All shades, including blonde

Noah shook the offered hand, immediately regretting it as the minister's grip tightened to just shy of painful. "Minister Reign. It's an honor."

"I understand my daughter delivered a message to you some time ago," the minister said, his tone conversational despite the vice-like grip he maintained on Noah's hand. "About dinner. I don't believe I received a response."

Noah felt heat rise to his face. Sophie had indeed mentioned her father's invitation—multiple times—and he'd found increasingly creative ways to postpone accepting. It wasn't that he didn't want to meet Sophie's family properly. It was more that he'd hoped to achieve something significant first, something that would make him worthy of sitting at their table even when Sophie explicitly told him he didn't need to.

Call it stubbornness or ego, he just couldn't let it go.

"I, uh—" Noah began eloquently.