The big man approached Darlene, bouquet of flowers extended towards her.
She flinched and took a step back. She repeated his name, eyes darting to her brother and then to Tim. Her expression softened when she looked at him and he saw something crystallize inside her.
She looked back at her ex. “Why are you here?” She shook her head. “No, don’t answer that.”
She stared her brother down. “Gene, why the f*ck did you invite my ex-husband to dinner with my…” Her words caught in her throat, but her posture straightened as she moved towards Tim. “…with my boyfriend?”
The defiance in her eyes warmed Tim to his core. He adored this side of her. She was broken when they met, but over the last year, she’d rebuilt herself. She’d cracked her shell and been reborn – and he’d been there to witness it.
He adored every inch of her.
The silence in the room felt like it was trying to smother them all. But Tim was so in awe of Darlene’s courage that he didn’t care.
“Come on, everyone.” Val’s cheerfulness was so out of place that Tim had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. “Dinner’s going to get cold if we don’t eat.” Tim couldn’t figure out how she managed to look down her nose at him when she was so much shorter than he was but she did. The little wrinkle in her nose could almost be mistaken for sympathy. “The dining room is through this way, Jim.”
“Thanks, Val.” It was clear she hated him for using her first name but he couldn’t help himself. If you insisted on playing stupid games, you shouldn’t come crying when the prizes you won were stupid.
She narrowed her eyes at him before pivoting to take the flowers Darlene still hadn’t accepted. “Roger, how sweet of you. Darlene, aren’t these the nicest flowers? A man should always bring flowers to a woman he’s courting – don’t you think? I’ll just pop these into some water for you.”
The whole group shuffled around the corner into the dining room. This room continued the themes of taupe and gold with more lace than Tim had ever seen in one place. A print of the Lord’s Supper almost filled one wall. Heavy brown curtains blocked the view of the backyard.
Naturally, the dinner table was already set with five places.
