Page 69 of Auctioned To Be Mine

He laughed. “I’ll call you later.”

I went back to the table and sat down.

“He’s not coming,” I said. “Store emergency. He sends his apologies.”

Mimi waved her hand. “More fun without him. Girl lunch!”

Tiana looked at me directly. My stomach dropped. Oh shit. This was the interrogation he warned me about. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” I answered, hating that my voice had gone up a couple of octaves.

“Are you seeing my son?”

No warm-up. No beating around the bush. Just the question. She didn’t look angry or judgy, just curious. I considered deflecting. Go with the non-answer, the laugh-and-change-the-subject maneuver I had deployed many times in my old life when I didn’t want to show my hand. But this was his mother and I liked her. More importantly, I respected her too much to lie.

“We’ve been spending time together,” I said. “It’s still new. But yes.” I held her gaze. “I like him very much.”

Tiana nodded slowly, like I’d confirmed something she’d already known.

“He’s not easy,” she said. “I say that because I love him. He carries a lot and he doesn’t put it down easily. He’s been that way since he was small.” She took a drink from her water glass. “He’s a very serious man.”

“Agreed.”

She smiled. “He doesn’t let people in. He thinks he does, but he doesn’t. Not really.” She paused. “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it. Because I’ve noticed the change. So have his siblings. It’s like he’s breathing and living for the first time ever.”

I felt like my heart was going to implode. “Thank you.”

“You have my stamp of approval,” she said and returned to her meal.

Mimi caught my eye across the table and gave me a satisfied smile like I had just passed a test. Was that what this was? I wondered if Callum purposely got hung up. He wanted his mother to interrogate me. No. I knew he would have been here if he could. Tiana had just said he worked a lot. Took on tons of responsibility.

But I passed the test whether that’s what it was or not. I wanted to jump up and do a happy dance.

We finished lunch. The conversation moved back to the foundation, to Los Angeles, to the practical question of where to start and how quickly Tiana could realistically get something off the ground. By the time the check arrived, which Tiana claimed, we had the beginning of an actual plan.

I walked to my car feeling good.

Tiana Blackwell liked me. Approved of me. And Mimi was going to have a west coast partner who could actually make things happen. Two things I hadn’t even dared to hope for when I pulled into the parking lot ninety minutes ago.

I was going to make Callum dinner tonight. A real one. He’d cooked for me and I’d been quietly embarrassed that I hadn’t returned the favor. I knew my way around a kitchen better than I let on. My parents’ chef had taken pity on me when I was about fourteen and decided that a girl who spent that much time in the kitchen watching should probably learn something useful. I could make a very good alfredo sauce from scratch. I pulled out my phone and started a grocery list, only to have it start ringing in my hand. Betty.

“Hey,” I said, answering it.

“Hi, sweetheart. Quick question about the proposal for the next gala. I need to present the preliminary framework to the board on Thursday. Do you have it ready?”

My stomach dropped.

“It’s almost there,” I said, praying she couldn’t hear the lie.

“Almost there meaning I’ll have it tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow,” I confirmed. “Absolutely.”

“Perfect. I knew I could count on you.”

I sat with my phone in my lap.

The proposal was not almost there. The proposal wasn’t started.