I chuckled to keep my rising panic in check. “Sorry, Mrs. Van Alen. I didn’t realize. Aurelia’s phone was on the counter nextto mine. It was just a mix-up. She’s, uh, she’s still asleep. The phone rang and I just answered it.”
“Well, I suppose that’s practical,” she said, suspicion still tightening her voice. “Harrison. Are you Harrison…Westwood?”
“Uh, yeah?”
She let out a little laugh that made my panic ease. Outside of the initial mix-up, she didn’t seem surprised that I was with her daughter first thing in the morning. Aurelia had spent a lot of time with her this week, though.
I assumed she’d told her.
“Would you like me to give her a message from you?” I asked, then, for the sake of starting to build a relationship with her, I added, “I’m really looking forward to the Christmas Ball. Aurelia’s told me all about how hard you’ve been working on the arrangements. We’d sure appreciate your input with the wedding planning. I, for one, don’t even know where to start.”
There was another pause, and she hummed with excitement. “The wedding planning. Of course. Tell me, Harrison, does your mother know yet?”
“Yes, she does,” I said, surprised to hear a brief, almost gleeful chuckle at the other end of the line.
“Very well, dear. You don’t need to give Aurelia a message from me, but have her call me when she wakes up.”
“I’ll do that. See you at the ball, Mrs. Van Alen.”
“Yes, we will.” She hung up, but I held the phone for another moment as I processed the fact that I’d just survived my first actual conversation with Aurelia’s mother.
My gaze swept across the espresso machine again when I sagged against the counter, and I realized then that some battles were unavoidable. But others, like the one I was having with this machine, weren’t worth the war.
Abandoning my efforts, I retreated to the bedroom, walking in just as Aurelia started stirring. She sat up in bed, her hairtousled and the sheets held to her chest, her eyes blinking with that half-asleep wariness that momentarily made me nervous about the fallout from last night.
“I fought bravely,” I said, keeping my voice soft in the darkness of her room. We hadn’t even drawn the curtains open yet. “Unfortunately, I lost the battle against your coffee machine. It’s a hopeless cause. I’m fairly certain it’s an alien life form.”
She waved me off with a lazy hand. Pulling the sheets with her, she climbed out of bed and reached for her robe. Slipping into it without flashing me any of her sensitive bits, she gave me a sleepy, half-smile when she turned to face me again, those blue eyes still soft as she looked at me.
“Also,” I added as something of an afterthought, mostly to distract myself from the knowledge that she was naked under that robe. “I might’ve just put us in a bit of an awkward position with your mother. She called and I answered, thinking your phone was mine.”
She chuckled, the sound still husky with sleep as she came toward me. “It’s fine. Come on. I’ll make the coffee. You tell me how bad it is.”
I followed her back to the kitchen, taking in the early morning sunlight spilling across the gleaming hardwood floors of her apartment. Her place was fucking stunning. The more I saw of it, the more I liked it. Everything was sleek and tasteful, with just the right balance between simplicity and cozy warmth.
On the other hand, she was definitely the most stunning thing in it. Aurelia seemed to be one of those people who woke up looking casually beautiful, somehow moving with graceful ease even though she’d only just opened her eyes.
“Okay,” she said once she’d pressed a few of the buttons on the machine. Miraculously, I heard the telltale whir of it actually doing something. “What did my mom say?”
“Uh, she wants you to call her? Youhavetold we’re engaged, right?”
“No,” she said simply, her ring catching the light as she reached for two mugs from the exposed shelf above the stupid machine. “Did you?”
“Maybe.” I winced. “She wasn’t surprised when she found out the guy who’d answered your phone was me, so I assumed she knew. I might’ve said something about wedding planning.”
Aurelia surprised me when she chuckled lightly instead of exploding on me over accidentally telling her parents she was engaged. “Don’t worry about it. I’m actually really glad it’s out of the way. Besides, we weren’t going to be able to keep her out of the wedding planning anyway.”
“You’re not pissed at me?”
“Nope.” She finally finished busying herself with the coffee and cocked a hip against the counter, turning to me as she tightened the white silk belt of her robe. “Honestly, I’m happy they know now and that I wasn’t the one who had to tell them. Maybe that makes me a coward, but our relationship is complicated. I’m sure they didn’t mind finding out from my rich and powerful fiancé instead of from their daughter.”
My eyebrows swept up. “That seems wrong. What makes you think that?”
She shrugged. “My parents have always seen me as this perfect little beauty queen. Don’t get me wrong, they love me and I love them, but I’ve never acted like the daughter they wanted.”
“In what way?” I frowned. “You’re awesome. Why would they have wanted anything different?”
“A challenging, purposeful career was never part of their plan for me.” Steam started curling from the machine and the bitter scent of fresh espresso filled the air a moment before the machine started spitting into the mugs. “They always assumed I was just doing it to pass the time and that eventually I wouldsettle down. Find a husband. Make some babies. Join a few charities and live happily ever after.”
