first at the girl and then at Brandon and Molly.
“Bye,” they all echoed.
“I’ll see you at the ball,” Camille told Terri. “Max said we’re all at the same table.”
“Excellent,” she replied.
“He seems very nice,” Camille added in a whisper.
Terri looked over at Lucas, who was talking in a low voice to Thomas. “Yeah, he’s great,” she muttered before she gave Camille a quick hug and then followed her son and Lucas back to the parking lot.
Lucas’s car was idling near the exit. He helped Terri climb in while Thomas got in the other side. Once Lucas had slid inside, the car drove away.
“Did you have fun?” she asked Thomas.
“Yeah, it was great,” he muttered.
“Are you going to tell me anything about her?”
“About who?”
“The very pretty brunette you were talking with when we found you, that’s who.”
“Oh, her. She’s just someone that Molly and Brandon know from Tae Kwon Do. She lives in Saunders, but she trains at their club,” he said, blushing and staring at the floor as he spoke.
“Does she have a name?”
“Yeah, she does.”
Terri laughed. “Okay, you win. What’s her name?”
“Linda.”
“Okay, great. Are you planning to see Linda again?”
“Mom!” He rolled his eyes and then turned and looked out the window.
Terri looked over at Lucas, who winked at her. “He isn’t going to want to talk about it,” he whispered in her ear.
She frowned, but didn’t argue. A moment later, they pulled up at her house.
“I’ll be back for you at six,” he told her at the door. After kissing the top of her head, he turned and walked back to the car. Thomas rolled his eyes and then pushed past her to get into the house.
Chapter 10
At quarter to six, Thomas safely dropped off at Ed’s house, Terri found herself staring into her bedroom mirror. “Everyone will be looking at me,” she sighed. “I should have bought a new dress.”
Having assumed she was going to be going to the ball on her own, especially now that Camille had Max in her life, she’d decided not to buy herself anything new for the event. Instead, she’d found a dress in the back of her closet that was suitable. It was even pretty, with a black bodice and a dark blue, tulle-covered skirt. The problem was, she knew it was almost as old as Thomas and now she was going to be in the spotlight, whether she liked it or not.
“It’s too late to go shopping,” she reminded her reflection. Too bad she’d left all the gorgeous dresses from the press conference in Lucas’s suite. He’d promised to have them sent to her, but they hadn’t yet arrived.
The woman in the mirror made a face at her. Terri ignored it and went to work on her makeup. When the doorbell rang, right at six, she put her hairbrush down and rushed to answer it.
“You look wonderful,” Lucas told her, handing her a huge bouquet of flowers.
“You shouldn’t have,” she gasped.
“I wanted to bring you something. You were wonderful today. It all felt very natural.”
She hid her face behind the blooms. It had felt incredibly natural to her, too, as if they truly were a couple. Keeping her emotions in check was already proving more difficult than she’d expected.
“I love that dress,” he murmured as she put the flowers down and grabbed her handbag.
“It’s ancient,” she sighed. “I didn’t think anyone would care what I wore tonight.”
“We can swing by Amelia’s on our way to the ball,” he offered.
“If you’re happy with the dress, it’s fine.”
He studied her for a moment. “You’ll feel better in something new, won’t you?”
She looked down at the dress and then slowly shook her head. “I don’t think the dress is the problem. I’m struggling with being in the spotlight, whatever I’m wearing.”
“We don’t have to go to the ball. We can stay here and watch television and eat popcorn.”
“Don’t tempt me.” She shook her head. “The ball is really fun, actually. It’s a highlight in the town’s social calendar and it raises a lot of money for charity. I’m just getting cold feet because I know being there with you is going to make people stare.”
“They’ll get used to it sooner or later,” he promised. “Shall we?”
She slid on her shoes and then followed him to the door. As they started down the sidewalk to his waiting limousine, he took her arm. After he’d helped her into the car, he climbed in after her.
“Champagne?” he asked, opening the bar.
“Sure, why not?” she replied, surprising