Page 275 of The Heart You Kept

“Will you concentrate and listen to me for one minute,” I snap, annoyed. “I’m meeting your family; I want to look nice. What the hell do I pack to wear?”

“Anything will do. Relax, who cares.”

“Edward.” I let out a deep sigh. “You’re not helping one little bit.”

“Why are you so stressed out about this?”

“Because I don’t know what they wear at your farm. I don’t know what’s acceptable. I want your dad and your sister to like me and I’m probably going to look like a troll who crawled out from under a fucking bridge.”

He turns the television off and pats the bed. “Come here.” I flop to sit on the bed beside him. “It doesn’t matter what you wear, it matters who you are.”

I roll my lips as I look over my choices. “It does help if you look the part, though.”

He tucks a piece of my hair behind my shoulder. “Would you like to go shopping tomorrow to get a few things?”

“No,” I huff. “I don’t have time, I have so much to do before we take the week off and besides, I have enough clothes. I just need to find the perfect outfits to take.”

I shrug. “Tell me about your father.”

“Well.” He smiles wistfully, “My father is….” He looks up to the ceiling in an overdramatic way. “Is an earl who comes from a long lineage of old money, and possessions do not impress him at all.”

“An earl?” I act surprised.

“And he’s kind and generous and loves shortbread and he will not give a flying fuck as to what you’re wearing.”

“He loves shortbread?”

“Yes. With English tea.”

I smile. “I love English tea too.”

“Yes. I know.” He taps me on the nose. “Something in common already.”

“What about your sister?”

“Charlotte.”

“Yes.”

“Charlotte is the most beautiful human on the face of the earth.”

I smile as I listen. “I love that you two are close.”

“We weren’t for a while, for a long time I wasn’t keen on the man she wanted to marry.”

“What was his name?”

“Spencer Jones.”

“Why didn’t you like him?”

He shrugs. “Lots of reasons, he was older than her and a renowned playboy, and Lady Charlotte was a very wealthy, complete innocent who I knew was way too good for him.”

“She’s a lady?” I smile goofily, this I didn’t know.

“In every sense of the word.”

“Whatever happened to him?”