She was looking at him, and looking earnest with her eyes wide, and Declan was really struggling with this. Tess was going to laugh and laugh at him, when he went back to Whitby & Co. and told her about it. Declan was ready to make his excuses and leave, because he was staring at Miss Farris and not managing an answer, and if he couldn't answer her then he could hardly make small talk until her father was home.

Except Mr. Farris could be angry. And if Mr. Farris was angry, it would be bad for Tess, and bad for Declan, and Fabian and probably also the Whitby girls would make fun of him.

Declan swallowed. He took a sip of his tea, and swallowed that. So finally he managed, "If you don't mind sitting with me, I can certainly wait for Mr. Fa — your father." Calling him Mr. Farris to his daughter was weird, right? He didn't know. He didn't talk to debutantes. Why had they landed on him for this?

"It is the newest proof of one of his chapters," Declan added, because if he had answered one of her questions it seemed important to answer all of them. "We edited the font for the page number as he requested, too — I did the adjustments myself."