I silently prayed she wasn’t getting her hopes up over nothing.
“Why don’t I fill the water glasses,” my mom called, mostly wanting to avoid the introductions, I was sure.
I went to open the front door and saw Drew walking a step behind his mom, who had a huge bouffant head of blond hair and a face pulled so tight, her hairline was in the middle of her head. Biting the inside of my cheek, I kept myself from laughing. She was exactly as he’d described her.
She held her hand out to me. “Sharlene King Hagman.”
Every finger was heavy with jewels; her wrist must have weighed more than Darla. Rows and rows of diamond tennis bracelets adorned her arm, interspersed with heavy bangles. I wasn’t sure how she lugged it all around.
“Jules Smith.”
“Soon to be King,” Drew added.
“No rush,” his mother said under her breath, then looked down at her granddaughter. “You must be Darla. You look just like your daddy, lucky girl.”
Thankfully, Darla kept quiet. Even she was unsure of what to make of that remark.
“I’m Grandma Shar,” Sharlene said, bending down.
“Nice to meet you,” Darla finally responded, standing on her tiptoes to give Sharlene a kiss on the cheek.
“Don’t you think this place is all wrong for a family, Drew?” She lifted her big sunglasses on top of her head as we made our way into the foyer. “All white and sharp edges. It’s much more suiting to a bachelor. You probably miss that life. Not to mention, there’s stuff everywhere. Ooh.” She jumped to the side as Calliope brushed past her leg. “What in the heck?”
“That’s Calliope, my kitty, and I also have a turtle. Want to see?”
“Perhaps later. This place is like walking onto a live set of a children’s program.”
“I love this house,” Darla said, jumping from foot to foot. “Did you know we have an elevator in the back now? They’re still building it, but it’s going to connect the new room with the middle of the house and then the patio.”
“How lovely. Expanding the brood, are we?” Sharlene eyed my flat stomach.
“No, Mom. I added on a third-floor gym. I didn’t like leaving every morning to go to the gym, and then I miss Dar leaving for school.”
“Oh. I never minded not seeing you in the morning. Then again, I needed my beauty sleep.”
She just kept steamrolling through the house, nitpicking. We needed a yard if we were going to be real parents, or maybe Darla would go to boarding school. “I’m a fan,” she said.
Sharlene clearly had no patience for the lesser folk, which definitely included my mom and me. When meeting my mom, she barely muttered, “Hello there,” looking down on my Midwestern mama, who wouldn’t win any mother-of-the-year awards. But still, she was mine.
That’s pretty much how the evening went. Sharlene picked on me, a little bit on Drew, ignored my mom, and treated Darla like a doll.
“Oh, look. She’s so precious with her food all cut up. Who will do that for her at school?”
“Mom, we’re not sending Darla to school. She goes to school here, and maybe next year, she’ll go to private school.”
That remark earned him a dirty look from me. He’d been on me about that, and I disagreed.
“Sharlene, what will you be doing while you’re here?” my mom asked, trying to break the ice. I was pretty sure she felt bad for Darla.
“Oh, well, the spa is lovely, and I was hoping Drew would come and make use of the tennis facilities.”
Drew piped up. “Darla plays. I’ll bring her over.” Darla, of course, loved this idea. “And you too, Jules. Time to try on that foot again.”
“Don’t force her.” This came from Sharlene.
“You know what? This is my family, Mom. Jules is not going anywhere, and neither is Darla. Not school, nowhere. So, shut it.”
After that, Sharlene was mostly curt, politely sayingno thank youto dessert. The minute dinner was over, she asked Drew to take her back to the hotel.
