Page 306 of The First Taste

She is openly crying right now. "What about the bookstore? Are you still going to work there with me?"

"Once the baby comes, I think it will be difficult. But we will see what we can work out. You can afford to hire whoever you want to work there now. It’ll be better than just hiring your niece, right?"

Minnie starts bawling.

She’s really tearing my heart into pieces. I know marrying Dare is for the best. But at the moment, it doesn’t really feel that way.

“Aunt Minnie.” She looks up at me, wiping her cheeks. I give her a soft smile. "My mind is made up. There is no use in crying about it. Honestly, I am a lucky girl. Dare wants to marry me, and I am thankful for that. The only real question is whether you are going to support me or not."

Minnie looks mortified. "Of course. Of course I will. Anything that you really want, I want for you."

"Thanks. Do you really mean that?"

She nods, her expression grave. "Here."

She fishes beneath the edge of her dark gray caftan, lifting a necklace. She unclasps it and pulls a dainty gold ring off it, a simple diamond solitaire glinting in the middle. She looks up at me and offers the ring to me.

"You never met my mother. But she was a wonderful woman. And she left this ring for us. I think she expected that your mother or I would get married and find a use for this ring. But… That’s not really how it went. But now I can pass it on to you."

I take the ring, blinking. "This was Grandma’s?"

She closes my fist around the ring and nods. "It was. Now it’s yours."

"Gosh, thanks." I give her another hug, feeling a little overwhelmed.

We peer out of the car and into the building. She looks at the doorman of the building, who is not even pretending that he is not watching our little drama play out. "Are you in that building?"

"I think so." I glance up at the huge building. It looks sort of vintage, like it was a factory at some point in the past.

Aunt Minnie pats her hair, still looking crestfallen. "Well, I hate to do this. But I actually have a shift at the Hope House that I am going to be late for if I don’t run along right now."

"Of course. Thank you for coming by. I don’t know the details about the wedding just yet, but I am sure that you will be the first to know. Well, maybe second. There’s always Olivia to consider."

She gives me a sad smile and pats my hand. "Make sure that he treats you well. You hear? That’s all that matters in the end."

I swallow and nod, opening the door. I’m ashamed to say that I wave goodbye and hurry across the street corner before she can say anything more.

She’s absolutely right, and if I had any choice, I would know better than to choose Dare.

Twenty-Seven

Talia

Taking the elevator to the penthouse, I swallow. I can’t help but run my hands over my hair and the short black dress I chose from the rolling rack that the glam squad left behind. I don’t know what to expect when I step through the doors, but the doors open and I move through them automatically, my eyes roving all around.

The entire loft is huge — absolutely monstrous. There are obscenely high ceilings with skylights, beautiful navy walls with twenty-foot floor-to-ceiling windows, and dark wood and tile flooring. Everything gleams; everything catches my eye.

To my right is a very stylish living room area that is separated from the rest of the house by thin rice paper walls. To my left, I see Dare leaning against the sparkling white countertop of a freestanding kitchen island that looks like a worn cement slab.

Dare is talking to a small, balding man in a dark wool sweater paired with black jeans. Dare’s almost completely ignoring him in favor of the figures that sit at the granite end of that cement island, their hulking figures taking up all the space around them.

One is dressed in an elegant white silk top and dark pants. From here, I can see that she is clearly a female, although I didn’t realize that women as tall and broad as her could also be rather refined and sophisticated. Her thick black hair is pinned up against her head, and she laughs at something that Dare says. Well, ‘chuckles’ is more like it.

Her counterpart is every bit as big as she is—massive like a tree trunk and tall as a skyscraper. He is dressed in black slacks, but he wears a slightly more casual black hoodie. Paired with his graying hair, it makes for a rather remarkable combination.

As I stand in the open living room, Dare looks over and spots me.

He raises his hand, hailing me. "Ah, the woman of the hour! Frick and Frack, meet Talia. Talia, meet Frick and Frack."