“Okay, thanks. I’ll pass the information along.” I pushed to my feet and worked my way to the door.
“Jaquelynn.”
I paused, twisting to look back at him.
“Remember, you are my daughter. I have little doubt that you will learn to control this.”
I nodded, not answering.
Me? Learn control? Yeah, right.
Chapter eighteen
Jack
ClosingAntoine’sofficedoorbehind me, I decided I needed a drink before I did anything else. Who knew listening to someone else’s trauma was such thirsty work?
“Hey, Jack,” my mom’s voice called from the living area. “Can you come in here?”
Staring longingly in the direction of the kitchen, I sighed and walked into the living room only to be greeted with two familiar faces sitting on the couch next to my mom.
“Look who came to see you,” my mom announced with a wide grin.
“Jack!” Xinyi jumped off the couch, wrapping her arms around me in a tight hug. “We figured you couldn’t come to us, so we came to you!”
I locked eyes with Iris over Xinyi’s shoulder, who simply smiled that mysterious smile of hers, looking like the statuesque Greek goddess she was. She glanced over at my mom a few times with an indiscernible expression.
I chalked it up to her being anti-social to other humans. I’d never seen her spend time with any other humans but Xinyi and me.
Once I pried Xinyi off me, and so as to not make Iris anymore uncomfortable, I said, “I’m happy to see you, too, but you didn’t have to come all the way out here. I could have met you somewhere.”
“And miss the chance to see how the other side lives?” Xinyi pouted. “No way!”
I arched a brow at my mom, who only smiled.
“We were going to go to this dance club that just opened up a few weeks ago,” Xinyi continued as she always did, not waiting for others to ask, “and we came to see if you wanted to come with us.”
I tried my best to school my face. A dance club? Me? That was just asking for disaster to strike. I could slow dance with the best of them but actually dance dance? I was afraid I had my mother’s two left feet and a tendency toward hazardous events.
My mom, on the other hand, clapped her hands together and stood with way more enthusiasm than I felt. “That’s a great idea! You know, I have just the outfit you should wear.” She moved over to take Xinyi’s spot. “You will love it, and it’ll make the guys go wild.”
“Oh, yay!” Xinyi practically vibrated with excitement. “I was hoping you had something to wear. This one wouldn’t let me bring anything over for you.”
“My love, you wanted to bring your whole closet. I believe that is a bit on the extreme side.” Iris sent me a knowing look.
“Don’t you worry, I’ve got her covered,” my mom reassured Xinyi. “Come on, let’s get you ready to party!”
I gave her a weak smile. “Great,” I drew out as my mom dragged me from the room.
Once in my mom’s room, I stood awkwardly in the middle, not really wanting to be there. Even though she had seven partners, she still had her own room.
I supposed it only made sense. It wouldn’t be fair for her to look like she was giving favoritism to one of my dads over the other. Still, I thought part of it was because of how messy she could be.
There were clothes strewn across the bedspread and spilling out of her closet. Shoes without matches peeked out from under the bed, and piles of gossip magazines and romance novels littered every surface of the room. I thought I even saw the glint of a dagger sticking out from the side of the mattress.
“Here we are,” my mom said, pulling out a hanger from her closet. “You’re a bit taller than me, so you don’t have to wear sky high heels like I did when I wore this. But I think it’ll look great on you. Plus pants.” She winked. “I know how much you hate dresses.”
She held out the hanger, holding a shimmery black jumpsuit that indeed had pants. Unfortunately, that did not make up for the fact that the top half was a halter top that plunged in the front and was nonexistent on the back.
