Falling With Grace

Rosa picked up her fork. “How was your outing, Nadia?”

Nadia’s stiff as Botox expression morphed into a phony smile. “Well, Laura brought her Fendi instead of a Birkin and then tried to blame it on her butler.” She laughed while the table remained silent. “I doubt she even owns a Hermès item.”

What’s a Hermès?

Is it a reticulated python?

“And how is Patrice? I know her daughter was sick with…what was it? Lyme’s Disease?”

“No. That was Lydia’s daughter, Carla.”

“Right. Right.” Rosa bit into her food as I shoved mine around.

A soft nudge hit my right ankle.

My stomach churned as though I were on a busy sea, the oceans angry with my sins—my focus down on the food I couldn’t eat.

Don’t make me look at you.

Another nudge moved my foot.

Elias and I shared glances amidst Rosa and Nadia’s rapid Spanish exchange, my conflicted mind catching every other word.

“What did you do today, Grace? Besides sifting through old photographs?”

My pulse erupted in my ears. I sat up straight, my name foreign to my ears. “I…um…” Tingles traveled up my spine and neck, settling into my hairline. “Not much.”

She giggled before placing a dainty bite into her mouth. “Sounds difficult.”

“Yeah.” I frowned, my brows scrunched together as the General flashed in my mind’s eye. “May I be excused? I’m not feeling so well.”

“Nadia…” Elias growled.

“What?” She lifted her wine glass and reclined in her seat with a nonchalant laugh. “Can’t I talk with her? Is she so off-limits that only you can know about her?”

“You know that’s not true.”

“Nadia, please.” Rosa placed a hand on Nadia’s arm.

“I’m just curious, is all. You all seem so smitten with a girl I don’t even know.” She sipped her wine and exhaled. “I mean, you’re so busy I barely get time with you to make wedding plans, but she…” Her finger jabbed in my direction. “She gets to sit in your office and reminisce with you.”

I winced as thephotographs flashed through my mind. Tucking my hands into my lap, I hunched my shoulders and bit into my cheek.

“That was business.”

“And what kind of business requires the opinion of this girl?”

I glanced at Javier, his little jab swarming back to the surface. He put a bite into his mouth as if there wasn’t a nuclear bomb about to explode at the table.

Is that how he gets through these dinners?

I cut a large bite and plopped it into my mouth, busying myself like him.

“What’s gotten into you lately?” Elias dropped his fork to his plate. “Are wedding plans causing you too much stress? Should we delay it?”

Mole traveled down my throat, and I coughed into my hand before grabbing my napkin and covering my mouth.

Nadia’s eyes widened. “You don’t mean that.” Her hand landed on his arm as she sidled up to him, her demeanor shifting to feigned sadness that had me raising a brow. “Maybe I just need a night out with you. You’ve been so busy. I feel like I’m sharing you.”