“Fine,” Penny grumbled. Kaylee had known that she wouldn’t be able to resist. Besides peanut butter ice cream and motorcycles, Penny’s favorite thing in the world was being right—and getting to crow about it. Now if Noah could keep acting like the perfect boyfriend he’d promised to be, then Penny would be proven wrong, and Kaylee’s story could have a happy ending. “Here.” Penny thrust a dress toward Kaylee.
“Oh, Penny…you’re the best!” As soon as she accepted the hanger, Kaylee knew it was the one. The dress was simple and elegant and just perfect. Pressing it against her front, she did a little spin, her happiness bubbling out of her. The dress felt silky and sinfully good under her hand, and she couldn’t help but remember all the thrift store hand-me-downs she’d had growing up—all the thin coats and musty-smelling boots and scratchy blankets that never managed to be warm enough. The memory of that bone-deep cold was the main reason she’d fought so hard to be here in California, a place where winter never came.
Penny snorted a laugh. “What’s with the dress-dancing? Are you trying to be an ethnically ambiguous Sleeping Beauty right now? Since that makes me the helpful rodent, I’m not loving this theme.”
“No,” Kaylee huffed, although she couldn’t hold a straight face. “You’re the twittery bird.” Grinning, she dodged Penny’s mock punch and twirled around the bedroom again. “I’m just happy. Everything is going right. I have a job I love, a home I love, a Penny I love, a dress I love, a new boyfriend I…”
Narrowing her eyes, Penny warned, “Don’t say it.”
Even Penny’s death glare couldn’t dampen Kaylee’s spirits, and she laughed merrily. “A new boyfriend I could really, really come to like. How about that?”
Penny made a skeptical sound. “As long as you don’t let that ‘like’ blind you to any creeper warning signs.”
“I won’t,” Kaylee promised. The sunlight soaked into her skin, warming her, and she wiggled her toes in delight. It was going to be an amazing night. She could just feel it.
* * *
“You really are a Disney prince,” she blurted.
Noah’s eyebrows drew together even as he laughed and leaned closer so the other guests around the table couldn’t hear their conversation. “What?”
“I mean, your hair alone is pretty much irrefutable evidence.” Kaylee fought the urge to reach over and muss it a little. It was gold and perfect, just long enough to frame his handsome face. Sure, credit could be given to a talented and expensive stylist, but Kaylee was leaning more toward princely genes. “And you open doors and pull out chairs and—”
“That’s manners, not proof that I’m animated royalty,” Noah interrupted, his mouth still curled in amusement. “If I really were a prince, I would’ve picked you up tonight. That was very unprincely of me.”
Kaylee waved off his apology as she leaned to the side, giving the server room to place a delicate cup holding her after-dinner coffee in front of her. After thanking her, Kaylee turned back to Noah. “You had a meeting, and you offered to send a car. I don’t think that qualifies as being rude.”
With a playful frown, he said, “An offer you turned down. I hate that you have to make the drive back alone.”
As smitten as she was with Noah, she had to roll her eyes at that. “It’s a thirty-minute drive. I’ll survive.” Kaylee didn’t mention that the seed of doubt Penny had planted had prompted her to decline. It made her feel safer to have her own transportation, just in case. Not that I’ll need to escape, she thought, taking in Noah’s warm smile and amused blue eyes.
Martin, Noah’s uncle, cleared his throat, drawing her attention to where he sat at the head of the table, framed by the wall of windows behind him. Darkness transformed the glass into a mirror, reflecting the enormous room back at them—as if it needed to look twice as big. The house was huge, set like an island on lush, irrigated, and landscaped acres. Kaylee couldn’t even imagine how much the sprawling LA property was worth.
As expensive as it must have been, the decorating scheme was a little too ostentatious for Kaylee’s taste. It felt as if everything had been chosen to impress visitors with the owner’s wealth, rather than to create a home. Although Kaylee had a healthy appreciation for financial stability, she was happy just to be able to pay her mortgage and buy food and have enough left over for some really nice shoes. The pushy glamour of Noah’s uncle’s home left her cold.