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 burst out laughing.
Thank God for Darryn.
“You’ll be pleased to know I made your favorite chicken salad, Darryn,” Alyona shouted from the kitchen.
“Allegra needs a sister wife,” Darryn shouted back.
Allegra turned her eyes to the ceiling.
I felt an arm slide along my waist, and I looked up at my boy.
“You okay, Ma?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” I assured.
“I lost it. It was uncool. I’m sorry.”
“You’re home, Nico. This will always be your home, even, in a way, it will be when it’s Darryn and Allegra’s. You’re free to behave however you like at home.”
“Oh, yeah,” Darryn called to me. “Thanks for the future new digs, Momma.”
I chuckled.
“Darryn!” Allegra snapped.
I looked to Dru to see her reaction to this, considering I knew Jamie had spoken to her about my redecoration plans, and she’d agreed to help, but I had not had the opportunity to discuss it with her and get a sense as to how she really felt about it.
But she was smiling at Darryn.
“Losers!” Valentina yelled from the bar cart. “Jamie and me just made up a cocktail and everyone has to drink it.”
“Is it a riff on a Long Island?” Archie called.
“You know me so well, loverboy,” Valentina cooed.
“I’m in,” Archie declared.
Dear Lord.
Valentina at the helm, we’d all be sloshed in an hour.
But maybe that wasn’t a bad thing.
I sought Jamie’s gaze, and he didn’t make me work for it. His was on me.
All right? he mouthed.
I nodded.
He sent me a gentle smile.
I hadn’t been all right.
But receiving his smile, I was on my way to getting there.
And witnessing this byplay between Jamie and me, our children hadn’t been all right.
But they were definitely on their way to getting there.
I sat in bed beside Jamie, smoothing lotion into my hands.
“I’m concerned about Nico and Felice,” I announced.
Jamie, with Heiress lounging on his ankles (she knew who her daddy was, my precious darling furry girl), wearing attractive glasses because he was reading a book (I’d just joined him after an epic rundown of the day’s events over the phone with Mika), turned his gaze and peered at me over the frames.
“You should be,” he stated.
“What’s your take?” I asked.
“He loves her, so it’s going to destroy him, but he’s not going to be able to put up with her acting like she’s better than his mother every time he spends time with the both of you. Or, I’m sorry if you haven’t already put this together, but it’s something you should be cognizant of, sweetheart, every time she talks shit about you. Which I would guess is often.”
“I would guess that too,” I mumbled.
Jamie nodded. “And that isn’t about him being a momma’s boy. That’s about his wife’s rampant disrespect. Her treatment of Alyona was unconscionable. She’s so up her own ass about how the world is supposed to work according to her, she doesn’t see that Alyona takes pride in what she does. She belongs in this house even more than Felice does, and her efforts to humiliate you by using Alyona only serve to make Alyona think Felice looks down on the decision she’s made as to what she does with her life.”
I made a face, because this was very true, and it was the reason I broke my vow never to get involved in my children’s relationships and spoke to my son about his wife’s behavior toward my employee.
Jamie carried on. “Nico won’t be able to ignore it if they have children, and he won’t be able to stop Felice from talking shit about you to his kids, which will do his fucking head in. So before it gets to that, he’s going to let her go.”
This hurt me so much, I was unable to move or speak.
“It happens, darlin’,” Jamie, reading my response, said quietly. “Life has a way of burning off the rosy glow of first love and making things come into sharp focus. There’s nothing wrong with the lives we live, just as long as we don’t fuck anybody over to live them, and we’re conscious that others aren’t as fortunate. He didn’t turn his back on his life, he pivoted to embrace his future. She thought he’d turned his back on his life. She thought he agreed with her. She was mistaken. And she doesn’t like that very much.”
“I can see her being mistaken. My children tease me about the way I am,” I explained.
“I noticed, but it’s teasing, and it’s rooted in love. She’s not dumb, Nora. She saw what she wanted to see. When it became clear it was what it actually is, that’s what caused the problem.”
Unhappily, because I was keenly aware that I played a part in my son’s marriage issues, I shifted to pull the covers out from under me and settle them over me.
When I was in, Jamie asked, “What are you thinking?”