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Beth broke away from Ash and the wedding planner to come over to me and Hannah. “Oh god, I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy.”
“You look happy, Beth. You both do. Along with this little munchkin.”
“Thank you so much for looking after her,” Beth said picking up her sweet girl.
“It’s my pleasure. You know I love her to bits.”
“Listen, we’re heading over to the restaurant for rehearsal dinner. Do you want to ride with us?”
“If I can fit.” I didn’t mean it to be a personal slight on my weight. It was more related to the number of people that could fit into a car.
Beth frowned, clearly thinking I was dissing myself. “We’re in a limo.”
“I love the limos,” Hannah gushed. “Come with us, Morgan.”
“I’d enjoy that.” I followed Beth and Ash out, marveling at what a lovely family they made with Hannah. I wondered how long it would be before they decided to add to their already perfect family.
In the car, Ash and Beth sat together facing forward, his hand firmly grasping hers. Hannah and I sat facing backwards.
“Look Morgan,” Hannah said as she opened a little door. “It’s a ‘frigerator. Do you want something to drink? I can serve you.”
I laughed. “No thank you, sweetie.”
“Did you see this? It makes the window in the roof open,” Hannah said poking a button that made the sunroof retract.
I looked over at Ash, who watching Hannah with such love it was heart stopping. I was so happy for Beth and Hannah to have found him again. Beth deserved love and happiness, and Hannah deserved a father who’d dote on her. They each found that in Ash.
The car pulled in front of a restaurant that everyone in New York knew about, but where only the elite of the elite could afford to eat. Never in a million years would I have thought I’d eat there. Of course, it was a Kade Raven restaurant.
Ash held the door open for all of us to enter. I gasped at the sophisticated elegance of the restaurant. The décor was a mixture of art deco and modern, making it look classic and rich. Rumor was it served eight to ten course meals with a starting price of three-hundred dollars. It was a fitting establishment in the Raven family empire.
I knew Kade was the brother who ran the restaurants, and I was dying to ask him about it. I liked food, as my figure attested to, and wanted to open my own little food place. But since I couldn’t hardly form a coherent thought during the rehearsal, it was unlikely I’d be able to pick his brain about opening a food business.
“Make yourself at home anywhere you want,” Ash said to me. “The restaurant is closed except for us.”
I’d spent my entire life around wealthy people, since my mother had been the housekeeper for Beth’s family before the family’s business failed. But even growing up around money, I never failed to gape in wonder at opulent wealth. Did rich people know anything about struggle and hard work? Beth and Ben did, to a certain extent, but not like me and my mother. Even as Beth and Ben sold assets and scrimped and saved as their dad’s business started to crumble, they’d lived in a multi-million-dollar townhome near Central Park, not the cramped apartment in Inwood like my mom and I shared. Not that I begrudged them that. It only made me wonder if they could really see how different their world was from mine. What it was really like to wonder if there was enough money to pay the rent or electric bill because the medical bill was behind.
“Morgan,” Hannah said running up to me. “Sit with me.”
I smiled. I had to concede that despite our titanic socio-economic differences, Beth and Hannah, and now Ash, treated me well. I never felt less than. They looked after me, and if I and my mother weren’t so full of pride, they would probably help us more financially. My mother loved Ben, Beth and Hannah, but she’d always told me to keep in mind my place in the social order of the world.
“They’re good to us, Morgan, but we’re not of their world. Don’t get any ideas that you are,” my mother would say.
“Where do you want to sit?” I asked Hannah.
“By my mommy and daddy.”
I smiled, loving how she worshipped them both. I wished I was the one to watch her while Beth and Ash went on their honeymoon, but Beth felt like that was too much to ask of me, and apparently Chase and Sara wanted the last-minute practice in child rearing before their own baby came. I supposed that soon, I’d see less and less of Hannah now that Beth wouldn’t need the extra help.
Pushing away the sadness and yes, a little bit of envy, I let Hannah lead me to the table. The family was happy and excited as they should have been. Cameron Raven, the patriarch of the Raven family, arrived, and while I could feel a little increase in tension from the Raven sons, that quickly settled down when he got a drink and started talking with Sara, for whom I was told he had a special affinity.
