He stared at her a moment, as if he were trying to decipher her motives. The idea of eating with Nick Sinclair was a little stressful—she hoped her manners were up to par—but eating alone was just as terrifying. She never ate by herself; even when she was at her apartment with Max, she always made sure they ate together. The thought occurred to her that Nick probably ate alone every night.
Nick still hadn’t said anything, so she filled the silence with an explanation. “I don’t like to eat by myself,” she said.
His eyes were unstill, that curiosity seeping out through his features. He smiled a little. She thought about the fact that she could be imposing on him. He’d only offered her food because she hadn’t eaten. He wasn’t necessarily offering his companionship for dinner. But she’d already asked him, so the damage was done. He was a big boy; he could get out of it if he wanted to.
“I’ll have the chef serve us both in the dining room.” He walked through the door and turned around. “It’ll be ready in about twenty minutes. I’ll see you then.”
Chapter Five
What in the world was she about to eat? Was it pasta? Vegetables? It smelled delicious. Abbey draped her napkin in her lap and eyed Nick for strategies on how to eat the dish in front of her. Her natural inclination was to spin it around her fork, but she was worried that she’d break some kind of dining etiquette that she wasn’t even aware of. Nick dipped his fork into the dish and began to turn it around in circles. Thank goodness!
“I forgot to ask,” he said suddenly, abandoning his fork and setting his hand on the white tablecloth that hadn’t been there before the meal. “Are you allergic to anything?” He nodded toward the pasta-like dish. “It’s shrimp and zucchini noodles.”
“No, I’m not allergic to anything.”
He looked visibly relieved. “I’m not used to thinking about someone else. I just told the chef to make two, not even considering your preferences. I apologize. Do you even like shrimp and zucchini?”
“Yes,” she said, although she’d never had a dish quite like this one before.“You just looked a little unsure.”
She smiled despite herself. “I didn’t know how I was supposed to eat it,” she said honestly.
His brows pulled together in that handsome way of his, his lips turned down in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I didn’t know if I was supposed to just twirl it around my fork or not, but then, when you did it, I realized I’d guessed right.”
“How else would you eat it?” he laughed, and she had to make herself breathe. His laughter went all the way to his eyes, and the corners of his mouth turned down just slightly when he smiled. His whole face changed. She was so happy to see a real laugh from him, and, by the way he collected himself right after, she wondered if he wasn’t used to it.
“I didn’t know how to eat it. That’s why I looked at you!” she laughed too.
“Well, you can eat it any way you want,” he said, chuckling again.
“Do you always eat in here?”
“Yes.”
Abbey was sitting at the head of the table with Nick at her right, and the two of them barely covered one corner of that colossal table. It had five chairs down each side and one on the ends.
“Do you always sit in the same spot, or do you choose a new chair every night?”
“Ha!”
She couldn’t help the flutter in her chest as she realized that she was making him laugh again, and she was so glad to see him smile. His face was quite different tonight than it was when she’d first met him. As she watched the fine lines forming around his eyes, the light creases in his forehead as his face became animated, the way his lips turned down at the corners in that way that was unique to him, she was happy to see his real smile.
“What would you do?” he asked.
“Sorry?”
“Would you sit in the same seat or would you choose a different one each night?”
“I’d sit in a different seat every night so I could see what the room looked like from the angles of every one of my guests. …If I sat in here at all.”
Nick looked around the room as if explanations of her last comment were hanging somewhere in the air above him. “Why wouldn’t you eat in a dining room?” he finally asked.
“It’s so big, the table swallows us right up. I’d eat somewhere comfier.”
“Comfier?” His face crumpled, telling her that he had no idea why somewhere other than the dining room would be any better than where they were sitting now. “Where would you suggest then?”