“I’m not buying a single second of this, you know. I am one hundred percent certain your sister texted you before she even left the ballroom. I had to meet a member of your family, and I had to do it without you by my side, so I deserve to know what she said.” He leaned over and kissed her on the lips. “Come on, I’m dying here.”

She shook her head and laughed.

“Damn it, you’re giving me those puppy dog eyes again. Fine, she liked you.”

He waited, but she didn’t say anything else.

“ ‘She liked you’? That’s all I get? No, absolutely not, I know there was more to it.” Olivia glanced toward her phone, and he reached for it.

“Come on, there was a lot more. Just for that ‘she liked you,’ you have to show me the texts!”

Olivia laughed and unlocked her phone.

“There was just one text, right after she met you, and fine, you can see it.”

Just met you know who! You probably figured out that I was a little skeptical of him, but I was impressed; good speech, not an asshole behind the scenes like most people like him would be, was polite to me even before he realized I was your sister (and then gave me a big smile once he did realize). As hot as he is on TV, too.

Oh, but I know what you meant about his shoes.

Saw him again on the way out! Can’t wait to meet him again, this time with you there too!

“What about my shoes?”

Olivia snatched the phone back from him.

“Shit, there was only one text the last time I looked! I was working and I didn’t see the other two come in!”

He frowned at her.

“I believe you, but what does she mean, she knows what you meant about my shoes? What’s wrong with my shoes?”

Olivia sighed and pointed at his shoes.

“Those brown suede shoes of yours. They’re terrible, Max. I’m sorry you had to find out this way, but I keep wanting to sneak into your closet and throw them away. How is it that you have such great suits and such terrible shoes?”

He turned to look at the shoes in question and then back to Olivia.