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My mother had graduated from HHU, as well. I often forgot, seeing as she’d never worked after graduation, just settled down to play housewife to my dad, and eventually, have me. I’d always thought she’d been satisfied with the twists and turns her life had taken, but now, sitting there across from her, I wasn’t so sure. She seemed full of regrets.
“Your father — he saved me. He saved me, but in that saving, some of those choices went away…maybe I’d never really had them in the first place.”
I mulled over her words. “So, would you make the same choice? To be saved by Daddy?” She’d said that true choices were the ones you made over and over again.
She avoided my eyes, staring instead at a brightly jeweled clutch on the table between us. She finally met my eyes, but instead of stopping, her gaze drifted over my shoulder toward the front of the store. Her melancholy expression disappeared in an instant. My mother was donning the mask she’d carefully cultivated for years. The one that hid all the real parts of her away.
“Oh, my guest is here,” she said and shot me a smirk.
“Guest? Who?” I wondered, standing up and turning around to follow her gaze.
My heart froze. What the fuck?
Asher strode through the expensive boutique, his black, beaten-up leather jacket and worn black jeans at odds with the gold and velvet furnishings all around us. He had his motorcycle helmet in his tattooed hand, and his dark hair fell over his dangerously magnetic eyes. I couldn’t look away. He had trouble written all over him, and it was delicious.
Clearly, I wasn’t the only one who thought so.
“My, my, honey, you do have good taste,” Mom muttered to me before stepping forward to greet her guest.
“Mr. Martino, how nice of you to join us. I’m so glad my secretary got through to you.” Mom smiled, pouring elegant grace like honey over the scene.
Asher looked at me. “She said it was an emergency.” His gaze traced me from head to toe.
I belatedly realized I was wearing a new tennis outfit Mom had wanted me to try. The super-short white pleated skirt should really have shorts underneath, and the fitted top hadn’t worked with a bra, so I’d taken it off. That fact was obvious, if the way Asher’s eyes briefly zeroed in on my nipples was any indication.
“Well, it is an emergency! I hear you’re having dinner with Charles this week, and I’ll bet you wanted something new to wear, to make a good first impression. Not only that, but my favorite colorist has managed to slip me in, and I can’t leave Winter shopping alone. So, emergency…” She pointed to Asher. “…solution. Two birds with one stone. I’m Angela, Winter’s mother, as I’m sure you could surmise.”
Asher extended a hand to my mother. “Pleased to meet you, Mrs. DeLaurie, I’m Asher.”
“Oh, dear boy, I know that. Like anyone else in this room could be mistaken for you,” Mom tittered. How much champagne had she had?
I nudged her subtly. “Mom, when’s your appointment? Do you need to get going?”
She glanced at her watch. “I have time to see Asher in a suit first. I took the liberty of picking one out for you, if you’d indulge me.” She smiled hopefully at Asher.
I could read the bemusement coming off him in waves. He hadn’t been prepared for this, and to be fair, who would be?
My mother clapped her hands together. “Silly me, you haven’t even greeted each other yet…go ahead, I know how young love is.” She half turned and flapped a hand between us.
Asher’s mouth twisted in a smirk, and he approached me.
“So, your mother’s insane,” he murmured, and leaned down to press a chaste kiss to my cheek, for my mother’s benefit, clearly; she was definitely watching us.
“When you’re rich, it’s called eccentric,” I murmured back and patted his arm lamely in greeting.
“Sure. I’m going to leave. Shopping isn’t my thing,” he said quietly.
Mom turned around and directed the sales assistants to get the suit she’d picked out earlier.
I gripped his arm desperately. “No. Don’t leave. Please…I never get to see her like this,” I said in a rush.
Asher narrowed his eyes. “I never signed up for a makeover or being paraded around for your mother’s inspection. I’m not a rebel Ken doll to fix up.”
“She never said you were. She wants to do something nice. She thinks you actually care about my dad liking you…please,” I murmured, beseeching him with my eyes.
He stared down at me for a long moment and then sighed, and I knew I’d won.
“Fine, get those Puss in Boots eyes away from me. I’ll try one outfit,” he warned.
