The house cleaner pops her head out of the office with a duster in her hand and greets me with a warm smile. She’s been with our family since I was a young child, except, when I was younger, I don’t remember all the gray hair. She’s always had it tied in a tight bun, though. She’s wearing simple jeans and a plain T-shirt, and the skin around her eyes wrinkles with her grin.
“Reid,” she greets. “Welcome home.”
I clear my throat a little, not bothering to correct her. “Hi, Sarah. Are my parents home?”
She nods and points her duster down the hallway that leads to the kitchen. “Just follow your nose. I baked some cookies for you, and they’re waiting on the counter.”
“Macadamia nut?” I ask, feeling slightly better about having my favorite treat on hand for whatever my mother wants.
Her smile grows, and she taps her temple. “I’ll never forget it.”
I touch her shoulder as I pass her. “Thanks.”
“Any time, dear. Say goodbye to me before you leave.”
“I will,” I agree, already halfway down the hall.
She was right. I can smell the cookies from here and follow the trail of them. Once I enter the grand kitchen, I nod to my father, who is reading the newspaper at the white marble island. I head around it and straight to my mother who is sorting the takeout boxes. I press a kiss to my mother’s cheek, and she leans into it, patting my shoulder in thanks.
“How was the drive?” she asks as I snatch a cookie from the plate settled on her right. My parents’ estate is a thirty-minute drive from campus.
“Windy,” I answer honestly around a mouthful. Cookie crumbles fall to my sweater, and I brush them off as I stuff the rest of it into my mouth.
She takes the takeout boxes to the large dining hall and sets each of our meals down on the massive table. My father follows me, and the chair legs scrape against the wood floor as we pull them out and take a seat. Grabbing a fork, she asks, “And school?”
Opening my box and picking up my own fork, I say, “Harder than last year. How’s work?”
My parents own several grand apartment and condo buildings, all acquired because they own the largest real estate company this side of the country. They built it from the ground up. Nothing was inherited, and I always admired them for it. What I don’t admire now is how they flaunt their money. Hell, my fork is gold. I grimace about it as I take a bite of my sweet and sour chicken.
My mother’s eyes light up. “We just bought out Echo Realty, actually.”
I raise my eyebrows. “That’s what, the third real estate company you’ve taken over?”
She waves a hand in the air. “I don’t keep track, dear. Accomplishments are accomplishments, and goals are goals.” Under her breath, she adds, “You’d know if you had any.”
My father grumbles a warning, saying her name.
“It’s fine, Dad.”
Her head whips to me, and she narrows her eyes, and I know the real reason for me being here is about to begin. “It’s not fine. You could have chosen any college you wanted to, but you chose Smithson University. You could have gone to Harvard. You had the acceptance letter in your hand, and you just threw it away.”
I shrug and lean back in my seat, my food looking unappetizing now. “It didn’t feel right.”
And honestly, if asked if I’d ever change my mind, I wouldn’t in a heartbeat. I made the right call. That school wasn’t for me, and I knew it even then, an eager high school graduate.
“Well, we can’t all go on our gut feelings. Look how that turned out with your last girlfriend.”
I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. “When are you going to let that go?”
She points at me. “You let her destroy you, and she almost destroyed this family. Think what would have happened if you’d have married her.”
Flicking my gaze back to hers, I pin her with a stare. “But I didn’t, so the point of this conversation is …?”
“We didn’t call you here to fight,” my father interjects.
“Then what did you call me here for?”
After a moment, my mother takes a deep breath and releases it with a smile. She settles her posture and says, “Dorothy’s parents would like to move the wedding up to next summer. Oh, and they found the perfect venue. You should see the view and the -”
