As they all dined together, everyone around the table had different thoughts running through their mind even as they conversed.
While Sonia and Bryan were filled with joy at the prospect of beginning the forever journey with each other, Lucy was joyful on Sonia's behalf but couldn't stop thinking about Tom's question to her.
What would be a dream come true for her? It seemed like with each passing day she was getting more thought-provoking questions that she had no answers to.
Tom who was seated beside her, was wondering how he would propose to Lucy if ever she eventually decided to get married to him. He knew it was risky to have such hopeful thoughts, but he couldn't help it.
Knowing how private Lucy could be, he doubted that she would want such an engagement party. She would most likely want a quiet proposal with just the both of them.
Tom's lips twitched as he imagined proposing to her and making love to her after she accepted. He would rather do that himself than sit like this to eat with a bunch of people no matter what their relationship was. They could always dine together on their wedding day, it just didn't have to be on their engagement hour.
Seated beside Tom, Harry was busy thinking about all that he needed to put in place so he could leave with Jade on their vacation.
It had been such a long time since the last time he had taken a leave from work, and even the while on the so-called leave, he had been busy working but not just from the office.
It didn't matter that he had traveled to one of the best vacation spot in the world to spend his time away from work. He had almost been drive crazy by the idleness and boredom of not doing anything.
He had no doubt that with Jade it would be easy to laze around and do nothing but give his whole attention to her. Even with his busy schedule right now, she had no problem stealing his attention and thoughts. That had never been a problem with Jade. By simply being in the same space with him, she had his attention.
His lips twitched as his thoughts drifted to the image of her joining him naked in the bathroom the previous day. She was crazy. Crazier than he had thought, and as amusing as it was, it was cute.
Her annoyance at his reaction had actually amused him more even though he had actually thought she was mind-blowingly sexy, if there was such a word to qualify it.
If only she knew the number of women who had tried to seduce him over the years, then she would understand that his self-control was more about himself than it was about her.
Seated beside Harry, Jade was imagining Harry's proposal to her. Even though she knew she was running ahead of herself she just could not help it.
"How do you intend to propose to me?" Jade asked as she turned to look at Harry and he chuckled.
"When it's time I will figure it out, and you will know," Harry said, and she scowled.
Harry leaned closer to her so he could whisper into her ears. "You shouldn't scowl. You look better, smiling, laughing, blushing, or having an orgasm," Harry said and Jade gasped in shock as color flooded her face and Harry chuckled as he returned his attention to his meal
Candace looked around the table as she ate and one again she was overwhelmed by the sort of people she had in her life now. Was she daydreaming or was she really a part of this cycle?
A couple of weeks ago she never would have imagined that her life would take such a turn, but thanks to Matt, it had.
If he hadn't shown up in her life when he did and reunited her with Jade, she would probably still be in hiding by now or maybe something worse could have happened to her, after all Cassidy and Jero had managed to find them.
And even if thanks to Jero she would still have known she had a family, she would never have tried to dig deeper to know it was Aaron and Harry. She never would have even made an attempt to contact them if Jade hadn't convinced her to.
Here she was now. Seated with these lovely people, enjoying a quiet dinner in celebration of love.
She looked down when she felt Matt trailing a finger on her thigh and then she glanced at him, wondering what he was up to.
"How about we sneak off so you can show me what you're wearing underneath your beautiful dress?" he whispered to her with a blank face.
"Pervert!" she hissed playfully, trying not to look amused as she caught Sonia's gaze on them, and Sonia winked at her.
She couldn't believe that even at this important moment, Sonia was busy focusing on her interaction with Matt. Never had she seen a busybody like Jade and Sonia in her entire life.
Mia was unusually silent as she ate, and Harry did not miss that. Neither did he miss the fact that all evening she had tried not to be within his line of vision. He was going to make sure to have a word with her before leaving.
Unlike the others, Jeff was more interested in eating to his satisfaction, so his whole attention was focused on the meal.
Alicia and Jasmine on the other hand, busied with checking out the videos and pictures they had captured so they could sort them and show it to Bryan and Sonia before leaving.
The plan was to release the news of their engagement that night after they left there.
Once they were done with dinner and were having dessert, Jade cleared her throat so that every other conversation around the table would seize.
"I understand that this is your engagement party, but since everyone involved is gathered here right now do you mind if we discuss Rebekah Miller's coming interview?" Jade asked, looking at Sonia and Bryan for permission.
Bryan turned to Sonia and she shrugged, "I don't see why not. It's not like all the conversations going on around the table was focused on us anyway," Sonia said with a grin.
"It's this week, isn't? I haven't been paying much attention," Tom muttered to Harry who was seated next to him.
"We both know you have more important things to worry about. Leave stuff like that to us who don't have babymama dramas," Harry whispered back and chuckled when Tom glared at him.
"So, what do we need to know about the interview?" Lucy asked curiously and Jade filled them in on everything that had happened thus far and her plan for the interview.
"We still haven't discussed the possible questions we need to ask her yet," Alicia reminded them, glancing at Tom.
"That should be the easiest part. We have to come up with questions about motherhood and being the wife of Richard. Just something to keep her occupied with her lies until the police shows up to put the cuffs on her," Jade said and Sonia smiled.
"You can leave the questions to me. Alicia, I will text you the questions by morning," Sonia said and Alicia gave her a nod.
"Although I wish Anita would be on that stage with her mother after all she did, but I guess it's a good thing she turned a new leaf," Sonia muttered and they chuckled.
"How many of us are going to be attending that interview?" Jade asked curiously.
"Since Anita won't be there, I'm not sure I'm interested anymore. I'll rather watch the show from my office," Lucy said, and Tom nodded.
"Me too."
"I will definitely be there. I don't want to miss the drama," Sonia said with a grin.
"That settles it then. The three of us will be there. Candace, you'll be joining us, I trust you don't have an appointment to meet with any friend at that time," Jade said, and Candace rolled her eyes while Matt chuckled.
"Mr. Jonas?" Alicia called politely since this was her first time interacting with Harry unlike the others.
Harry raised a brow as he turned to her, "How can I help you?" he asked, and Jade grinned at the coolness of his tone.
Harry was obviously not one to just let anyone into his cycle whether or not he was sharing a meal with them at the same table. He had heard all about how nosy Alicia could be and he had enough nosy people in his life already. There was no room to accommodate more.
Alicia cleared her throat, feeling slightly unnerved by his coldness, "I was hoping you would be willing to grant me an interview concerning the issue that has been going on for some time now about Sara Walker being your mother," she said politely and everyone stopped what they were doing to look at Harry.
Jeff and Mia were the only two people at the table, apart from the gay couple, who had no idea about the relationship between Harry and Sara and they definitely didn't know about Candace's relationship with Harry either.
"Alicia, I didn't invite you here to do this," Bryan said, when he saw that Tom was clearly displeased by Alicia's manners.
"We are sorry," Jasmine apologized immediately she sensed the tension that had taken over the air and pinched Alicia to do the same.
"I'm sorry. I didn't think before speaking," Alicia said, wondering if they seemed upset by the subject because it was true.
"I believe you thought before speaking, but you just didn't think your request would be met with such a response," Harry said before Tom could speak.
He did not miss the fact that she didn't seem genuinely apologetic about doing what she did.
"No, I..."
"I will grant you an exclusive interview if only you go can dig into Sara Walker's life on your own and confirm whether or not the rumors are true. If you're able to do that and come up with any tangible evidence on your own, I will grant you an exclusive interview and tell you everything," Harry promised, interrupting Alicia.
"You will?" Alicia asked excitedly.
"I will," Harry said as he met Candace's questioning gaze.
He gave her a subtle nod, asking her not to worry. He doubted that Alicia would be able to uncover anything meaningful they didn't already know about Sara, but if she ended up doing so, then it would be an advantage for them.
As much as he didn't like Alicia's nosy personality, he had loved how she handled Lucy's interview and got her to talk about her past. Maybe Candace would need someone like that too when it was time to introduce her officially to the world as his sister.
He believed that Alicia had enough empathy to make both Candace and the public understand that Candace had done what she needed to do to survive and there was no shame in anything she had done.
Jade placed her hand over Harry's and squeezed gently. Maybe it was because she had spent too much time in his company some how she could guess what he was thinking.
Once they were done and everyone was ready to leave, Harry cornered Mia before she could get into Jasmine's car since they had come together.
"You've been deliberately avoiding me, haven't you?" Harry asked from behind Mia, and she spun around to face him, slightly startled.
"What? No! Why would I do that?" she asked, looking flushed.
"That's the exact same thing I've been wondering. Why would you do that when you can easily tell me where we first met. Or would you rather I hire someone to look into you?" Harry asked, and Mia swallowed.
"No. No! I wasn't avoiding you. And all of that is not necessary," Mia said, and Harry nodded.
"I don't want to keep the others waiting. I will be expecting you in my office tomorrow. If you don't show up before noon, I'll assume you want me to dig into you," Harry said and walked away without letting her say anything else.
Mia raised a hand to massage her temple as she watched him walk away. She would rather tell him who she was herself than have him dig into her life. Since she had no idea how much digging would be done or what they might find.
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