In addition to her sister’s unwanted advice, Tiffany was hounding her to get a rough tape about the Drace brothers special to her, but her boss didn’t understand that she had to work around their schedule.
“Chloe, I’m thrilled you’re in town. How about we have an early dinner and I can bug you about your lack of love life so you will leave mine alone.” Grabbing her purse off her desk, Alicia made her way towards the door and as she was about to open it the door was flung open and Brad walked through carrying a small box.
“Hey beautiful, are you ready to spend some time with me?” he asked and then stopped in his tracks when he spotted Chloe standing behind her. “Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t know that you had someone in here with you.”
“No problems,” Chloe answered before she could. “I’m Alicia’s sister Chloe. I just popped into town on a surprise visit. We were going to have dinner together, but my sister can go out with you instead.”
Alicia wanted to spend time with Brad, but she didn’t want to miss dinner with her sister either since she wasn’t sure how long Chloe was going to be in town.
“Chloe, I’m sure Brad wouldn’t mind me going out with him tomorrow night,” Alicia said, looking over at Brad who was still standing near the door.
“I apologize, I should introduce myself. I’m Brad Drace, Alicia’s boyfriend,” Brad said, shocking the hell out of her as he came further into the room and shook her sister’s hand. “How about I treat the two of you to dinner? I would love to hear more about Alicia when she was a little girl.”
When had she and Brad discussed that he was her boyfriend? What was going on here? She was thrown by his words, but she liked how it sounded, a lot.
Chloe’s gaze swung back and forth between her and Brad like she was debating on taking Brad up on his offer. God, Chloe would tell Brad all of her secrets. She didn’t want her sister to come, but she wasn’t about to tell her that she couldn’t.
“Thank you for your offer. It was very nice of you but I’m going to head back to the hotel. Have fun at dinner. Alicia and I can have breakfast tomorrow. I need to talk to my sister about something anyway.”
Coming over to her, Chloe hugged her and whispered in her ear. “Brad is gorgeous. Don’t fight him. Just have fun and let the chips fall where they may.” Chloe ended their hug, waved at Brad and then walked out the door closing it behind her leaving her alone with the good smelling hunk behind her.
“Chloe seems very nice. Are you sure you don’t want to have dinner with your sister?” Brad asked. “I don’t mind taking a rain check.”
If Chloe had wanted to have dinner with her there was nothing Brad could have done to stop it. “I think my sister would rather I go out to eat with my boyfriend.” The last part of the sentence was spoken as Alicia faced Brad who just stared at her.
“Did I do something wrong?” he asked, innocently.
“When did we officially become a couple I thought we were working towards that stage?”
Brad moved closer until he left her no room at all. She swallowed her and squared her shoulders. She wasn’t going to let Brad intimidate her.
“Sweetheart, you have been my girlfriend even when you thought you were in love with that idiot Max. Now, you have to get on the same page as me and realize it.”
“What if I don’t want to consider you as my boyfriend?” she taunted. “Maybe I’ll always consider you as a friend and nothing else.”
A faint light twinkled in the depths of his blue eyes as Brad watched her and then he smiled. All of her defenses melted away when he did that and brought her into his world.
“I’ll let you keep thinking we’re only friends for a while longer and then I’ll have to show you.”
“Show me…what?”
“That we are more than friends.” Brad said the words with the certainty of a man who had a plan and wasn’t about to wipe it from his mind. “We better get going or we’ll be late for our dinner reservations.”
“Do you want to tell me where we are going?” Alicia asked, deciding to drop the topic of Brad being her boyfriend for now. It wasn’t like the idea was such a bad one.
“No, it’s a surprise.” Brad lowered his voice, being purposefully mysterious.
‘Thank you for the roses,” Alicia said. “They’re beautiful.”
“You’re welcome, but I don’t think there is anything in the world more beautiful than you are. Let’s hit the road. I don’t want us to be late.” Grabbing her hand, Brad escorted her to the door making her wonder why he was being so secretive about their plans for tonight.
Chapter Seventeen
“I can’t believe you brought me here,” Alicia hissed glancing at the closed front door. “You know that I’m not welcomed at his house. How about we grab something and eat it at my place before I head back to work? I want to spend some extra alone time with you anyway.”
“No!” Brad snapped. “You are going to get over your fears of my family dinner starting tonight. There’s nothing to be afraid of and it’s about time you see that for yourself.”
Taking her by the hand, Brad opened the front door and dragged her in behind him. The instant Alicia hit the living room, the scent of a home cooked meal filled her senses while the sound of family laughter touched her ears.
“Come, let’s go and surprise everyone. They weren’t expecting me to bring a date.” Brad took her in the direction of the formal dining room before she could tell him no, so she just walked next to him.
Oh, Alicia bet that Brad’s family would be in for a hell of a surprise when they saw her walking into dinner with Brad. She was going to gain more shock than Sidney Poitier did in Guess Who’s Coming Dinner. She only prayed that things went better than she hoped.
“Sorry we’re late everyone, I had to stop so I could bring someone with me,” Brad said, interrupting the flow of conversation going on at the table.
Several pairs of eyes flew in their direction as all of Brad’s family members stopped talking to look at them. Alicia felt like an animal on display in the zoo. It was really weird. Alicia stood next to Brad as Lee glared at her from his seat at the head of the table. She didn’t have to guess what he was thinking, she already knew.
“Brad, you bought Alicia. It’s about time,” Traci said, grinning at them. “Take a seat you two and grab something to eat. As usual my sister fixed enough food to feed an army of guests and she knows that it’s usually just us having dinner.”
Alicia would rather have stayed in the doorway, but Brad gave her a small shove forcing her to walk and take a seat at the table.
“Hi, Traci and everyone else,” Alicia said. She wondered if everyone noticed her knees knocking together. She was so nervous, but she had to get over it. Brad loved spending time with his family and she wanted to enjoy this time with him. It would give her more of an insight into who he was and what made him the incredible man that he was.
“I didn’t think I would ever see you again after the way Lee treated you today,” Cherise said.
Cherise wasn’t too far off, Alicia thought.
She wasn’t in the mood to go round three with Lee again today. She crossed her fingers everything went smoothly for Brad’s sake. He thought so highly of all of his brothers and she wouldn’t want to do anything to change that.
“Like I said earlier, Lee has a right to his opinion, but that doesn’t mean that his aversion for me will keep me away from Brad. I like how I feel when I’m around Brad. He’s a wonderful man.”
“Nicely said,” Richard exclaimed. “You keep doing what you want. Lee just loves to hear himself talk. Ignore him and he’ll stop.”
Alicia couldn’t help but smile at Richard. Richard was right. Brad was a good guy, probably the last truly good guy she might meet in her life. She should have realized that before now, but she was going to do her best to make up for lost time and her stupidity.