THE DARE (G!P Freenbecky)

Chapter 26

"Does your grandfather put on a show like this every year for the animals?" Freen said, reaching for her wineglass. Becky seemed to relax back into her chair, and that fuzzy, cream-colored dog in her lap started to nod off. Freen glanced over at Mr. LePew, who had just finished his avocado salad and was curled up in his chair, quite content.

"He loves it. He loves animals. It's a total joy to him, every single minute of this. Now all he has left to worry about is whether he'll raise enough money with the auction."

"What are they going to auction off?" Freen asked, genuinely interested.

"Animals from the shelter."

That reassured her. As she was living in a hotel room and had no place to keep an animal, Freen knew she wouldn't even be tempted to bid for a pet, no matter how cute the puppy or kitten turned out to be. Nope, Mr. LePew was enough of her, and she'll return the baby skunk to Danielle in the morning, as planned.

Their waiter came and expertly removed their salad plates, while another young man placed their dinners in front of them. As Freen didn't normally eat vegetarian cuisine, she asked the waiter for a quick clarification.

"That, Ms, is an artichoke, celery root, and potato gratin, with a golden crust of bread crumbs."

"It looks fabulous," Freen said, picking up her dinner fork.

The casserole was incredibly good.

"This is first class," she said, after her first mouthful.

"At a thousand dollars a plate, my grandfather believes he has a certain responsibility to go all out. There are four courses to the dinner, including the salad. And he always lets me pick out the dessert."

"That I can't wait to see," Freen took another bite of the gratin, chewed, and swallowed. "So there's more after this?"

"One more main course. You'll like it."

Mr. LePew has woken out of his sound sleep and was eyeing Freen's plate.

"It must be because he's French," Freen teased Becky. "He must have smelled all the butter in the sauce."

She was rewarded by her laughter, then Freen took a tiny piece of the casserole and transferred it to the skunk's plate. Pepe happily gobbled it down.

"Only the finest cuisine for our French friend."

"It's also all organic," Becky said. "Absolutely everything on your plate tonight. That's part of why it tastes so good."

"Your grandfather's a pretty progressive guy."

"You don't know the half of it."

The next course arrived, portobello mushrooms with pappardelle pasta, and Freen could smell the rich pasta sauce with its garlic, tomato paste, red wine, cream, and rosemary.

"Where did your grandfather get this food?" Freen said as she forked up another bite of pasta.

"He eats a largely vegetarian diet at his age. His doctor recommended it. So he knows a lot of the best vegetarian restaurants in the city. And this city is known for its food."

"I can see why," Freen couldn't believe they were actually having a civilized conversation. And she began to hope. They could build on this; she wasn't that bad of a woman, Becky could learn to like her.

Freen glanced over at her grandfather's table and saw Danielle studying the two of them. She gave her a wink, and Freen smiled at her before turning her attention back to Becky.

Becky truly looked stunning tonight. Very few women could wear black successfully, but it was the perfect way to set off that gleaming brunette hair. And that short skirt! Those dancer's legs! Freen consciously refused to go there, back to those memories of her legs and how they'd felt wrapped around her as she'd —