Free Sculpting Grace: A Light Romance Novel (Art of Grace Book 2) by Samantha Westlake Page B

said to her when she opened her mouth to protest. "Come on, won't that be better than a man? We could go to Uncle Vito's Pizzeria, right around the corner, get a big basket of bread sticks..."
    "Rather have a man stick than a bread stick," Portia muttered sullenly, but she let me tug her along and over to the restaurant where, fortunately, we managed to snag an open table. I quickly flagged down the first waitress to stick her head out of the kitchen and placed orders for both of us.
    Twenty minutes later, I finished off the oversized slice of thin crust pepperoni pizza on the plate in front of me, savoring how the melted little strands of mozzarella cheese stretched all the way from the plate up to my mouth. I probably didn't look the slightest bit attractive as I wolfed down the pizza, but it tasted amazing, the heat radiating out from inside my stomach.
    "Okay, fine, this is a bit better," Portia admitted as she finished off the last of a bread stick. She'd also ordered a slice of pizza, but half of it still sat on the plate in front of her. I admired her self-restraint, but knew that I could never match that level in my own life.
    "Feeling a bit less drunk?" i asked her, and she nodded.
    "Yeah. The bread helps." She frowned down at the end of the bread stick. "I'm going to have to go on an extra-long run tomorrow morning to burn all of this off."
    I made sure that she saw me roll my eyes at her, and she smirked. "You could come with me, you know," she went on. "Why not give running a try? It has so many health benefits, and after a week or two of getting into the swing of things, it really does feel so much better. I can't stand to miss a day, now."
    "No, I think I'll stick to my normal workout regimen," I replied.
    "What, lying around and complaining about how you never work out?"
    I pointed a finger across the table at her. "Got it in one."
    She sighed. "You really would look and feel so much better if you let me drag you off to the gym, at least a few times a week."
    Not wanting to get caught in this discussion, one that we'd had many times before, I instead turned my attention over to the list that de St. James had given me. "So anyway, back to this list," I said, patting my purse where I'd tucked the sheet away. "Item number one on the list is social media. What do you think he wants me to do for it?"
    "Does he even have any?"
    I frowned, thinking back. "I don't think so, actually - at least, I tried to look him up on Facebook and a couple other sites, trying to find out more information about him, but I couldn't find anything. Maybe he doesn't have any, and he needs me to set them up for him?"
    "Your guess is as good as mine," Portia replied, looking down at her piece of pizza with a curiously conflicted expression on her face.
    I leaned in, grinning at her with my most wicked smile. "Oh, go ahead and finish off the rest of it. You know that you want to eat it. You only live once, and life's too short to not enjoy good pizza!"
    "You know, you're just repeating the words of the little devil sitting on my shoulder," Portia told me with a sigh, but her eyes didn't leave the pizza. "I'm supposed to just live vicariously through you, not let you start influencing my decisions as well."
    I shrugged. "You want me to eat the pizza then, and you can just watch enviously from the other side of the table?"
    I started to reach out to steal her slice away from her, but Portia caught at my wrist. Considering her long, slender fingers and arms, she had surprising grip strength in her hand as she held me back. "How about we split it?" she reluctantly suggested.
    With the help of one of the butter knives stuck into the basket in the middle of the table alongside shakers of hot pepper flakes and Parmesan cheese, we cut the remainder of Portia's pizza slice in half. I polished my quarter off in a minute or less, and then watched as Portia did the same to hers.
    "Don't you feel so much better, now that it's not sitting in front of you