We pull up alongside my father’s car. How fantastic. He’s already here.
Even though Ian is with me, I hardly feel as if I have any power in this situation. That must be why I got so antsy when we turned down that road. All I can think about is wanting to go out, scream my head off, and then make a mad dash back to the city. Now, if this were a normal lunch between our two families, that would be one thing. It isn’t.
It’s about us.
I haven’t spoken to my father about this at all. He’s been out of town for a while, and when we do speak, it’s about work and whether or not we’ve heard from Mother. Although I’m sure he has a million things to say to me about dating Ian, he’s saving them all. Or too embarrassed to ask them.
You’ll never guess who’s there to meet us in the front hall.
“Ian! Kathryn!” Caroline makes sure to give us an equal amount of kisses. This is long before the butler can pop up and take our coats. The chill in this house is making my bare arms tremble. Ian wasn’t kidding when he said his father didn’t like wasting electricity. The dining room we’re ushered into likewise has minimal lighting, relying on the natural sunlight streaming through large, open windows.
Naturally, Ian and I are sat next to each other. Caroline sits at the foot next to her son. There are three other place settings at this six-person table, but I can only think of five who are coming .Surely, my mom did not fly all the way from Europe for the first time in two years only for this lunch. I doubt she would even bother for my wedding!
“Who else is coming?” I’m assuming my father and Dominic are the other two, but who is the final place setting for? “Also, I saw my father’s car parked out front. Any idea where he is? I haven’t seen him since before his trip.”
Caroline frowns, because she was just about to start blabbering about the babies Ian and I are destined to have. “Your father is talking with my bastard of an ex-husband.”
We both look at her. “He’s a bastard again, huh?” Ian asks.
“Damn straight. Apparently he’s bringing a date.”
An eerie silence hangs over us. Ian’s father is free to do what he wants, but isn’t it a little tacky to bring a brand-new date to something like this?
Then again, maybe it will create enough commotion to take the stares off us.
“There’s my sweet Kitty Cat.” My father chooses this moment to strut through the door, bowler hat still on even though we’re indoors – Spencer Alison has never been huge on propriety when he can help it, especially in a house as well-lit as this one. “Haven’t seen you in what feels like weeks.”
I get up to kiss my father on the cheek and to help him into the seat at the head of the table. Normally I would never guess he’s sitting there in someone else’s home, but the two seats across from Ian and I are most likely for a couple newer than us.
“Daddy.” I make sure he’s settled before sitting back down. “Things have been crazy lately thanks to the projects.”
“Yes…” My father spares Ian a glance before quickly looking away again. “The project.”
Another eerie silence. Caroline smirks, and I know instantly who Ian got that grin from. “Seems like a really fortuitous project, doesn’t it, Spencer?” She can’t wait for anyone to reply. “Can you imagine it? Our kids, together!” Sure, it’s not like we’re here, or anything.
Ian sighs next to me, exasperated. “About that…”
“Indeed, about that.” My father can’t hide his irritation any longer. He’s staring Ian down, even though eye contact is not being made. “Would’ve been nice to hear it from the source instead of someone else.”
“I’m sorry, Daddy.” I give him my best good-girl look. The same one that got me out of so much trouble growing up – like when I racked up too many credit card charges as a teen, or drove one of his classic cars into a ditch because I was too tipsy from a party. I haven’t had to use this look for at least five years, and at my age it feels weird. Yet necessary. “I was waiting for the right time to tell you.”
Ian’s eyes are on me. I don’t have to turn around to know that. “We’re not really a couple,” he mumbles.
Something pricks my heart. His words? His tone? The ensuing sigh that makes it sound like he never wants anything to do with me again?
I’m being irrational. Ian is responding to our parents’ meddling, not the fact we may have something more… emotional between us. Oh, you think I didn’t feel it, Ian? I definitely felt it. I felt it the last time we made love in that mansion in the mountains, and I felt it when you came to pick me up at my place today and gave me a quick kiss on the lips before wrapping your arm around me on the way to the elevator.
You’re distant. It’s understandable. Nobody wants to deal with this. Well, nobody except your mother.
Still, do you have to be so callous at the moment?
“Don’t be silly, dear.” Caroline flags down a girl from the kitchen and asks for a pitcher of lemonade. “You’re not a boy anymore. You don’t have to hide your girlfriends from us.”
“I’m not hiding anything.” Ian’s gritted teeth would be a sight to behold if it weren’t my role in this situation. “Were Kathryn and I in a serious relationship, you would be the first to know.” He murmurs something that sounds like, “And the first to gab to everyone about it.”
Dad is still staring him down. The tension mounting between them is coming to a head in my body, and all I can imagine is my father walking over and smacking Ian right on the head. How dare he be so disrespectful to Spencer’s little girl!
“What Ian is trying to say…” I look between both parents with a diplomatic smile on my face. “Is that he and I are casually dating. We don’t know if it’s serious or not.”
He glances at me. I may not be a mind reader, but I’m pretty sure he’s thinking, “Don’t give them too much hope.”
Maybe it’s me who wants the hope.
“Regardless, let’s hope for something good to come out of this.” Caroline shuts up when the server returns with the lemonade. She’s the only one who takes a glass. “Where is that man?”
It’s five more minutes before Dominic Mathers arrives with his date. At first I don’t recognize her, but I do recognize some young tarty blonde on the arm of a man old enough to be her father. Grandfather? Probably.
“Family!” Dominic bellows, escorting his lovely date into the dining room. “So glad you could all make it. Sorry we’re late. We were, ah…” He and the woman practically rub noses in front of us, their grins covered in a sexual sugar that makes me gag.
Nobody is gagging more than Ian. Literally. On his ice water. At first I think it’s because of the behavior on display, but then the woman says, “So good to see you again, Ian.”
I recognize her voice.
Stephanie May.
Chapter 22
IAN
There are certain moments in life that make you question whether or not you’re secretly living in a reality show.
I am having a whole day of that.
If my mother’s pandering to the hearth gods wasn’t enough – let alone in front of Kathryn’s father – I now have a sight I would never want to see in a million years standing right in front of me.
My father. And Stephanie May.
Together.
Let’s get this straightened out, shall we? Stephanie, a woman I saw a total of two times and had sex with once. Stephanie, a woman even younger than Kathryn and looks like a centerfold model when done up right. My father, the man who raised me and continues to do business with me. My father, a man even older than Spencer Alison, who has silver hair and talks at length about his arthritis.