Love the Second Time Around

Chapter 144 Always Thinking of Him

I gave him an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Uncle Frank. Dominic won’t be drinking. I’ll get him some juice later.”

Uncle Frank frowned. “I don’t blame you for not knowing your liquor, Lili, but this whiskey here is the good stuff. I specially bought it for this occasion. And you know it’s a family tradition for us men to toast each other at the family gathering.”

I tried to let Uncle Frank down easy. “I’m so sorry, but he really—”

Grandfather harrumphed loudly. “Lili, don’t coddle him. If he wants to drink, drink. If he doesn’t want to, he should say it himself rather than hiding behind his girlfriend.”

“Grandpa…” I pouted.

Dominic’s hand covered mine, taking it off the glass. “I’m fine.” He gave me a reassuring squeeze before addressing Uncle Frank. “I’ll have a glass, thank you.”

“Now we’re talking.” Pleased, the latter filled more than half the glass. “There you go.”

When Uncle Frank moved on to his next target, I elbowed Dominic in his ribs. “Did you forget about what happened the last time?” I hissed in annoyance. “We’re in the countryside. It’s a long way to a hospital if you get alcohol poisoning again.”

Although we did have the local doctor, a proper hospital would be quite out of the way.

Dominic’s expression was calm. “I know what I’m doing.”

As if! Internally, I was throwing my hands up in chagrin. If that were true, you wouldn’t have been hospitalized in the first place, nor would Benjamin and Yvonne tell me you’d nearly drunk yourself into an early grave.

Unable to resist, I pinched his leg under the table. “Just this one glass, okay?” I said warningly. “No seconds.”

He smirked. “Are you henpecking me?”

am?” I glared at him, peeved by his devil-may-care attitude when his health was at stake. “No seconds, and that’s

teasingly. “What sweet nothings are you two whispering? Keep your pillow talk to another

In retrospect, Dominic and I did act

right, enough talking, more eating,”

and the clinking of glasses filled the room. There was one thing Uncle Frank was right about—it was in fact a tradition in this household for the men to drink and make toasts during a family

the day, when his health was

dad, on the other hand, was a social drinker and only imbibed alcohol when Grandfather was

ago, the doctor had told him to cut back on liquor, much to his

was born—Grandfather was allowed to indulge in his drinks during special occasions where our family

was currently imbibing had me frown in concern. It’s true that it’s a special occasion, and he could cut loose a

non-alcoholic, okay?” I passed him a glass of juice and raised my own by way of toasting. “Cheers to your good health,

okay. I promise I’ll stop after your boyfriend over there downed a

as if daring him to

with alcohol. He was hospitalized one time because he

some slack, but I forgot that in the eyes of someone like my grandfather, who used to guzzle booze as freely as he breathed, being “not good with alcohol” was effectively

insisted for Dominic to drink, he had instead found something else to pick on the latter—more specifically, that he

in amused exasperation, I watched Dominic nod amicably in response to Grandfather’s chiding before promising that

last part, he looked at me with a

 He’d better not put in any more hours in the gym! If his stamina becomes any better in bed, I’d probably

I cared about him. Aunt Vivienne, in particular,

laughed good-naturedly while I feigned

atmosphere lasted for the rest of

Grandfather retired to his room, but not before telling Dominic very sternly that the latter must sleep