Her eyes welled with tears all over again.
“So, the plan is simple,” Calvin said as he plucked a roasted carrot off Nina’s plate and popped it into his mouth. “We make an honest woman out of you.”
Nina almost choked on the over-chewed piece of lamb in the back of her throat. Carefully, she managed to swallow. “We what?”
Calvin leered, his half smile revealing coffee-stained molars on one side. “Look, it would be simple. Your family already thinks we’ve been seeing each other for several months.”
“Well, yes. Only because you told them that.”
Nina cringed again, remembering the awkward meeting. When she had asked him to take her home, she’d only meant to her building, not all the way up to her grandmother’s Park Avenue penthouse. He’d promptly introduced himself as Nina’s “beau,” like they were characters in an Edith Wharton novel, not twenty-first-century humans. Grandmother had eyed his sweaty, unwashed hand like he was handing her a rotten fish. And then she had turned her gaze to Nina with surprise. And disbelief. And then…disappointment.
“I took the heat off you when you disappeared for the day, didn’t I?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“And haven’t I been here since, helping you through the most difficult time in your life?”
“I suppose, but, Calvin—”
He shook his head. “I’m not going to be made a fool of, Nina. Not by you or anyone else. I’ve come too far.”
She frowned. He had only told her once that he was from somewhere in New Jersey, but beyond that, Nina really knew nothing about his origins except when he made statements like these. He said it wasn’t important, and she never pressed. But it didn’t exactly help the perception that he was the social climber others accused him of being. Especially when she had no idea what he was climbing from.
Calvin polished off another oily carrot from her plate, then caught her examining him. He leaned over the table, his tie hanging dangerously above his empty, but still grease-spotted plate. “Don’t think I’m good enough for you, princess?”
Nina paused, unsure how to answer the question. To anyone else, she might have said “No, of course not!” as vociferously as she could manage, but that would have been more for their comfort than for the sake of honesty. Because she was different from the average person. And she had no reason to question that either.
Her family was one of the oldest in New York, but it went beyond that. Celeste de Vries was the first woman in their four-hundred-year history to retain the title of Chairman of the Board of De Vries Shipping Industries while she waited for her grandson to come of age and inherit his birthright. Countless times, Nina had watched her grandmother handle the sniveling, self-righteous, insecure men who considered themselves titans of their class and of the city. Men who had questioned her every move. She’d torn them all to shreds.
Through all of that, she had raised Eric and Nina. Together.
Still…Nina was not her grandmother. She would never be Celeste de Vries. And it was time to be honest. In all likelihood, she would also never live up to the impossible standards this family set for her.
Nina forced herself to meet Calvin’s eye. “I—of course not. You’ve been very kind to me, Calvin. I’d never say otherwise.”
He relaxed, plucked an oil-soaked beet from her plate, and sat back again. “Good. Then we’re clear.”
Nina frowned. “What? But I—”
“But you what, princess?”
Nina frowned at the cold hunk of meat on her plate. He wasn’t really going to make her say this, was he?
He was.
“To be honest, I really only ever imagined myself marrying someone for love,” she told her food. And immediately flushed red. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to take them back.
Not because they were wrong. Nina did feel that way. But there again was Peppe, his kind, weathered face crinkled with a melancholy smile. Wondering at her naivety, even if he never said anything out loud.
Nina felt as though her chest was twisted into a solid knot. Love. What did that matter now, when the man who owned her heart wasn’t someone she could ever have? Especially in a world where most of the women she knew married for reasons that had nothing to do with their hearts. The notion now seemed childish. Like she was, in fact, the naive young princess Calvin accused her of being.
Calvin looked at Nina like he was sorry for her. “Good lord, did you think I meant forever?”
Nina looked up. “Um, I—I’m sorry, what do you mean by that?”
“I meant temporarily, you silly girl. Obviously this would be an arrangement. We’d share an apartment—separate rooms, of course—for a year or two. However long you think it would take for the bloom to fall off the rose or whatever so I can make an exit that won’t land you in the papers for too long. What do you think your grandmother would prefer? Divorce after a year or a baby out of wedlock?”
It sounded so crass, the way he said it. Nina’s first thought was neither.
As if he could read her mind, Calvin clapped a wide, moist palm on top of Nina’s, its heavy weight trapping hers to the linen tablecloth.
Nina had to fight not to pull her hand away. “And what do you get out of this?”
Calvin shrugged. “It’s simple. I know you’ve been asking around about me, princess. You’re not that subtle, you know.”
Nina had the grace to blush. To whom had he been talking?
“And you’re at least smart enough to know I’ve got some irons in the fire, since you keep asking about them. But I need connections to make them happen.” Calvin shrugged as he finally removed his hand, though he swiped an oil-soaked potato from her plate and popped it in his mouth. “So, you get to avoid disgracing your family and keep your good name. I get to be a part of the de Vrieses, if only for a little while, and I’ll have some doors opened that I need right now.” His face darkened significantly. “Unless you’re looking for a repeat of what happened to your cousin?”
Nina swallowed. The family hadn’t even come close to recovering from that debacle. Eric continued to go rogue, so to speak—currently gallivanting his way around California, as far as Nina could tell from friends—and Page Six was still having a field day speculating about the city’s missing heir.
Calvin knew just as well as she did that her family was not to be trifled with. And that her grandmother wouldn’t take to another scandal.
“I will be a success in this life, Nina,” Calvin said. “It’s the only thing worth doing right.”
Nina opened her mouth to ask what exactly he meant by that, but before she could, they were interrupted.
“N? Nina, is that you?”
Nina turned with shock to find her best friend, Caitlyn Calvert, weaving her way between the tables.
They had formed a friendship as children when Caitlyn received a scholarship at her preparatory academy, where she had boarded instead of commuting from her hometown of Paterson. She had even stayed with Nina’s family several times when her own home life had been more…difficult.
Even so, the girls had somewhat drifted apart over the last few years. Nina had gone away to college, but Caitlyn had stayed put on the Upper East Side, by what means, Nina really wasn’t sure. Now, however, Caitlyn looked…different. While they had both grown up over the last few years, the short, pudgy girl with unruly brown hair, a slightly crooked nose, and even more crooked teeth had disappeared. Everything was straightened and bleached, and she must have lost at least twenty pounds since Nina left for Florence. Her glossy hair was now closer to dark caramel than black coffee. In fact, Caitlyn would have been nearly unrecognizable had it not been for that voice.