Page 76 of Miss Fortune

I kissed her on the cheek, as expected. She’d never been a hugger.

“Hello, Mother. Happy birthday.”

“Thank you. Who is this?” She turned toward Daisy, inspecting her from head to toe, assessing every square inch.

“Mother, this is Daisy. Daisy, this is my mother, Dr. Clarissa Morrison.”

“Nice to meet you. You have a lovely home, and happy birthday.”

It was an absolutely charming thing to say, yet my mother waved her hand. “The house is a work in progress, but the birthday part is true.” As I’d expected, she had absolutely no interest in getting to know Daisy. “Ah, here’s your father.”

“Scotch neat,” he ordered from the bar before acknowledging me. Evidently his priorities hadn’t changed. As soon as he had his glass, he turned.

“Hello, son.”

“Father.” I’d never called him Dad. It hadn’t occurred to me how formal this was until I’d met Daisy’s parents and seen the exact opposite.

His gaze swept over to Daisy, which prompted me to make the introduction.

“This is Daisy. Daisy, this is my father, Ken Morrison.”

While I might have been dreading this moment, she was nothing but smiles. “Nice to meet you.”

He lifted a brow, probably surprised to see me with a date. I didn’t often come to family functions, but when I did, I normally came solo and left quickly. Just when I thought he’d ignore her, he threw me for a loop. “Tell me, Daisy, what is it you do?”

Straight to titles. Dammit. I should’ve anticipated now that I was no longer an easy target, he’d turn his attention to my date.

I immediately regretted putting Daisy in a position to be judged. Deciding to intervene, I quickly blurted out, “She’s an electrical engineer who graduated from MIT.”

To a stranger, my father’s lack of reaction might have seemed rude, but I knew it to be a positive sign when he had nothing derogatory to say on the matter. Nor did he snort in derision. Given he was a named partner in a local law firm, he found most people beneath him.

My mother, however, focused on Daisy. “Interesting. Not many women in the field of engineering.”

It was high praise coming from her, considering she shared my father’s habit for thinking most people weren’t worthy of her attention.

I finally set my gaze on Daisy, who was staring at me. Not in anger or annoyance, but with hurt reflected in her gaze. Shit.

She murmured, “No, there aren’t a lot of women who become engineers.”

“How are things at the firm? You make nine-hundred-unit partner yet?” my father asked, hoping to land a swipe. He’d be disappointed.

Nine hundred units was the top buy-in for the partnership and quite a milestone. I’d hit it last year but never bothered to tell him. “Yeah, last year.”

“Took you long enough. You should start investing in real estate. The place you have in Studio City is okay but compared to the estates down here…”

He wouldn’t know since he’d never been to my home in the six years I’d owned it. He went on about his investment portfolio before my mother spoke up.

“Oh, I see Beverly Saunders just arrived. We need to go say hello. Try not to bring up the fact her son is in rehab. What an embarrassment.” Yet there was glee in her voice like her friend’s misfortune put her in the lead as most successful parent.

As soon as my parents were out of earshot, I focused on Daisy. “I can explain.”

She shook her head. “It’s not necessary. But if you were so embarrassed to be with a former electrical engineer who graduated MIT and now doesn’t do anything worthy of mention, then why bring me here?”

I sucked in a breath. “You have it all wrong. I’m not embarrassed to be with you.” If anything, she was drawing the short straw by being with me.

“Could’ve fooled me.”

“Hello, lovebirds,” came the slurred words of my sister as she threw an arm around Daisy. “How was meeting the asshole parents?”