“I could have waited until you were ready for guests, Anna.”
“You’re not guests, you’re family. Besides, you’ve seen me looking much worse than this. Remember the seminar three years ago?”
“Good Lord, Anna. I’ve tried to put that out of my mind. Remind me, in case I forget, to never think I can outdrink you.”
“Have you had your breakfast yet, Tristan?”
“Actually I haven’t. I didn’t get a chance. May I stay? I can cook for you.”
“Oh Christ. If you’re cooking, there’s a conversation in store.”
“Am I that transparent?”
She smirks without answering that question. “I’ll take a three-egg omelet with all the fixings you can find and while you do that, I’ll make us another pot.”
Years of spending my summers here has made me very familiar with her kitchen and I’m able to navigate it with ease. Soon, the smell of cooking eggs and chopped peppers and onions fills the large, perfectly decorated kitchen.
“Should I be worried about this conversation?” she asks as she tops off the coffee I’ve since nearly finished.
“Worried? No. But it is important and I need you to listen to me completely before you scold or lecture me. All right?”
“Me? Lecture and scold? Never,” she jokes. “You know I’m a great listener, Tristan. You can tell me anything.”
“I promised you that if there was anything you needed to know concerning Miss Morgan I would tell you.”
“Yes, I remember.”
“Consider this your need to know. I guess you could say we’re, well, together.”
Anna sits back and crosses her arms. “I knew it. Fuck. I knew it. You were lying to me when I asked you before. Tristan, I’m shocked at you.”
“Before you make a snap judgment, let me explain.” I place the omelet in front of her and take my seat next to her at the breakfast bar. “At the time, was there attraction? Yes, of course there was. She’s a beautiful woman. Did I plan on it going this far? I’m not sure I did, but things are different now, so I’m keeping my promise to you.”
“Tristan, I… wow.”
“I need to speak to you as a mother figure right now, Anna. Can you please take off your supervisor hat for just a little bit?”
“You’re damn lucky my head was built for hats.” She makes an exaggerated gesture to pretend to cover her head. “Mom hat square on my head. Now, what am I giving advice on?”
“Nora has asked me if I would object to meeting her family. I could tell by the look on her face this wasn’t something she normally asks of anyone. It means so much to her. I said I would. I absolutely want to. It’s just, I’m not the meet the parents type. How do I fucking do that?”
She sighs and takes a bite of the food I’ve made her. “Well, that depends on how much she is going to tell them about you. I can’t imagine any parent would be all right with their little girl dating their much older professor.” She raises her brow like it’s the period in that sentence. “If you do go… just be yourself. You’re a brilliant man and you’re able to hold a conversation with anyone. My mom hat is telling you that you simply need to be as charming as ever. It’s that simple really.”
“I’m not much older. Just a decade or so.”
“That or so will get you every time.”
“Touché. What if…”
“What if what, mon fils?”
“What if I’m truly not good enough for her?”
Anna sets her fork down, more harshly than I think she intended, sits back in her chair, and crosses her arms. “You not good enough for her? You can’t be serious.”
“Can’t I? Nora has had things happen to her in her life that no one should ever experience. She deserves the best this world has to offer. What if that’s not me?”
“You’re speaking for the long term here. That’s very new for you. Do you see a future with her?”
It’s not the first time I’ve been asked that question. The other times have just been asked in my own head. But the answer is easy.
“I don’t want to be without her. That I know for a fact. I have to sort out which is greater, the pain of being with her and possibly failing, or the pain of being without her because I didn’t try.”
“Then go meet her family. That is the next logical step. She’s met me, after all. That’s the first step of that path.”
***
In my mind, I thought I’d have more time to research or prepare before I would meet Mr. and Mrs. Chase and come face-to-face again with young Lucas. Fortunately, or unfortunately, that was not meant to be.
“I have something to tell you before we get there,” she says after she turns down the music we’ve been listening to.
“All right. Should I be concerned?”
“No, everything is fine, but… I spoke to Lucas about this, about us.”
Shit. Okay. How is this going to go?
“I’m assuming since we are still going there, that went well?”
“As well as it could, but I’m telling you this to ease some nerves. He agreed to keep our connection, and how we met, a secret for now. Until we are ready to tell them. He said he’d do that for me because well… to put it bluntly… you brighten my world.”
Me? The admiral of the S.S. Nor has brightened someone’s world?
I’m not sure how that makes me feel, not even a little.
“It’s this turn here.” Nora points, before I can respond to her recently dropped bomb, leading me to a very large iron gate that shields a huge colonial family home.
“Wow,” I say in obvious awe. “This is a beautiful property.”
“Isn’t it? Maria really takes pride in it. I think she told me once it belonged to her great-great grandmother or something. It was owned by another family for about fifty years, but she and Martin were able to buy it back and restore it. I love that they did it.”
Nora leans over my lap to enter the code for the gate and it creaks open to allow us through.
“Are you nervous?” she asks me.
“A little, yes. Are you?”
“I was, but honestly now, no. This is the most sure I’ve been about anything in a very long time.”
I reach over and take her hand in mine, bringing it to my lips to kiss her knuckles. “Then I’m calm and ready as well.” I don’t think that’s a lie.
Nora points to a specific place for me to park. I ask if she’d wait for me to come open her door. I told her in case anyone was looking, I wanted to appear the highest level of gentleman, even though she knows I could just as easily be a tiger waiting to pounce.
When she places her hand in mine and I help her from the car, I have to stop myself from pulling her in for a kiss. She looks downright delicious today. She is wearing a simple pair of jeans and a light blue wrap top that hugs her in all the right ways. Plus her hair is up in a high ponytail that is simply cruel to ask me to ignore. I, on the other hand, opted to go a bit more dressed up. First impressions are important after all. I chose a pair of charcoal gray slacks and a deep, maroon long sleeved button-down topped with a black jacket.