“Please, let me know if I do anything that isn’t to your liking here. I know many a woman that would have my head for doing something incorrectly in their kitchen.”
“While I would have happily done this by myself, I am glad to have you alone for a few moments to talk privately.”
Uh oh.
“Should I be concerned?”
“I don’t think so. You and Nora haven’t been together very long. How much do you know about her upbringing and her….recent challenges?”
I stare down at the dish in my hand, assuring the bubbles are washing it clean. “I know her mother passed away some years back and their relationship had its, shall we say, difficulties. I also know that her time in London recently was not a good one.”
“To say the least. I won’t go into detail because I’m not sure how much she has divulged, so I’ll just say this.” She turns to face me and crosses her arms over her chest. “I won’t allow Nora to be hurt again, in any way. She is my daughter, even if I did not give birth to her. I know it may seem that the two you need to concern yourself with are in the other room with her, but I can be scarier than the both of them combined times five.”
I set the dish down in the drainer and dry my hands. “I know. Why do you think I’m in here talking to you instead of them? I clocked it from the first minute you opened the door. I will not bother to promise you everything will be perfect. I can promise you that I will be as careful with her heart as I possibly can. My speech earlier wasn’t a speech. It was how I truly felt. Her needs will come before mine.”
“I’m glad to hear that, because Nora’s special, much more so than she gives herself credit for. Martin and I had always thought that perhaps she and Lucas would end up together, but it was clear very early in their friendship that nothing more would ever come from that. You can put your mind at ease when it comes to him as far as being any competition for her heart. He loves her like a sister and would do anything to protect her, just like any of us would. He’s a bit of a jackass about it though. He lacks decorum sometimes,” she jokes and I laugh. I like this woman a lot.
Nora
I’m sitting in the chair near the window while Martin and Lucas are head-on with the screen, leaning forward with every play. I have my left arm across my chest, while I’m making an early dessert out of the nail on my right thumb. Every time they holler at a missed pass, I jump a little bit. I wish to God I could hear what was going on in that kitchen. I know Maria will be nice to him, but I worry this is more than he wants or could be ready for.
“You all right over there, Pixie? You’re going to bite that nail all the way down until there’s nothing left if you don’t stop gnawing at it,” Martin says, pulling me from my very focused headspace. I was trying to develop supersonic hearing, doesn’t he know? I need to hear what’s going on in the kitchen.
“Oh, right.” I drop my hand into my lap. “I suppose I’m just anxious.”
“Why? Afraid Mr. Perfect won’t impress Mom enough to stick around, or worried that she will see through the facade?” Lucas chimes in, and I want to smack him.
Martin holds his hand up as he sees I’m about to finish what Lucas started. “Son, is there a particular reason why you’re being an ass today?”
“Ass? Seriously? This duke slides in here with his degree and his accent and thinks that’s good enough to even speak to Nora. Screw that. He’s not passed half the tests I intend on serving the dear professor.”
“Just stop it, Luke!” I raise my voice just a bit. I want to get my aggravation across but I don’t want to alert Maria or Tristan. “Why are you making this so difficult? We even had, what I thought, was a genuine heart-to-heart conversation and you’ve already stomped all over it. Why can’t you just give him a chance?”
“All right, kids. That’s enough,” Martin intervenes.
“It’s not though. Dad, I refuse, fucking refuse, to allow someone else even have the potential to do to her what I walked in on in London. I can’t do it. I’d rather be in jail than have you experience one fraction of a second more of the destruction to your being I saw. I can’t do it. I won’t.”
I can see the fear and heartbreak on his face as the memories of that day play over and over in his head, just as they do mine.
I move from my seat by the window and go to kneel in front of him on the sofa, taking his hands in mine.
“Lucas, you’re my best friend in the entire world. I’d die for you. I’d murder for you. I’d even go to prison for the rest of my life for you, if it came to that. You know that. I know that deep down, you trust me with everything you have. I need you to trust me and through me, trust Tristan. He hasn’t given you, me, or anyone else a reason to deserve anything but a chance. I care about him. You know that. I’ve told you.”
“He feels like him, Nor. He has that arrogance and fucking holier than thou swagger that I saw all over Evan the one and only time I met him. I promised you that I’d never let you get hurt again.”
“He is a powerful man, but in a completely different way. They aren’t the same, Luke. Don’t lump them together and make him pay for something that hasn’t even happened.”
He drops his head down and squeezes my hands. “I wish you could see how I feel right now. It’s the most complicated emotion. I want you to be happy, but I want to make sure you are safe.” He sighs heavily, “Christ, I’m never having children. I can only be this protective over one person at a time.”
Martin leans over and places a hand on Lucas’s shoulder as we hear Maria’s laugh coming into the room. “Who’s winning?”
“Nora,” Lucas states.
Dessert is mostly what I dreamed the whole meal would have been. We all sit together in front of the muted game and do the most mundane of things. We eat brownies. Tristan and I are together eating chocolate goodness with my family.
I never could have done this before today.
Tristan talks baking and cooking with Maria. Martin asks him about university politics out of curiosity. Tristan also pries into the rest of Lucas’s schedule for his final semester. Without prompting, he offers his perceptions of the courses and suggests project ideas.
He’s trying.
They all are.
Happy. That’s what I am. Purely happy.
***
There’s nothing like making love to the most incredible man you’ve ever met after he knocks it out of the park when meeting your family.
We could barely contain ourselves when we hit the doorway of his apartment. There is a smattering of clothes lying from the door to his bed like a trail of breadcrumbs that we will have to collect later, because there’s nothing that could pull me from this bed right now.
He’s on his back and I lie against him on my side with my cheek on his heart and my leg thrown over his hip. The post-orgasm glow is still bright on our skin.
“I don’t think I’ve had a more perfect day.”
Tristan smiles. “That’s something a man always wishes to hear.”
I tap him with the pads of my fingers. “Fiend. It’s not just that. I mean. It is, but not. You passed the parent test. I’m certain it’s not the first time for you.”