice to meet you.” Gabriel flicks his gaze toward me, tugging back his hand when Forest doesn’t immediately let go. The tan lines across his forehead crease with surprise as he takes stock of the kids while I cut up a second pancake for Sebastian. “I didn’t know you had kids, let alone three,” he says to me. “You hardly look old enough?—”
“She’s not our mom,” Josephine says, dropping her fork on her plate with a clatter. She curls in on herself, her shoulders shaking when she starts to cry.
My heart breaks all over again for her. For the boys, too, who won’t understand for some time that they won’t get to see their mother again. Forgetting Gabriel, Forest kneels beside Josephine, drawing her into a tight embrace. Dad claps his hand on Gabriel’s shoulder, leading him away from the table with a low murmur. From across the room, I watch as Gabrielnods with understanding, and he gives me a small, sad smile before drifting away.
While Dad is on stage, answering questions during the Q & A portion of his engagement about start-up funds for opening your own firm, Forest tips his head toward me in the dimly-lit room, where we’re seated together in the middle. “I was thinking, how about dinner and a movie?”
“Huh?” Is he asking me out?
“You know, the animated princess one that just came out.”
“Don’t you think we’re a little old for that?”
“No, she still loves those kinds of movies. I’ll cry when she grows out of them and thinks they’re lame. Swear it.” He pulls his phone out to order tickets online, then stops. “Wait, did you think I was asking you out?”
I loudly shush him and cross my arms. “I want to hear Dad’s answer.” I give my totally divided attention to Dad as I try not to squirm in my seat while Forest stares at my profile.
He leans closer and whispers, “Would you have said yes if I did?”
“Shhh. Pay attention.”
His voice is deep and rumbly when he asks, “Would you say yes if Gabriel asks you out?”
“Been there, done that. Now shut up. You’re being rude.”
“As rude as you were when you ran out on me last night?” He drops his voice lower. “I was hard for hours afterward, thinking about you.”
