When she let him go, she ushered them all into the massive front hall and turned to Leaf and Seth. “I’m Nicole Rice, this one’s mother. It’s nice to meet you two,” she said, holding out her hand to Seth, who happened to be the closest.
“Seth Kent. Nice to meet you too. We’ve heard a lot about you, Mrs. Rice.” Seth beamed a smile at her and did the attractive scrunchy thing with his eyes that still made Dev weak in the knees.
Apparently, it worked on his mom as well.
“I’m quite happy to say the same, and please call me Nicole.”
Seth nodded and stepped to the side to make room for Leaf.
“And you must be Leaf,” she said, smiling.
Leaf looked oddly bashful under her inquisitive gaze. “Yes, ma’am, I’m Leaf DeWitt,” he uttered to a woman only a few years younger than him. The honorific sounded off to Dev’s ears, but suddenly he realized that Leaf thought of good mothers differently, just like Seth. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise. Please call me Nicole.”
“Where’s Dad?” Dev asked, breaking the possibly gathering awkwardness. Preemptive awkwardness-breaking was his specialty in tricky situations.
“He took Angel to the office, something about opinions on some animated short they’re doing for the Supersecret Project.”
“Oh, right. I’d heard about those. Good of him to include Angel.”
“I think so too,” she said, nodding. “Oh, I made sure the biggest guest room is yours for the weekend. I didn’t think it would make much sense to try to cram a king-size bed into your room, Dev,” she called over her shoulder as she turned to go to the stairs, obviously showing them the way.
Yeah, Dev might’ve blushed at the implications, but then so did Seth and Leaf, so it was all okay.
He’d never stayed in one of the guest rooms before, but they’d gotten the one that was pretty much the size of the master suite at the other end of the second floor. The attached bathroom was massive and modern, with a Jacuzzi tub one might ordinarily see in high end hotels.
“Dev will be able to find you anything you might need. I’m going to go check the laundry. I told Andrew that he and Angel should be home by six for dinner, so I’m aiming to serve dinner at six thirty, because they’ll be late.” Mom grinned at them all. “So, around five thirty, if I could get some help in the kitchen, I’d appreciate it. Oh, you know, Leaf, Dev has told me you’re the chef of the family, so if you would be so kind….”
“Oh, absolutely, I’ll be there,” Leaf said, his expression suitably deer-in-the-headlights-y.
“Excellent,” she said cheerily, and left the room, closing the door behind her.
They all stared at each other silently for a few beats, and then Leaf asked, “What just happened?”
“Uh….” Seth looked baffled too.
“I see it’s been a while since you got the parental shovel talk,” Dev teased. “Because that’s whatthatwas. Be prepared.”
Leaf looked scared for a moment.
“It won’t be too bad. She’s… protective.”
“And we haven’t even met your dad yet,” Seth murmured, making Leaf groan out loud.
THEY HADtime before Leaf had to go face the motherly inquisition, so Dev showed them around the house. He could tell both Seth and Leaf were a bit in awe at the obvious wealth, but neither of them said anything about it.
“It must’ve been great growing up in this house,” Seth said when they got to the media room, which was basically a home cinema with some additional gaming consoles and things added to the mix.
“Yeah, it was. I mean, we didn’t move here until Angel and I had turned eleven, I think. But yeah, for our teens it was awesome. We were pretty popular, not that our house was anywhere near the fanciest one in the neighborhood. We went to a private school, so there was always going to be someone richer, which was just fine for us.”
“I can understand that. I’d expect that the stereotype of the richest kids being brats and mostly liked because of the things that allows them to have is correct?” Leaf mused as they walked toward the back of the house and into the backyard, which Dev had left last.
“Oh yeah. There was this ambassador’s daughter who was a horrid bitch. Dated this jock, the son of a CEO of, well, let’s say your house has electronics from the company. Anyway, they were the most horrible people. Spoiled brats who had everything, except an actual, loving family or rules.”
“So all those teen shows on TV don’t get it wrong, much?” Seth smiled sadly.
“Well, other than the fact that no sixteen-year-old ever looks like they do on the shows, no.”
