Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96600 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96600 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“Where are the children?” The woman asked.
“In the nursery, getting changed for dinner. They needed baths if they were going to sit at the table with us.” Catherine sounded horrified by the very notion of dinner with her own kids. I couldn’t imagine, looking at her, that any of her offspring would be allowed to get dirty in the first place.
“Mom,” Matt said, stepping forward.
With a motherly “tch,” she waved for him to stop. “I’ll come to you, dearest. Still using the cane?”
“That’s what it’s here for,” he said, his mouth a tight line as he went in for a hug. Stepping back, he extended an arm to motion me forward. “This is Charlotte.”
“Charlotte,” she said, her eyes narrowing as she visibly tried to recall. Then, recognition lit her face. “Scott’s sister?”
“That’s me,” I said softly. “It’s very nice to meet you, Mrs. Ashe.”
“Call me Elizabeth, please.”
To my surprise, she hugged me. She actually hugged me.
That answered my question about where Matt got his humanity from. Somehow, it had missed his sister.
Elizabeth checked the slender diamond-studded watch at her wrist. “Oh, good. We have time for a chat before we have to go get changed.”
“Mother, I’d like a chance to freshen up.” Caroline turned to us. “If you’ll excuse me, Matthew? Charlotte?”
I would love nothing more than for you to leave. Had I ever met anyone as instantly unpleasant as Matt’s sister? Maybe while working in retail. But at least then, I didn’t have to worry about seeing them again.
If things stayed good between Matt and I, I would have to interact with Catherine indefinitely.
Unless Catherine not liking you results in you and Matt not working out. I didn’t get the vibe from their interactions so far that he valued her opinions all that much. Still, family strife was a cause of breakups, wasn’t it?
“Well. This will give me a chance to get to know Charlotte better,” Elizabeth said cheerfully. We all sat down, and she lifted a slender silver bell from a side table. The bell summoned Alan almost immediately. “Coffee service, please.” Then, Elizabeth looked to me. “Would you prefer coffee or tea?”
“Coffee is fine.” My mouth was so dry, I would have preferred a full pitcher of ice water. Why did you get high before this?
“So. Charlotte.” Elizabeth folded her hands atop one knee. “I’ve met your brother on several occasions. He’s such a nice young man.”
“He’s forty,” Matt said.
“Forty is young to me.” She went on, “How did you and Matt meet? He never told me.”
I had a vivid hallucination of blurting, I met him when we fucked at my brother’s wedding. Thankfully, what I said out loud was, “We met at my brother’s wedding.”
“The wedding that didn’t happen,” Elizabeth said, clucking her tongue. “That’s such a shame. It’s unbearably rude to leave someone at the altar.”
“Why ‘unbearably,’ Mom?” Matt asked. “What a poor word choice.”
She made an impatient noise. “So, you got attacked by a bear. You survived. But your friend got his heart broken. That’s harder to heal.”
“Agree to disagree,” Matt replied.
Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed at the corners as she scrutinized me. “You’re quite a bit younger than Matt.”
“By fifteen years,” I confirmed.
“I was younger than my husband.” The way she said the word “my” implied that Matt was my husband. “By twenty-three years.”
“Pops liked ’em young,” Matt muttered.
“And Matty has always been very immature for his age,” Elizabeth said breezily, not bothering to give him any other response.
I decided right then and there that I liked her.
“What made Catherine run off so fast, I wonder?” Elizabeth asked.
“Oh, she caught me smoking pot on my balcony,” Matt shamelessly admitted.
“Matthew Leonard Elliot Ashe!”
I shot a look to Matt. “Leonard?”
“We’ll talk about it later,” he said.
“You know I don’t mind that you…indulge,” Elizabeth began. “But in broad daylight? What if the staff had seen you?”
“They probably would be able to tell me where the best dispensary is.” It seemed like Matt enjoyed teasing his mom. Not in a mean way, just to get a reaction out of her.
She didn’t fall for it, this time. Instead, she asked me, “Where did you find that dress?”
“Um, Bergdorf Goodman.” I smoothed the skirt.
“Green suits you,” Elizabeth pronounced, like her words made it so. “When we first married, Elliott and I lived in the city. I would go to Bergdorf and Saks almost every day. Elliott was so embarrassed that I bought clothes off the rack. But I enjoy shopping.”
All of my clothes were off the rack. Some of the dresses upstairs had cost thousands of dollars. And she was talking about shopping at Bergdorf Goodman like a guilty-pleasure trip to Target.
“I’m used to buying off the rack,” I said, hating how timid my voice sounded. There was nothing wrong with me for not having a bespoke wardrobe. I was a twenty-five-year-old who lived in her parents’ guesthouse, for fuck’s sake. I’d never bought anything as expensive as the underwear I was wearing at the moment, and that was okay. That was how normal people lived.