“I thought he was shorter,” someone murmurs.
“I thought the girl was his daughter maybe. Did you see how he grabbed her?” asks another.
“I think he’s an asshole,” another chimes in, and there’s a low rumble of laughter from behind a screen.
Lucy has ears and can hear as well as I can.
“We can go someplace else if you want?” I suggest, noting her embarrassment. Feeling like the manager was right about one thing, maybe I should’ve planned things a little better.
Lucy shakes her head firmly, looking more upset than anything.
“Is it like this all the time?” she finally asks, breaking the awkward silence between us.
I nod gravely. “Afraid so. It’s why I keep to myself as much as I do.”
“And wear your disguises,” she half-smiles, reminding me I don’t have on a hat, glasses, or that coat on.
I changed while she was in the bath, jeans, shirt, and a leather jacket.
Plus my ugly mug, which is on every billboard, newspaper, and news channel in town.
“I forget sometimes, how crazy people are. How nuts they get when they see someone-”
I can’t think of how to say it without coming across like an asshole, like that waiter said just now.
“It must be awful,” Lucy says, meaning it. Reading my mind exactly.
“It’s not awful now,” I remind us both, smiling at her, feeling us both relax again.
“I thought you’d have all your own people,” she muses, craning to look around and seeing the hotel security milling about around the doorway.
“I used to, for stuff like this weekend. Got rid of ‘em. Thought I could manage better without all the fuss,” I explain.
Realizing this weekend is the ‘test’. The first time I’ve really been anywhere without handlers, which I also explain to Lucy.
“Not working out so great?” she laughs, but I feel my face getting serious.
“I think it’s going pretty well so far,” I counter, and she flushes red again, looking into her lap.
“So do I,” she whispers, a small smile playing at the corner of her mouth.
We both study our menus. Me because I’m hungry and Lucy because maybe she’s getting shy now that we’re really alone with no separate rooms or baths to interrupt us.
I also notice by snatching a few glances, her expression change when I follow her eyes to what I figure is the prices.
It’s pretty steep, even for a place like this. But I already told her I got this.
“How about I order for us both?” I suggest and she heaves a silent breath of relief.
“You can have whatever you want though,” I remind her, making a few top-end suggestions.
Glad myself when she makes a face at lobster or caviar, definitely no champagne or anything that predictably lame either.
Makes me feel relief when she does.
I’m a meat and potatoes kinda guy, but I love pasta too so I order us both a pasta entrée and a steak each for mains.
“Dessert? Or would you like to wait and see?” Our waiter asks, trying to look interested. I recognize his voice from the asshole comment, which makes me smile.
“We’ll wait and see,” I let him know, sounding cryptic on purpose, hoping Lucy catches my double meaning.
“Yeah, I’ll see if I can fit anything else in after dinner,” she tells me, more color in her cheeks as she looks down again, shy all over for the second time.
‘I could eat you for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,’ is what I want to tell her.
But time and place, I remind myself. Time and place.
Chapter Seven
Lucy
Okay, so I think the actual shock is starting to register with me now.
I hate having my picture taken at the best of times, and I have a moment of panic once I get separated from Nathan, as well as realize that my dad could see me on the news, in the papers, or worse.
Not that he watches much TV or reads the paper, but it’s all I can think about, apart from needing to get back to Nathan before disappearing into this crowd for good.
I wonder if he attracts a crowd wherever he goes or is it just now because he’s in town and words out where he’s staying.
But Nathan lets me know he’s on his own for the first time, no handlers or his own security.
Somehow I find it hard to imagine him needing anyone to protect him, or tell him what to do next.
I figure it’s more to do with what I just witnessed, keeping crowds of people out of his way when he’s trying to do simple things, like a book convention.
None of it lessens the stunned shock I’m feeling. If anything, it only seems to be getting more intense by the hour.
Seeing him at that hotel counter, then having him in the same suite at a new hotel after what I could only describe as a one-of-a-kind introduction. Now here I am, having dinner with Nathan.