Well, that’s because she doesn’t know I have nothing underneath. Thankfully, it’s long enough not to accidentally flash anyone unless I bend over low. Or if a kid falls near me and gets a view right up the beaver.Jesus, I hope no kid will fall around me.
I worriedly scan the room and notice that Lex is returning. He’s with us in seconds and wraps an arm around my hips. “You’re gorgeous, my love,” he whispers, kissing my temple.
That doesn’t help soothe my racing heart. Especially not when I catch someone looking at me from the other side of the room. Lex’s mother is a beautiful woman in her seventies, her dirty blonde hair shaped into a perfect French twist. Her posture is straighter than a queen’s, and there’s something intimidating in the way she keeps her chin slightly up. She’s wearing an off-white flowy shirt tucked into a pair of high-waisted, wide-legged pants with ironing lines on the front. At her neck, there’s a single row of large pearls, identical ones at her ears, and a bracelet that matches on her skinny wrist. There’s something cold and haughty about her, and the look she gives me chills me to my bones.
To my relief, the two men here are too young to be Lex’s father, so I cling to the hope that I’ll be spared having to meet him.
Lucy joins them, and Lex encourages me to come along with a gentle push. I comply, my body on autopilot, and stand there, motionless, as he makes the introductions.
“Everyone, this is Andrea Walker,” he tells them. “Andrea, these are Lucy—whom you already know—her husband Patrick, and their two sons, Theodore and William. Julia is the one who opened the door for you. Her fiancé, Justin, had to stay in Dallas. Then Emilia and Frank, with their daughters Millie and Charlie.”
His hand is still on my back, and while it helps a little, it becomes ridiculously ineffective when we turn to the last person. “And this is my mother, Miriam,” Lex concludes.
She arches her brow, which is very much something Lex does, but the disdain in her expression is entirely new. Fuck, she already hates me. Which makes sense because I look like a hooker. What mother would want that for their son?!
“Hi, everyone,” I shyly say to the group with an awkward wave.
The ten minutes that follow are a nervous blur. Everyone wants a piece of me, curious to know more about the woman who finally harpooned Lex’s heart. The kids are well-behaved, gathered on the couch as the oldest boy plays with a Switch while his brother and cousins watch. Lex’s sisters are warmer than I anticipated, and only Lucy seems to have that intense authority, like Lex.
Well, them and their mother. Whenever I cross Mrs. Coleman’s aloof gaze, I want to disappear into a hole a little more. Why the fuck did I ever buy this dress?!
I notice the grocery bag on the counter and decide to use that as an excuse to get a little breather. Lex, who’s been quite silent this whole time, lets go of me and I walk up to the kitchen island to put away what’s in it. I’ve just gotten the steak out when Lex’s mother joins me.
“So, you’re the woman I’ve heard so much about?” she asks. Her British accent takes me by surprise. I had no idea she wasn’t American, since Lex rarely talks about his parents, and I don’t want to force him to.
“That would be me, yes,” I answer with a forced smile.
I keep emptying the bag, which is a strategic mistake. It’s very clear that I was about to cook mac and cheese with steak, and she notices. When I catch the disdain in her eyes as she glares at the ingredients, I feel compelled to defend myself.
“This was, um, your son’s request. He insisted it was his favorite meal. I can cook, I promise.”
She somehow turns that into a bad thing when she says, “Well, I can’t. I’ve always had others do it for me.”
Charming.
I can feel her hawk eyes on me the whole time I put everything away, but I don’t let it take me down. It doesn’t matter if she likes me or not. All that matters is that Lex does.
“I’m sure I can find something a little less childish to cook for us,” I suggest when I face her again.
She dismisses the offer with a wave as if the idea of doing something as pedestrian as cooking is absurd. “A catering team will arrive soon. They’ll take care of everything.”
Ugh, my cozy little plans alone with Lex are long gone, and I miss them dearly.
Mrs. Coleman crosses her arms in front of her, inquisitively looking down at me. On her perfectly manicured hands, she has several gold and diamond rings—including an obscenely large engagement ring.
“So, how did you and my son become a thing, Miss Walker?”
“Please, call me Andy,” I insist, ignoring the reductive way she framed our relationship. “And we work together. Or I guess I work for him.”
“I already knew that. I meant, how did it all happen?”
We wanted to fuck each other’s brains out because your son is a stone-cold hunk who loves my ass. So we did that for a while, and after he’d railed me within an inch of my life a few times, feelings started growing.
I want to answer that to see her reaction, but I hold back and say, “Well, we worked together a lot since his company bought a project from me, and with all the late nights and talks, we slowly fell in love with one another.”
“What an interesting development…”
I glimpse at Lex, wishing he’d come to save me from his dragon of a mother. But it’s like he’s zoned out, lost in his own little world in his head as he absentmindedly cracks his knuckles. Miriam Coleman is intimidating as fuck, and I don’t know how to handle her. I neededweeksof psychological preparation, but instead, I have to improvise with a woman who seems deprived of mercy or indulgence. Knowing Lex grew up with her as a mother, I can absolutely understand why he’s so emotionally scarred.
