More Than Meets The Eye

More Than Meets The Eye -11-

Autumn had read numerous romance novels, watched endless marathons of romance comedies and chick flicks with Noelle, Opal and Jenna. She knew how the one girl neglected by others had gained the attention of the most popular or attractive boy in the story and they had somehow fallen in love.

It may have seemed like that but really, it sort of wasn’t – at the same time.

In fact, Autumn was one of the girls that had tried slightly to get his attention – Autumn merely wanting to know who the mysterious boy was.

And what about Will? Autumn’s nasty internal voice taunted her.

This is nothing related to that, Autumn thought back in the same snarky tone and raced into the dining room.

Unexpectedly, her parents had somehow managed to gain one of the dark-haired man’s attention and soon they were beckoning to Autumn.

A soft voice cleared itself behind her, causing her to spin around curiously.

“Oh,” she said dumbly, blank for a second. “Uh hi – I’m Autumn Pearce.” She stuck out a hand and the boy graciously took it. He was like one of those types who were likely to bow down and kiss your knuckles. Luckily he didn’t.

“Tristan Lucas,” he introduced with another crooked smile. “Join me for dinner?”

Her eyebrows shot up in an automatic response and all she could get out was a pathetic stutter. She was an actress for god’s sake – how could she stutter in front of one boy and yet not do the same in front of live TV or talk shows?! “U-Uh sure.”

Tristan led her over to her parents who looked absolutely flabbergasted. Tristan must have been a very important person or from an important family if her parents had doubted she would even get his attention!

“Tristan, nice of you to join us,” Harry said coolly, shooting Autumn a stern stare.

Autumn was confused; wasn’t he happy she managed to somehow bring Tristan to the table without even doing anything?

“Autumn, these people are the Lucas family,” Alana introduced, her voice ringing with confidence and pride. “They’re multimillionaires.”

Ahh money, she thought dryly. No wonder; all these people in this room after all after money – like money leeches.

“Tristan is eighteen years old and has been accepted into all the Ivy League Universities haven’t you?” Alana questioned, beaming. “Your brother must be very clever.”

“Oh he is, he always knows what goal to achieve and his dreams are big,” the dark-haired man said. He sat at Harry’s left and Autumn found it weird when she thought she detected some sort of alternative meaning to his words . . . “Hello Autumn. My name is Gill Lucas; I’m nine years older than my younger brother.” He shot an amused look to Tristan who returned a forced smile.

Yep that’s definitely forced; something’s going on, Autumns aid, her suspicions immediately raising.

Being the actress she was, she hid it with a fake smile and reached into her purse. Knowing her Blackberry like the back of her hand, she quickly called Will’s number as he was on speed dial.

“Sorry, I’ve got to take this,” she said apologetically and immediately found the little ladies’ room not too far away from the table where they sat. Both her parents gave her disapproving looks as she skipped out to the bathroom and pressed the phone to her ear. “Will?”

“Autumn!” Will exclaimed, sounding flustered. “I – uh . . . you all right?”

Autumn’s cheeks immediately flared, her eagerness deflating a notch. “Yeah – I’m at a dinner party with my parents. I’ve just met this Lucas family and Tristan and his older brother Gill is sitting with us.”