Beautiful Entourage by E. L. Todd Page A

extra fudge.” She said it quickly like she’d been eager to order for a while.
    “You got it,” he said. “Two spoons?”
    “Uh, no…” She shot me an apprehensive look then turned back to the guy. “That’s just for me.”
    “Oh.” He seemed embarrassed by the assumption. “And you, sir?”
    “I’ll have the same,” I said. “And one spoon.”
    “Wow, you’re going to eat all of that, Mr. Perfect?” she asked.
    “When did I ever say I was perfect?” I countered.
    She made her voice deep and imitated me. “When I’m upset, I run. I founded a successful company all on my own. Modeling? That’s beneath me…”
    I knew she was kidding so I wasn’t offended. “You hit the nail right on the head.”
    “I know.” She moved to the register and opened her wallet.
    I quickly handed the guy a twenty. “Keep the change, man.”
    “Why are you paying?” she asked. “I hired you for the evening.”
    “I may be working but I’m still a gentleman,” I said. “And you needed a treat after that night.” I carried our sundaes to a table then took off my jacket to get more comfortable.
    She eyed my shirt for a moment before she dug into her sundae. She didn’t eat it slowly or with tiny bites like most women. She scarfed it down, eating it before it started to melt. I couldn’t count the number of times I took a girl out for ice cream and her cup melted because she ate so slowly or didn’t eat it at all.
    “Who taught you to eat ice cream?” I asked.
    “Pardon?”
    I nodded to her sundae. “You know your way around a spoon.”
    “I usually get ice cream with Harper, and if I don’t eat fast, I don’t eat. You catch my drift?”
    “I think so,” I said with a smile.
    She finished before me, and then she eyed the cherry sitting in my bowl. She gave me a look that said, “That’s mine.”
    I dropped it in her bowl. “It’s all yours, sweetheart.”
    She ate both of her cherries. “Delicious. I could eat a whole bottle of these.”
    “They sell them at the grocery store.”
    “But that’s a slippery slope,” she said. “First it would be the cherries…and then it would be the ice cream…and then it would be the chocolate syrup. Before I knew what happened, there would be an ice cream bar in my house.”
    “Harper and I would be there all the time,” I said.
    She laughed loudly, her eyes watering.
    I didn’t think my comment was that funny.
    She dabbed her wet eyes with a napkin. “Sorry. I just imagined the three of us sitting in my apartment with a real ice cream bar. I found it hilarious for some reason.”
    I ate my ice cream while I smiled, which was hard to do. “I’m glad I could make you laugh. I think it’s better than any poison.”
    “And it’s a good workout for the abs. If I didn’t laugh, I’d be all flab.”
    I doubted that. “So, what’s next?”
    She dropped her plastic spoon in her empty cup. “Well, he liked you—a lot. That’s a good start. Honestly, I feared he wouldn’t. But you handled it very well.”
    “When you have something in common, it’s easy to find something to talk about,” I said. “And people usually like people they can relate to.”
    “True.”
    “Hopefully this moves you in the right direction.”
    “I think it will.” Her eyes looked distant, like she was thinking about something deep and complex. Then she turned her eyes on me, the trance broken. “Thank you so much. It’s nice to feel in control again.”
    Her sincerity caught me off guard. “No problem.” I held her gaze, entranced by the green eyes that were so vibrant they looked fake.
    “As soon as that company is mine, I won’t have to stress about him anymore. I can make the right decisions for everyone. And I’m going to fire that pathetic excuse I call my brother.”
    “Yeah…Lance was a peach.”
    She chuckled but it was in a sad way. “If you can believe it, he was worse when he was younger.”
    “No, I can,” I said without hesitation.
    She laughed