13. THIRTEEN
THIRTEEN
CORY
My first thought was to somehow hide Garrett. To get him out of the room so he wouldn’t be subjected to meeting my mom. But there was no time for that considering she had taken it upon herself to see her way in.
I should’ve locked the door behind us.
And because she let herself in, there was no time to even prepare him before she was rounding the corner of the entryway hall and striding into the kitchen like she owned the place.
“Black? In a kitchen, Cordelia?” Her perusal of the kitchen ended when her gaze landed on Garrett, and she somehow managed to straighten her already stiff posture.
“Oh! I didn’t know you had a guest.” She shot me a scathing look as if I should’ve warned her I had company.
“I find that hard to believe considering his truck is parked in the driveway.” I rolled my eyes, not doubting for a second that she saw his truck, didn’t recognize it, and decided to nose around my business.
She ignored the comment and extended her frail looking hand out toward Garrett, palm down. “Annette Eastwood, and you are?”
“Garrett Adler. Nice to meet you, ma’am.”
The blush that stained her cheeks I swore was practiced, as if she could force it into existence at will.
“Oh please! I’m hardly old enough to be a ‘ma’am.’ Call me Annette.” Her posh voice was sickeningly sweet. “What is it you do for work? You don’t work with Cordelia do you?”
Garrett met my gaze and I wondered if he saw how desperately I wanted to get hit by a bus at that moment. Or more accurately, how badly I’d like my mother to get hit by a bus.
But if he did, he didn’t react to it. His voice was perfectly polite as he answered, “No, unfortunately I don’t. I’m a police officer for the city.”
She placed a hand over her heart and smiled widely. “Such an honorable profession. My husband, Robert, knows the chief. They play golf together every other Tuesday.”
It was a statement, but the way she spoke the words had it sounding more like a brag. As if she had to one up him with her personal connection to the chief.
Cutting my mother off before she could speak any further, I asked, “What are you doing here? I don’t remember inviting you.”
My mother scoffed. “Please. I’m your mother; I hardly need an invitation.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, arching an eyebrow. “As I recall, you told me a couple of months ago that you’re not my mother, and this is my house, so yes, you do need an invitation.”
“Don’t be silly, I never said that.”
My mouth dropped open, and I was stuck between wanting to laugh at her audacity and wanting to scream. If there was ever a moment that epitomized Annette Eastwood, it was this one.
I was about to get into it, but she kept talking.
“I only stopped by to let you know that your father and I are hosting a dinner party for his colleagues next weekend, and we expect to see you there.”
“I have plans next weekend,” I said, glaring at her.
I didn’t have plans, but I sure as shit wasn’t going to one of her parties to be paraded around and shamed for my choices, and that’s all it would be. It would be a night of subtle barbs and backhanded compliments, and I didn’t think I had it in me anymore to be the bigger person where my mother was concerned.
“Reschedule them.”
“I’m sorry, but that’s not going to happen. That’s not how life works.” I scoffed, growing exasperated with this song and dance of hers.
She turned her attention briefly to where Garrett still stood off to the side, eyes bouncing between me and my mother, and smiled. “Why don’t you bring Garrett with you. It’ll be nice for you to be seen with a gentleman instead of lurking by the bar all evening.”
My rebuttal was on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it .
I couldn’t believe I was even thinking it, but my mother might’ve been on to something. Maybe if she saw how a man like Garrett, a “respectable gentleman” as she put it, was genuinely interested in me, tattoos and all, maybe she’d cut the superficial bullshit and get over it. I knew it was a stretch, and that the likelihood of this blowing up in my face was far greater than ever changing how she saw me, but something had to give. Fighting with her all the time over something as stupid as what I put on my skin and what I did for a career was starting to take its toll on me, and I couldn’t keep doing it.
“Fine. We’ll be there.” I saw the shock on Garrett’s face and I sent him a look to hold on until she left so I could explain. Maybe it was presumptuous of me to assume he’d say yes to going with me, but I had a feeling he would. Or at least, I hoped he would. If not, this plan of mine would bite me in the ass immediately.
“Great! I’ll tell your father that the two of you will be attending.” Her smile was relieved if not a little disbelieving. Clearly she was expecting more resistance on my end. “Anyway, I’ve got to go meet the ladies at the country club. You know how Wednesdays are. It was lovely meeting you, Garrett.”
She started heading for the door, but stopped. “Oh, and please remember how to dress yourself for entertaining guests before then, Cordelia.”
And to think we were almost cordial.
With that, Hurricane Annette swept out of the house, the door shutting loudly behind her .
I locked eyes with Garrett and spoke before he could say anything. “I’m so sorry about her. You really don’t have to come with me next weekend, but if you do I’ll love you forever.”
His eyebrows shot up, a playful smirk on his lips. “You’ll love me forever, huh? Wow, I guess I’m on better footing than I thought.”
I gave him a sarcastic laugh and inwardly cursed my slip of the tongue. “Shut up. You know what I mean. So you’ll go with me?”
He crossed over to where I stood in a few long strides, his hands coming to rest on the counter behind me, bracketing my hips and caging me in.
“Sure, I’ll go with you, but you have to answer something for me.”
This felt like a trap, but it wasn’t one I could avoid. “Okay.”
“Why?” His face was close to mine in this position, his eyes holding my undivided attention. There wasn’t judgment in them, just curiosity.
“Why do I want you to go?”
“No. Why are you going? It’s clear you don’t like her. Hell, I don’t like her and I’ve only known her for ten minutes. Why are you humoring her if you don’t like her?” he asked in a level voice.
“I’m hoping bringing you as my date will get her to ease up on me a bit. That seeing us together will get her to realize I can still be successful even if I’m not on the path she wants me on. ”
He nodded. “Fair enough. Will there be fancy hors d’oeuvres and free booze?”
Laughter bubbled out of me. “Yes. My mother’s parties are nothing if not over the top.”
“And you’ll be there?” His low voice made my insides take flight, my gaze gravitating toward his mouth. It would be so easy to close the space between us and lose myself in him. I wanted to lose myself in him, which was exactly why I leaned back, putting some distance between us.
I cleared my throat to make sure it didn’t sound as lust riddled as my brain was. “I will be, yes.”
“Fancy food, alcohol, and you? Yeah, I’ll definitely be there.”
I smiled up at him. “Thank you, Garrett.”
He winked down at me as he straightened up, hands falling by his sides. “Of course. Anything for you.”
“I’m glad you said that because you’ll need to rent a tux.”