Outsider
. . .
Cade
Mac was a spineless coward.
Instead of running interference, he let my mother talk him into a spa appointment while she perched on a deck chair to watch our next activity with Lovejoy—group meditation.
It involved taking off our shoes, wearing loose linen pants, and sitting on the deck in a circle like schoolchildren.
I didn’t care for it.
“We’re taking it easy today after all the indulging last night,” Lovejoy said as we got settled. She winked at Ellie, who smiled sheepishly. “Let’s rest our bodies and nourish our souls. Close your eyes and breathe in deeply with me, hold for four seconds, then exhale slowly.”
Madison and Piper were the first to close their eyes, followed by Ellie and Harrison. Candace rolled hers before following suit, and I shared a glance with Vlad before doing the same. But I cracked one eye open long enough to see my mother glaring at the back of Ellie’s head.
No amount of meditation could help me relax right now.
My mother cornered me the second Lovejoy gave us a ten-minute break.
I was just grateful Ellie had already scampered back to our cabin to check on Whiskey, while the others grabbed cocktails at the bar.
“She’s not the one for you,” my mother stated bluntly, readjusting her strand of pearls. “It couldn’t be clearer that you don’t fit. Best-case scenario, she’s an outsider trying to claw her way into a finer life. Worst case, the scandal of this marriage will be the downfall of our entire family.”
I didn’t blink at her dramatics. Vivienne Westbrook had always been a fan of the theatre and her never-ending soap operas.
“You got all that from twenty minutes of watching her meditate?” I asked dryly.
She laughed airily before lowering her voice. “Be honest. Is this a cry for help? Are you having a mental breakdown?”
Now I stared. “A mental breakdown? Really?”
“Well, I can’t think of any other reason you’d throw out your standards and get involved with someone this far below you.” She frowned. “Unless she’s pregnant. If she thinks she can trap you with a baby—”
“There’s no baby,” I bit out. Did everyone think Ellie was pregnant?
My mother’s sharp eyes narrowed. “Either way, she’s the kind of woman you hide behind closed doors, Caden. Not the kind you marry. Don’t make a fool of yourself. I’m your mother, and I know you better than you know yourself. That outsider has no business—”
“Careful,” I warned, feeling my gaze cool. “That ‘outsider’ is my fiancée.”
“A fiancée who’s clearly not built for our life. She’s too soft. You need to end this before a divorce stains your image.”
I couldn’t help it—I laughed. “You’re really giving me relationship advice when you’re on divorce number eight? Or is it nine now? I’ve lost count.”
It was the wrong thing to say, and I knew it. But my mother needed to realize this wasn’t up to her.
She bristled, tone going cold. “I’m not the one up for a life-changing promotion. This is your future, and I won’t let you throw it away on some brainless gold-digging harpy.”
“Ellie’s neither a gold digger nor a harpy,” I said slowly, hardly believing she’d used such a ridiculous term. “And she’s not brainless. You don’t know her.”
“And whose fault is that?” She crossed her arms. “You haven’t given me a chance to know her. I wasn’t even aware you were seeing someone, and now you’re engaged. Do you know how heartbreaking that is for a mother?”
I winced, because it wasn’t something I would’ve done normally, and of course it’d hurt her.
“I’m sorry.” The words scraped like sandpaper against my tongue, but preserving the peace was crucial. “The proposal was recent, but I should’ve mentioned Ellie sooner. I wasn’t thinking.”
A hint of the ice around her edges thawed. “I just worry, son. It’s like I’m not even part of your life anymore. Especially now.” She paused before adding, “And I can’t think of a single explanation for why you’d marry a girl with blue hair. It’s an abomination.”
“She dyed her hair for charity,” I explained, and the lie rolled off my tongue like second nature this time. “It was for a good cause.”
My mother scowled. “What kind of backward charity asks people to dye their hair blue? What was the cause?”
“Ocean-cleaning efforts,” I lied smoothly. It was the first thing that came to mind related to the color blue, but her scowl only deepened. “And the children. Half of it went to the children.”
That was always a safe answer.
My mother’s shoulders loosened—it’d worked.
“Well.” She sniffed and adjusted her pearls. “I’m surprised she didn’t have time to stop in a salon before this trip. You should’ve called me. Evangeline could fix that in a day.”
Little did she know the timeline we’d been working with. “We joined the trip last minute, but I’ll keep that in mind for next time.”
She hummed noncommittally. “You understand why I have reservations about this, don’t you?
You’re the first in line to take over for Tobias one day.
Do you really want to risk that by marrying someone so…
common? She doesn’t look like she’s attended a single dinner party in her life,” she said, nose wrinkling.
“Well, one that doesn’t involve screw-top wine. ”
“Play nice, Mother,” I warned evenly.
“I’m always nice,” she countered, lifting her chin. “But at least keep her away from your grandfather, or he’ll think you’ve lost your mind and can’t be trusted with the company.”
The recipient of her scrutiny returned through the sliding doors across from us, saving me from having to answer.
“I should get back. Our break’s over,” I told my mother, stepping away. “Why don’t you make use of the spa? Get a few treatments to recover from all that traveling.”
She let the silence linger before answering. “Think about what I said, and we’ll talk again later.”
Or not, I thought, already walking toward a yawning Ellie. She gave a weak wave when I approached.
“You okay?” I asked.
“I think so. The meditation helped, and I just drank a whole week’s worth of water.” She patted her stomach and leaned to look around me. “Should I meet your mom now? More officially, I mean.”
“Not yet,” I said, wanting to avoid that trainwreck. “Maybe we’ll have dinner or something with her later.”
Ellie hesitated and looked around me again, spotting my mother—who was still watching us instead of going to the spa—before nodding. “Sounds like a plan.”
Lovejoy called for everyone to reconvene, but I took hold of Ellie’s wrist to give one more warning.
“My mother can be a handful, so our best play is for you to be seen but not heard. Let her see you on deck and with me but try not to talk to her. I’ll get her and my grandfather off the yacht as soon as I can. ”
Ellie stared down at my fingers circling her wrist. “Being seen but not heard sounds a bit outdated. Won’t it be strange if I don’t talk to your family?”
“I’ll tell them you’re shy. It’ll be fine.”
Her brows pulled together, but she slowly nodded again. “Okay. If that’s what you want.”
“It is,” I said, dropping her wrist.
By the time Lovejoy ushered us all back to the meditation circle, my shoulders were tenser than when we’d started.
And I’d lied. If I was being honest with myself, what I actually wanted was for the day to be over so I could crawl back into bed with Ellie.