Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Dru also went to the opening last night. She’d come with some friends. And she’d talked me into buying the Seguso.
Because Drusilla Lynch had very good taste.
Alyona strolled in at that moment and put a tray of mini crabcakes and quiches down on the coffee table, announcing, “Some munchies.”
Only Alyona, who had labored over complicated hors d’oeuvres, like crabcakes and quiches (at least I thought they seemed complicated, I would have no way of truly knowing), would describe them as “munchies.”
“You’re working on Sunday, Alyona?” Felice asked in horror.
Hmm.
No.
I shot a warning look to my son.
We’d had this discussion more than once.
Felice could look down on my bourgeoisie ways. But in her rabid progressivism, she was not allowed to make Alyona feel uncomfortable about how she chose to earn a living.
Alyona shot an exasperated look at Felice.
“People work on Sundays, Felice, and I’m one of them,” Alyona said.
“Felice—” Nico began.
“Well, I can bring food in, and I can wash up too,” Felice stated stubbornly.
Alyona straightened from the tray. “Yes, but you won’t, because it’s my job, and that’s my kitchen, and unless I approve the caterers, no one does anything in it but me.”
With that, she huffed off.
Felice blushed.
I sipped my Perrier.
Nico came to sit on the arm of the sofa by his wife, murmuring, “I keep telling you—”
“Whatever,” Felice snapped quietly.
When she felt my regard, Dru tore her surprised gaze from Felice, and I sent her a rueful smile.
She sent a reassuring one in return.
Jamie had such a lovely daughter.
Through our nonverbal exchange, Archie fell on the crabcakes.
The front door opened.
We all looked in that direction to see tall, dashing Darryn striding in.
But I tensed when I saw the homicidal expression on his face.
“It wasn’t my fucking idea,” he said instead of greeting any of us. “In fact, I was against it.”
Allegra hustled in after him, looking harassed.
“Mom—” she began.
“What’s going on?” I asked, sliding to the edge of the sofa.
“My son in town, and he doesn’t even tell me,” Roland said from the door to the living room.
I froze.
What on earth was he doing here?
“Dad! You promised to wait in the hall,” Allegra cried.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jamie stand, so I did too.
“He was loitering outside the building,” Darryn shared.
“I wasn’t loitering,” Roland snapped.
Darryn went on like Roland didn’t speak. “He talked Allegra into letting him come up with us.”
In homing in on Jamie, I’d missed that Nico had stood too.
Oh dear.
And presently, my son demanded of his father, “Why are you here?”
“To talk to your mother, of course,” Roland returned.
“Does she want to talk to you?” Nico asked.
“No, she does not,” Jamie answered for me.
“All right, everyone—” I tried.
Roland interrupted me. “It’s actually fortuitous you’re all here, including you, Oakley, because I am officially done with being the bad guy, and you should know what you’re getting into.”
He directed that last to Jamie.
My heart squeezed.
“So you’re a magician now?” Valentina sneered.
God.
I hadn’t forgotten how wounded she’d been at her father’s betrayal (oh no, a mother never forgets something like that). They’d been particularly close. She’d been daddy’s little girl.
Of course, I had not shared why we’d split up, but children found their way to learn things.
And they’d learned them.
“Darling—” I tried again, my eyes on my youngest.
I failed again.
Valetina was laser focused on her father. “Drop the satin curtain and voila! You’re not a cheating bastard anymore?”
With that, my heart bled.
“Valentina, my lovely, maybe you should go to the study while I deal with your father,” I suggested.
“Fuck that, Mom,” Valentina retorted. “He’s hooked me. I’m interested. How is he no longer the bad guy?”
“I cannot believe you’re speaking to me like this,” Roland ground out.
“I cannot believe you’re crashing a family lunch where we’re bonding with our new sister and probably soon-to-be stepdad,” Valentina returned, then her eyes pierced her own sister and she finished, “Thanks, Allegra.”
And Allegra, also wounded by the failure of her parents’ marriage, had always had a soft spot for Roland.
Her face flushed.
Darryn put an arm around her shoulders, but he murmured, “Sorry, but you bought that, baby.”
“Your mother didn’t care,” Roland stated, getting everyone’s attention again, as I felt Jamie come to stand at my side.
“She didn’t care about what? You fucking everything that moved?” Nico asked.
“Nico,” Felice whispered, reaching out from the seat she still occupied on the couch to wrap her fingers around his forearm.
He shook her off.
Instead of showing chagrin for her husband or finding another way to support him during this emotional scene, her face got hard.
Oh my.
Was there trouble between those two?
“It doesn’t matter if I did, because she didn’t care,” Roland said to my son. “You knew your grandmother. And you’re a grown man now. Imagine having that woman as your wife.”
“Dude,” Archie entered the conversation, “are you seriously blaming your ex for you cheating on her?”