The Reluctant Cinderella Read Online Free Page B

Greg pressed some bills into the driver’s palm. “We’ll be awhile. I’ll call for you when we’re ready to go.”
    â€œGood enough, Mr. Banning.” Jerry tipped his chauffeur’s cap and got back behind the wheel.
    After the heat of the summer day, the restaurant was cool and dim and inviting. The hostess called Greg by name and took them to a corner table. Even with half of Manhattan out of town, the place was almost full. “Must be popular,” Megan said to Greg once the hostess had left them.
    â€œIt is. Deservedly so.” The wine steward appeared. He and Greg conferred briefly. The steward nodded and left, reappearing a moment later with bottle of chenin blanc. There was pouring and tasting. Finally, the wine guy left. Greg held up his glass. “To Design Solutions. Much success.”
    Oh, well. One glass wouldn’t hurt. And she was pretty much finished working for the day, anyway. She touched her glass to his. “To success.” Shesipped. The wine was excellent. “Umm. Wonderful. Too wonderful….”
    â€œIs that bad?”
    She couldn’t help laughing. “Not in the least.”
    He leaned a little closer across the snowy white tablecloth. “You are amazing. You know that?”
    A curl of alarm tightened inside her. She ordered it gone. He wasn’t putting a move on her. No way. It was just a compliment. No big deal. “People from the neighborhood are always surprised when I happen to run into them during working hours.”
    â€œOn Danbury Way you always seemed so…”
    She laughed again. “I believe the word you’re looking for is shy? Or maybe bland? Or just plain dumpy…”
    He pretended to look injured. “Did I say that?”
    â€œYou didn’t have to—and I confess, okay? In the neighborhood I do like to, er, play it low-key.”
    He sipped from his wine. “Why?”
    â€œHabit, I guess. And, oh, I don’t know. Everyone at home sees me a certain way. And I don’t disillusion them.”
    â€œBut if it’s not the real you…”
    It seemed so natural to lean toward him, to brush the back of his hand with light fingers, to enjoy the lazy, pleasured feel of that brief touch. “But it is the real me.”
    He frowned, though his eyes had a teasing light in them. “Then who is it I’m sitting across from right now?”
    She shrugged. “This is me, too.”
    â€œAh,” he said, but he still looked doubtful.
    She explained further. “They’re both me. I guess this is more the new me—and at home, I’m pretty much the old me. If that makes any sense.”
    â€œI’ll take the new you.”
    Before she could come up with a suitably lighthearted reply, the waiter appeared.
    After they ordered, Greg asked how she’d come to live over her sister’s garage. She explained about wanting to put everything she had into starting up her company. “That was three years ago,” she said. “And Angela and her ex, Jerome, were calling it quits. My moving into the apartment at her house worked out for everyone. Angela and the kids can use the extra money I pay in rent, and I get a nice, reasonably priced place to live. I can zip back from Poughkeepsie at four most days and stay with the kids after school until Ange gets home from work. Then, if I have anything that won’t wait, I hop the train and head back to the office to put in a few hours in the evening.”
    And why was she telling him all this? As if it mattered in the least to Greg Banning how she and Angela juggled child care and the necessity of bringing home a paycheck.
    He remarked in a tone that said he really was interested, “Sounds like a tight schedule.”
    â€œIt is. For both Angela and me. But we manage….”
    â€œYou’re smiling. I think you love your sister a lot.”
    â€œYeah. I do. She’s my best