The Seduction Vow (9 page)

“
Well, for the chorus,”
Tara admitted. “But I made it through two rounds of
cuts.”

Luis bumped shoulders with Tara. “Good job. I
saw your commercial the other day, by the way.”

“
The soup one or another?”
Tara asked. “I have a few now.”

“
No shit? Well, it was the
soup one, where the kid comes in from playing in the snow and you
feed him a big bowl of—”

“
Nature’s Goodness, the
organic alternative,” Tara and Luis chanted in unison, then
laughed. It was so good to hear Luis laugh again.

“
The company’s trying to
reach a broader market. Tara’s commercial may go national,” Graci
told Luis, proud to announce her friend’s good news.

“
Too bad I got paid a flat
rate,” Tara said. “But if this takes off, I might become the face
of Nature’s Goodness.” She flashed a toothy smile and framed her
face with her hands.

“
That’d be cool. I hope you
get everything you want.” Luis smiled at her, then hopped off the
counter. “By the way, Mom said to tell you guys to please set the
table.”

“’
Cause you couldn’t
possibly do it, being a big tough
man
and all.” Graci pointed to the
silverware drawer.

Luis chuckled and went to get out the
flatware.

Just then, their mother
exploded into the kitchen, fanning her flushed face.
“
Lo siento
,
mis hijas
. I had to go outside for some air. These hot flashes are
killing me! You think cramps are bad, just you wait.”

“
TMI, Ma.” Luis took the
table settings and glasses and went to the dining room.

“
I’m serious. This is
miserable. Feels like Texas in summer.” Graci’s mom waved away her
complaints. “But anyway.” She turned her attention to coordinating
the meal preparations. Soon all the dishes were whisked out to the
table, and they sat down to dinner.

Her father said grace, and
everyone dug in, talking and laughing and passing dishes. As Graci
looked around at her beloved and sometimes annoying family and
Tara, she felt grateful for every one of them, even self-important
Hugo. There was nothing quite like having your life in free fall to
make you appreciate family. Men might come and go, but
familia
was
forever.

What would this table look like with Neal
sitting at it? Would he joke with Luis? Talk to her dad about the
Bengals’ season? Listen patiently when Hugo boasted about his plans
for expanding to a second location? He would definitely compliment
Mom on her cooking, not only because it was really good but because
he was polite. He’d even told Graci he liked that bland fish she’d
made the other day. Yeah, she could see him fitting in here, even
if his tats might freak out her parents at first. He was a very
personable guy.

Holy crap, what was she doing imagining Neal
at a Ramirez dinner? It was one thing to have sex fantasies about
him, but quite another to begin including him in a mental family
photo. She had to get a grip and stop latching on to him like
this.

Keep things light and
noncommitted
—
that was the ticket.

Chapter Eight

An evening breeze blew off the river, cutting
right through her thin jacket. Graci shivered and hugged her arms
around herself. Neal slid an arm around her back, warming her, his
body sheltering her from the wind.

“
Had enough? We can stop
walking any time you want,” he said.

“
No. I’m fine. It’s too
beautiful to end it yet.” She indicated the illuminated view of the
downtown buildings reflected in the dark water. The Riverwalk
stretched four miles along the bank of the Ohio, all the way to
Kentucky, if they chose to go that far. She was content to walk a
good while longer with Neal’s arm around her.

“
Tell me more about your
friends,” he said. “I don’t know Tara well, but from what I’ve
seen, you two don’t seem much alike.”

“
We’re not. Opposites
complement each other, I guess. We’ve been friends since
elementary. We hooked up with the rest of our group in middle
school. There were five of us who were really close for a long
time.”

“
You fell out of touch
after high school?”

She nodded. “We went to different colleges,
and Bree and Adya moved away. Tara went to New York for a while
before she came back. Even though Corinne and I never left Cinci,
we got busy with our own lives. That night we met you at the bar
was the first time the three of us had been out together in a long
time.” She didn’t need to mention the falling-out she and Corinne
had had over Joey. “But it looks as if we’ll all be together again
at Bree’s wedding in LA. Weird how you can drift apart from old
friends, but when you see each other again, it’s like no time has
passed.”

“
You grew up together. It
makes you almost family.” He glanced at the skyline, and the lights
glittered in his eyes. Graci snuggled even closer into his
warmth.

“
My best friend as a kid
was Matt Markovich,” he continued. “We stopped hanging out when I
got heavy into music and he was all about sports. Hardly talked
during high school, but when my mom died, he was right there for
me. Underneath all our differences and the years we fell out of
touch, he was still Matt, the kid I dared to eat worms and skipped
school with, the guy who was ready to take the fall when we got
busted for egging the vice-principal’s car.”

A vivid memory of Adya suddenly popped into
Graci’s mind. When the five of them had first started sitting at
the same lunch table, Graci hadn’t much liked Adya. Her delicate
features and perfect skin made Graci feel like a short, squat,
pimple-faced dumpling. Plus she was so stuck-up she hardly spoke to
anyone except Bree. If there was anyone Graci would’ve voted off
the island of their table, it would’ve been Adya.

But that was before the awful day when
Graci’s period started and she was stuck in the restroom with a
stained skirt and no way out. At twelve, she’d barely begun the
routine and didn’t carry any supplies in her purse. The messy
disaster was of the ultimate humiliation for a young girl. She’d
sat in the stall, crying, until a quiet voice floated through the
door.

“
Graci, is that you? Are
you okay?”

Graci hardly knew Adya enough to identify the
voice.

“
It’s me, Adya. No one else
is in here. Are you having a problem?”

“
My period started.” Just
saying “period” was embarrassing to her.

“
Here. I’ve got some
stuff.” A second later, Adya’s hand came under the door, offering
what she needed.

“
Thanks.” Graci took a
breath and added shakily, “I’ve got a big spot on my skirt. I can’t
walk around like this.”

“
Hand it out to me. I’ll
rinse it in the sink.”

“
But then I’ll have a big
wet patch.”

“
Hold on a minute. I’ve got
something in my locker you can wear. I’ll be right
back.”

Daring detention points for being in the hall
between classes, Adya had practically flown to her locker and back,
bringing a pair of gym shorts. The shorts were so tiny they’d
nearly cut off the circulation in Graci’s stocky legs, but they
were clean and they covered her.

After finally reaching her mother on the
phone, Graci had gone home for the rest of the day. But she’d never
forgotten how Adya came to her rescue, and she’d started to
understand Adya was quiet because she was shy, not because she was
a snob. When she did speak, she usually said something worth
listening to.

“
What are you thinking?”
Neal brought her back to the present.

“
I was wondering what our
friend Adya is up to. We’ve all texted and left messages, but
nobody’s heard from her in a while. We’re all a little
worried.”

“
Maybe she’ll show up at
this wedding unannounced. Some people are just bad about returning
messages.”

“
Maybe.”

Since there was nothing she could do about
Adya short of hiring a private investigator, Graci put her worries
aside and refocused her attention on the romantic walk with a guy
she was becoming increasingly attached to. The wake of a powerboat
passing on the river left the reflected lights of the city in
rippling pools of color like an Impressionist painting.

They stopped walking to watch. And then to
kiss. Neal’s arms went around her, pulling her snugly to him. His
cold lips met hers, and heat filled Graci. Other evening strollers
passed them. A jogger pounded by, and someone walking a dog, but
she and Neal were cocooned in a little bubble of their own.

After several moments, or maybe much longer,
he pulled away, leaving her with a final kiss on the tip of her
nose. “It’s freezing out here. Let’s go get something to eat. I
have a spot in mind.”

“
Sure,” she agreed, but she
wasn’t even hungry. Her body felt loose and floating, yet tense
with need at the same time. How could she even think of
eating?

****

“
Now don’t get mad at me,
but I’ve got a little surprise for you,” Neal warned her, as they
entered the wonderfully warm restaurant and bar.

“
What kind of surprise?
Surprises shouldn’t make a person mad.” She looked around the place
for some clue, but only saw booths and tables and busy
waitstaff.

“
You’ll see.”

He led her into the bar and to an empty
table. One look at the raised platform with a microphone, a couple
of speakers and a screen warned her what was in store.

“
Oh no, no, no. Is that a
karaoke machine?”

“
I’m helping you with your
list.” He held out her chair while she sat.

Graci dropped into the seat
with a thump. “You don’t understand how the list works.
I’m
in charge of
it.
I
decide when
I’m ready to do the things on it.”

“
How did the cake
decorating go, by the way?”

“
We did cupcakes for the
first class. Mine looked like someone vomited roses on them, big
sloppy roses, not tiny cute buds like everyone else was doing.
That’s all the failure I can handle for one week. I’m not ready to
sing in public.”

His happy grin showed that he didn’t
comprehend her fear one tiny bit. “No one ever feels ready. You
just do it. And I’ll be up there right beside you, singing with
you. It’ll be fun.”

“
Fun is very subjective,”
she grumbled.

While Neal ordered and consumed a large
burger, Graci picked at a salad and watched singers take the stage.
They ranged from the very talented to the cringeworthy, singles and
duos and small groups of drunken friends bellowing loudly.

“
You see? I told you
everybody’s just here to have fun. There’s no one you have to
impress,” Neal pointed out after a giggling pair of girls muddled
their way through a rendition of
No
Scrubs
.

“
I see, but there are still
grasshoppers in my stomach,” Graci whined. “I used to nearly have a
panic attack when I had to deliver a speech in class back in the
day. I’m not a get up in front of people sort of person.” She took
another sip of beer, but the alcohol gave her no false
courage.

“
Our turn.” Neal rose and
held out his hand.

“
What? When did you sign us
up? What song are we singing?” Terror rampaged through her like a
knife-wielding killer in a slasher flick.

Neal pulled her to her feet and gazed into
her eyes. “Trust me.”

She took a deep breath and
blew it out.
I’m New Graci
tonight
.
This is no big deal. New Graci finds the fun in
everything and embraces challenges.

“
Okay. I’m
ready.”

She stepped onto the tiny stage and Neal
handed her a microphone. He whispered, “Don’t look at the people.
Look at that exit sign in the back, or at me.”

“
Tell me I at least know
this song,” she murmured back.

“
Trust me. You know
it.”

As the cheerful melody
began, Graci started smiling before the first words even came on
the screen. True to his word, Neal sang right along with her.
“
It’s a world of laughter, a world of
tears. It’s a world of hopes, it’s a world of
fears…
”

When they reached the
refrain, everyone in the place joined in. “
It’s a small world after all. It’s a small world after
all.
”

She glanced over at Neal, rocking out to
Disney, and joy bubbled up inside her, driving away the last of her
fears. This was like singing Happy Birthday with a group. There was
nothing scary about it at all. Other voices supported hers and
carried her along, and Neal held her hand as they sang
together.

Graci started laughing, so Neal carried the
second verse alone, but she rejoined him on the next chorus. As she
gazed at the wonderful, amazing, funny, kind, sexy man beside her
and sang the ridiculous yet oddly moving ditty, something happened.
A feeling swelled inside her, something much more than attraction
or liking or lust. It was the sort of feeling that could mean real
trouble. Her heart expanded and reached out. As though feeling the
tendrils touching him, Neal looked at her, and they clicked.
Connection made.