Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I thought we had the best of times during dinner with everyone talking and laughing.
Everyone except for Soyer, who was minimal in his comments and conversation, and given that Dwayne was sitting on his other side, I just hadn’t ended up at the chattiest corner of the table, and with Ben on my other side, it fell to me to do something about that.
Then again, from this vantage point, I had a pretty good view of Ant, who was sitting next to Elias and had Sophie on his other side.
“Your aunt made those pies, huh,” Ant asked, looking at the plate on the table.
Sophie looked at him as if he had insulted her phone case. “Yes. It’s a hobby, but she’s unusually skilled.”
“That’s kinda cool. She’s the one my mom works out with sometimes, isn’t she? Sorry, I spend a lot of time at work and with humans, so I don’t often come along.”
Sophie narrowed her eyes at him. “I believe they occasionally spar, yes.”
I glanced at Ben, who was also watching the exchange, and I wanted to ask what it was really about, since I had a feeling I was missing the entirety of the subtext that was happening. But with everyone’s super hearing, that wouldn’t have been the best idea.
Laura was taking apart my sea rose napkin, and it looked as if she were trying to figure out how to do it.
First Rae tried helping her, then Ella leaned over Rae’s plate and got into deciphering my napkin origami as well.
What was really freaky was Dwayne’s face as he watched them all from where he was sitting.
He was smiling, I was pretty sure. It wasn’t a big smile, but even so, it made me feel warm and fuzzy.
While I had worried about the awkwardness of the vampires being guests at a dinner while being unable to eat, the three of them seemed perfectly fine with the wine. Kasey’s snakes wiggled happily while he talked with Vico and Simeon, and pretty much everyone around him.
The dinner broke up when Elias whined about wanting juice, making Chef take pity on him and head to the kitchen to run the juicer.
Laura, having abandoned the sea roses, wanted cookies and went to get those, and before long, what had started out as a sit-down meal turned into a more casual, comfortable buffet-type situation.
When I got myself another cup of cider, I looked over at the table where Soyer, Vico, and Chef had gathered in a corner.
I watched them discussing something, speaking French throughout.
I basked in the knowledge that Soyer could just do that, could just go off and speak French and be so easily understood.
“Are you staring at his behind or his shoulders?” Elias asked from behind me before sidling up next to me on our side of the kitchen island.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Plus, he’s sitting on his behind.”
He whined for a few seconds. “You don’t know what joys you’re missing out on. I could give you pointers about the things that I take note of when I look at other people. There’s a little bit of a mental checklist I typically run through. It’s quite helpful.”
“Like how full their champagne glasses are?”
He beamed at me. “No, that’s just you. I told you. I told you when we had juice that that is why you need me, and I stand by that, Amory. I’d not allow anyone else to steal your drinks, don’t you know that?”
“I’m not even arguing.”
“Good. You’re still not as social as you ought to be, but let’s not speak of all the wonderful work I shall be doing for you sooner rather than later.” He leaned in close. “Say, is there a chance—even the smallest—that you can make me a chocolate milkshake today?”
I had talked this through with Soyer. Elias didn’t really sound like he was expecting me to say yes. By my best judgment, he was trying to maybe make me feel guilty about having juice but no milkshakes for him, but for once, I was ahead of him.
“I absolutely cannot.”
Elias pouted. “You mean to say, Amory, that you made me convey your invitations and go to my knees in order to get Simeon and Valentin here, and—”
“I’m just not allowed to use the blender here. Soyer can make you a milkshake though.”
Elias’s eyes went wide, and his jaw dropped. “You mean that?”
“Soyer?” I hadn’t spoken loudly, but Soyer looked my way while Vico was talking. I pointed at Elias. “Do you think you could make us some milkshakes?”
I heard Elias’s incredulous gasp. “You will be sharing a milkshake with me? Two straws in one glass? My twin soul, you have found me!” He clasped my hand in both of his.
“You get your own milkshake and I get mine, and I’m not making it, so there is no rule breaking.”
Elias’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, the deviancy! I am so immensely proud of you, Amory! There is hope for you yet!”
“You may keep your deviancy to yourself, Young Hawthorne,” Soyer said as he was opening the freezer to get out the chocolate ice cream. “I’m guessing you like cream.”
Elias looked thrilled. It was a little like having a sibling again, so I didn’t mind.
Ella had come over to Soyer from where she’d been chatting with Sophie and Ant. “You said you’re making milkshakes?”
“Amory asked me to make him and Elias one, so that’s what I’m doing.”
“That’s a yes. Can you make me one?”
He sighed. “Try again.”
She had that annoyed teenager posture, but it was like she was trying too hard with it. “Can you make me one, please, with two straws, please?”
Soyer started spooning the ice cream into the blender. He let her stand there a while before answering, and to her credit, Ella just waited. “One milkshake. Fine.”
Ella nodded. “Thanks. I guess.” She looked around. “Want me to wash the dishes or anything?”
Which made my eyes go wide. As far as I was aware, the expectation of adolescence was that you tried to avoid chores.
“We have a dishwasher,” Soyer said, then hit the blender’s start button.
“That one has potential for delinquency as well,” Elias whispered in my ear, and I just barely caught it over the blender noise.
It was probably better to keep him occupied with juice dates and photo shoots if that was what it took to keep him thinking I was a good delinquent. Of course, I wasn’t, but I’d rather not risk his influence on Rae’s sister.
Ella watched Soyer while he made the milkshakes and eventually walked off with hers, two straws sticking out of the cream on top.
Soyer handed first Elias then me our respective milkshakes.
“Thank you,” I said.
“You are quite welcome, Amory.” Soyer watched me. “Just don’t share this one with anyone, hmm?” He looked right at Elias when he said it.
Next to me, Elias gasped. “Oh, to undress a lover with your hungry gaze alone…”
“And what have we here?” Valentin had broken away from a hushed conversation with Dwayne to join us.
Elias beamed. “Amory made Soyer make me a milkshake, and it’s chocolate! That way, he didn’t break the rules, and I get what I want. Isn’t that just perfect, Valentin?”
Valentin looked at Soyer. “You had to? When he’s in a mood to gloat, it can get difficult to shut him down.”
Soyer shrugged and put his arm around me. “Amory asked me. It’s not my problem what you do with your very youthful lover.”
“I see.” Valentin caressed Elias’s cheek, his touch lovingly gentle. “You enjoy yourself, Elias.”
Elias nodded while sucking on the straw, his eyes big. He wasn’t subtle, not even a little.
I didn’t really see Soyer smile at all, not in the way you might when you’re talking to friends, when you’re just being happy and having fun. Still, I could tell he was enjoying this. I could tell, no matter how much he would deny it, that he liked the kids.
Out of the corner of my eye, when I was chatting with Ant and Ben, I saw him talk to Sophie, and it looked like he was giving her a talking to, at least from her body language. I had no proof that he was telling her to be good to Ella, but I had a feeling.
Close to midnight, Dwayne picked up a sleeping Laura off our couch, and the two of them were the first out the door. Everyone else took that as their cue, and before too long, it was just the relative silence, the absence of which I hadn’t noticed, Chef, Vico, Soyer, and me.
“We should help you put things back to order,” Vico said, rolling up his shirtsleeves. Chef was in the kitchen and putting leftovers away already.
“There’s no need,” Soyer said.
Vico began piling plates. “I did not say there was a need, Bennet.”
I was at the kitchen island and picking up used glasses to get them to the sink when Chef caught my eye. “Thickheaded like two rhinoceros.” He said the word like it was pronounced in French and rolled his eyes for emphasis.
I nodded. “I guess.”
Soyer was now busy gathering up plates as well and gave me a critical look. “Amory, don’t soak up every bad influence that crosses your path, please.”
“Bad influence? Conneries,” Chef said.
Vico sorted what he could into the already pretty packed dishwasher. “And this, Amory, is why those two are not made for the service industry and we are, isn’t that right?”
Chef snorted. “Dit l’empoisonneur.”
Vico turned to me. “Chef remarks that, especially in his profession, he admires prompt and diligent servers like us. Where do you keep the dishwasher detergent?”
“Under the sink,” Soyer said, putting his pile of plates on the island next to me. “You don’t have to do anything. You can rest, have another glass of Champagne. I know Elias stole yours.”
Vico clicked his tongue. “That is unjust. How about the two of you have the last bit together while we straighten things before heading home?”
Soyer rolled his eyes. “You don’t have to.”
“Yes, yes.” Vico rolled out his ma?tre d’ charm and corralled us toward our breakfast table. “I’ll find you two glasses. It would be sacrilege to let the good bottle go to waste. We got it at this little chateau in the Champagne region. Lovely family running it, making wine and this.”
Soyer let the two of them rummage around in his kitchen, though he watched somewhat critically. Only when Vico was done pouring the remaining Champagne—two half glasses exactly—and had brought it over did Soyer ignore them and focus on me instead.
“What should we drink to, Amory?”
“Our first Thanksgiving? Well, friends-giving. I have to get used to calling it that. It was the first, so it was also the best, at least for now. Is that good enough?”
He raised his glass. “Perfect.” We clinked them together and drank. After a sip, he looked at his drink. “I mean, this is pretty good, but I’m not sure we should invite those two meddlesome men next year, even if they know their booze.”
Chef muttered something under his breath. Louder, Vico said, “Chef says nothing ever disturbs a skilled chef when he works in the kitchen unless it’s a dull knife. And even those can be sharpened.”
“I like our guests,” I said. “Vico, Chef, thanks for bringing this. And those pies were yummy.”
“Most welcome, Amory,” Vico said, looking up from wiping down the kitchen island.
Soyer’s frown was barely there, but he didn’t say anything, just looked at me in his attentive way, as if he hadn’t seen enough of me all day.
I said, “I liked your pumpkin. I should’ve taken photos of you and Ben taking it out of the oven.”
He took a deep breath. “It’s okay, Amory. I’ll make the same dish next year, and you can take all the pictures you want, hmm?”
My eyes misted over for exactly no reason. “Next year?”
“Sure.”
I felt my skin tingle, almost like the curse-feathers on my back were tickling me. “I can’t wait.”
“It was just a pumpkin, Amory. There’s no reason to get emotional over a big orange fruit.”
“But…you made it. And everyone liked it. Isn’t it funny that the chili was all gone by the end too? You’d think it wouldn’t go well with pumpkin, but different things sometimes shine better because they’re different.”
He sighed. “My heart, do you need to be cut off?”
I shook my head. “I’m fine.”
“Uh-huh. Listen, if you ask me nicely, we can bake real holiday cookies. We can get cookie cutters and everything, and if you ask very nicely, I’ll even let you help.”
“Really?” I couldn’t help it. The tears were just there.
“Fucking hell.” Soyer stood and walked right up to me, pressing my head against his belly as he stood there, shielding me from Vico and Chef, who couldn’t have missed this, but were being nice enough to completely ignore it while washing and drying dishes in the sink.
“I love you.”
“Yes, my heart, I know you do, and I love you right back. Come, what is this, Amory?”
I cackled, snot making the sound weird. “Well, you keep asking if I’m happy, so these are happy tears. I haven’t had a Thanksgiving—friends-giving!—like this in…ever, really. It’s such a family holiday, and my family… Well.”
I heard a long, slow exhale from Soyer. He stroked my hair before gently pulling my head back from where he was cradling me against him.
“My heart, whatever are you talking about? This was a family holiday. Your family was here. The two annoying uncles are even still in the kitchen and refusing to leave.”
He was right too, and because he was right, I started crying somewhat forcefully. Chef muttered something in French, but I didn’t hear what over my tears.
I was so happy, so immeasurably happy, and I had no words for it.
I wanted to share my happiness with Soyer, but didn’t quite know how, so the tears came.
It was fine though. He was there, and he was happy too.
Maybe not about me crying into his shirt, but the stains wouldn’t really show on all the black he wore.
After a few minutes, Vico brought me a big cup of tea. He’d found the blue Moonlight-colored tea and made that, and when I saw it, saw him smiling as he put the mug in front of me…I accidentally cried just a little bit harder.
Soyer grumbled. “Do you have to be this nice to him? Whatever happened to professional distance, huh?”
“Well, that ended when you christened me his uncle, Mr. Bennet, wouldn’t you say? That comes with a set of responsibilities.”
Soyer turned. “Eh, Martin,” he said, sounding totally French. “I thought you were a good influence on this one.”
I didn’t see Martin, but I heard him. “He’s right, and you know it.”
Soyer groaned, but he stroked my shoulders and the back of my head. I lifted my head to look at him, and with the light cresting over his head, he looked so beautiful, so… I didn’t have the words, but if belonging was a person, then it was Soyer.
I tried to clear my throat so I could speak. “Can we…maybe make a deal? With Rose? For the tea. So we can get the blue tea on the Moonlight’s menu, I mean.”
He raised his brow. “You want to put the tea on the menu?”
“Yeah. Because it’s blue. Like the Moonlight.”
Soyer huffed. “Sure, my heart. Whatever you want. Anything, anything at all that you want is yours, my love.”