“He told me.”
“I’m going with you.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You want to make sure there are no rocks left unturned? No clocks left unburned?”
“I didn’t know you were a poet.”
“You bring out my inner Shakespeare.”
She felt his hand then at the small of her back. The heat from his touch sank into her and she was very glad she was sitting down because it made her legs feel very weak and wobbly. She felt like a teenager around this guy, all awkward and vulnerable. All he had to do was touch her to make her want him. It really wasn’t fair at all.
“Just five minutes of your time.” He leaned closer and she felt his warm breath brush against her ear. “Before it’s too late.”
“Too late for what?” she replied, dismayed by how breathy her voice sounded and how good Jacob smelled.
“Amanda!” Vicky ran up to her and pulled her right off her bar stool and into a fierce hug. “You look great! I love that dress! Very New York chic, I must say.”
“Thanks.” She glanced at Jacob who looked unhappy that they’d been interrupted. “We’ll talk later, okay?”
“Sure,” he said stiffly.
Patrick moved toward her in his wheelchair and instructed the bartender to open up a case of champagne so everyone got a glass.
“To Amanda,” he toasted ten minutes later. “Who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to go after it, no matter what the price.”
She cringed at the knowing edge to his words as he clinked his glass against hers. “I do know what I want.”
He raised his eyebrows. “That’s exactly what I just said.”
“You are a troublemaker, Patrick McKay.”
He grinned. “Am I that transparent?”
“Yes, you are.”
She turned to her left to see that Jacob was gone and David now stood next to her.
“Can I have your attention please?” David said, loudly enough for everyone to hear.
She was surprised. She’d expected her very normal boyfriend to keep a low profile in the middle of a crowd of psychics, even if he wasn’t a true believer. She knew it made him feel uncomfortable. He’d told her as much on the drive over.
“Are you going to toast me, too?” she asked.
He smiled. “I am.”
She scanned the bar to see that everyone was now paying attention to them. Even Jacob, now at the back of the crowd, looked at her. While everyone else had a smile on their face as they raised their champagne glasses, Jacob didn’t look happy at all.
“From the very first moment I met Amanda,” David began, “I knew that this beautiful woman was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I knew that at heart we were the same and wanted the same things—such as security and acceptance—that we had the same solid and steadfast view on the world. I was pleased when she made the decision to come work with me at my advertising company. I think she’s going to fit in very well there.”
He placed his glass of champagne down on the bar top and fumbled in his pocket. Amanda watched him curiously.
“She fits in very well in my life, too,” he continued. “A perfect fit, I’d say. That’s why, in front of all of her friends tonight, I’d like to ask Amanda LaGrange to marry me.”
Her wide eyes moved to the diamond ring that popped up in front of her.
“David…” she began. “I…I—”
He gave her a huge grin. “You’re speechless, aren’t you?”
She nodded. The next moment she felt the cold metal of the ring as he slid it onto her finger.
“See? What did I tell you?” he said. “A perfect fit.”
The crowd of PARA agents who’d gathered at the bar to send Amanda off on her new life cheered at their engagement.
An engagement she’d hadn’t exactly agreed to yet.
She looked out at the beaming crowd to see Jacob’s reaction, but he was gone. Her heart sank.
The very next moment Vicky ran up to her and gave her another hug. “Wow, I knew it was serious, but I didn’t think it was this serious! That is a hell of a rock you have there. I’m so jealous!”
It was a solid five minutes of more well-wishers and hugging, but this time she was too stunned to say much. She was engaged? To David?
It was more than she’d anticipated. Moving to the city, working for him in a normal job, spending more time together—that had been one thing.
But marriage?
“I think she’s going to fit in very well,” David had said as part of his proposal.
She could see that life with David in his world would be the fit she’d always been searching for—the one she’d convinced herself she wanted. But now that she was trying it on for size, she found that fit more than a little bit tight and uncomfortable.
At her first opportunity, she grabbed David by his hand and pulled him out of the crowd and into a private alcove of the bar.
“Do you like your ring?” he asked.
She looked down at the two-carat engagement ring. Judging by the blue box it came in, it was from Tiffany’s. “It’s beautiful.”
“Not as beautiful as the woman who wears it.”
She closed her eyes and let out a long exhale. When she opened her eyes, David didn’t look quite as pleased by whatever expression he saw on her face.
“Is there something wrong?” he asked.
“I’m afraid there is.”
“Doesn’t the ring fit properly?”