Maybe you should consider taking a deep breath and quit worrying so much.
Worrying was precisely what had kept Mom alive all these years.
It’s a dinner with his family...who you know. It’s not life or death.
I’d take a life or death sort of thing right now, actually.
Good Lord.
Ignoring the judgment in her voice, I walked through the front doors and into the lobby, taking the deep breath she’d advised and looking around. It wasn’t busy, but it was also that part of a Sunday evening when most people would be out gettingdinner or in their rooms. The few people in the lobby were either at the bar or in the restaurant, eating and talking.
“Huh,” I said as I looked around, realizing fifteen years really had passed.
Matilda had made some renovations since the last time I’d been there, and they were...well, unpredictable, but I certainly wasn’t surprised. Before, the hotel had given off a kind of off-brand fancy decor, clearly chosen by the owners before her, who, if I recalled, were her parents. All that fanciness had disappeared, but you could still see its influence here and there. Mostly, I would have called it Art Nouveau, with a twist. In the sense that there was still plenty of color, even the fake window behind the front desk was backlit to show the stained glass off beautifully.
It was there in the pictures hanging from the walls, with their depictions of women staring at the viewer in mysterious ways, looking beautiful and ethereal. The wooden bannisters that led up to the second floor looked like intertwined branches. Yet there were still the old influences as well, the gold chandelier above the lobby, which I was pretty sure was genuine crystal, and the gold frames of paintings and mirrors.
She had dragged the old-world attempt to show off class and money into the modern world, with her own personality. The restaurant was bigger than I remembered, and the bar had gone through its own overhaul, much bigger than before. Even the lighting was different, still dim because people seemed to like their bars dim, but it gave the soft glow of more modern lights.
Are you starting to crunch the numbers for how much the renovations cost?
Her amusement brought me out of my head rather than her words. I had been thinking about how much money must have been put into the hotel, along with wondering whether the rooms themselves had undergone any renovations. I would betthey had. Matilda had never been one to half-ass anything. I could only imagine how much money it had taken, which meant the hotel had either gone through a massive boom in the past fifteen years, or I really hadn’t understood how successful it had been back then.
Looking at the front desk, I felt a jolt go through me when I saw the tall woman bent over, tapping at a screen while talking to someone. Moira looked different yet the same. She had chopped her previously long hair off, but she had discovered makeup that didn’t make her look ready to ride into battle. The effect was androgynous, but feminine. She still looked like she could take control of a situation with her words alone, but wouldn’t hesitate to take off her heels to bash you over the head if you got any wrong ideas.
Thinking it was probably a good idea if I found another way to calm myself down, I made my way to the bar. Her head came up at one point, but I kept walking, never looking back. Once I was in the relative safety of the dim bar, I allowed myself to take a breath. Dom had already texted me to say he was going to be a little late, so I would have to hang around the bar and wait for him. There was no way in hell I was going to risk meeting any of his family by myself.
“Can I get...I don’t know, something strong, I don’t care if it tastes like pure liquor,” I muttered when I got to the bar and sat down.
“Sure,” a voice said, and my head snapped up.
Oh God.
Mason was...well, Mason. He had gotten bigger, just like Dom. He must be pushing forty, but you wouldn’t know it looking at him. He was still handsome, though not in a way that demanded attention, and there was still that knowing twinkle in his eye that promised he knew plenty about you and he might or might not use that to torture you.
“I think I know just the thing,” he said, tilting his head before walking off to make the drink.
I let out a low breath of relief. I hadn’t seen a flicker of recognition in his face, and I hoped it stayed that way. Of all the siblings, Mason was one I didn’t expect to recognize me right away since I had rarely seen him. Before my feelings for Dom had grown, I’d had a bit of a crush on him, and it was weird to realize he was still attractive. Not nearly as attractive as Dom, of course, I didn’t think anyone was ever going to knock him out of the top spot, but still attractive.
“Lord,” I muttered.
It had taken Dom almost two weeks to convince me to have dinner with his family. I had put him off repeatedly because everything about it had screamed bad idea. Of course, he’d had to pull out the fact that if he couldn’t be part of my life completely, that didn’t mean I couldn’t still be a part of his. It was a logic I had been unable to argue against, and then he added how much he wanted his family to see me again, and they had asked about me a lot after I had disappeared.
Now I realized it really was a bad idea, and I was right all along. It was going to be awkward, and there would probably be a lot of questions I couldn’t or wouldn’t answer.
“Here you go,” Mason said, sliding something dark in front of me. “That should kick you right in the throat. Might do it to your stomach too, I guess we’ll see.”
“Awesome,” I said, reaching for my wallet and pausing, not willing to hand over my card with my name on it. He might not recognize me right away, but if he were looking at me and saw my name, the two might click. “Cash works, right?”
“Are you opening a tab?”
“Might be, not sure yet.”
“We can open one for you then, and you can pay at the end. Just don’t take off before you pay, or we’ll have to break your kneecaps.”
“Right,” I said, wanting to eye him warily but turning so I was looking at my drink.
Wow, you, uh...really are acting like that fourteen-year-old with a crush on Dom’s older brother right now, just so you know.
