“Oh, I’m very sorry to hear that. May I inquire as to how they passed?” I looked at her pearls and her cream colored pantsuit and I wanted to say ‘no you may not’ in that same haughty tone she was using with me. Instead, I bit my tongue, for Caleb’s sake.
“My father committed suicide when I was thirteen and my mother died of pancreatic cancer during my senior year of high school. When they were alive, my mom taught fifth grade, and my dad just kind of hopped from one job to another.”
She looked unruffled but I saw a slight tensing of her hand as it clutched the stem of her wine glass. I was no good riff-raff. A stain on her high society living. She would be mortified if I became her daughter-in-law.
“How did you manage?” she looked genuine this time, sweet even, and I saw what Caleb saw—a good mother.
“You’ll be surprised what someone is able to handle given no other choice.” Caleb squeezed my hand under the table.
“That must have been very difficult for you,” she said.
“It was.” I bit my lip because now I wanted to cry. I responded to sweetness like a f**king fruit fly and now she’d managed to disarm me.
“Caleb, love,” she said in that same honeyed tone. “Did you make any decisions about London?”
London? I looked at his face. He was holding his breath, his eyes amber intensity.
“No. We’ve already discussed this.”
“Oh, well you best hurry up, an opportunity like that won’t be around forever. Besides, I can’t see any reason why you shouldn’t go,” she pointedly shot a glance in my direction.
“London?” I said quietly. I saw her raise an eyebrow out of the corner of my eye. Gloating.
“It’s nothing, Olivia,” he smiled weakly, and I knew it absolutely was ‘something’.
“Caleb was offered a job in London,” Luca said, folding her hands beneath her chin, “by a very prestigious firm. And of course he still considers London his home because all of his friends are there and most of his extended family as well. We are very supportive of his making the move.”
My mind went blank. I felt like someone had just dumped a bucket of cold water over my head.
“I don’t want to go,” he looked at me now—only me. I searched his face, trying to decide if he was being sincere. “Maybe if you had already graduated, you could go with me. It would be a possibility. But, as long as you are here, that’s where I am going to be.”
I froze. He had just thwarted his mother in front of me and made it known that I was his number one priority. If there was an altar of Caleb, I would have gladly worshiped there.
“Caleb, you can not be serious,” his mother’s face twitched as her good breeding fought against her outrage.
“You barely know her. I hardly think that you should make a decision based on some fling.”
“That’s enough,” he said it calmly, but it was easy to see that he was ruffled.
Caleb tossed his napkin into the plate in front of him and pushed back his chair. “Do you really think that if Olivia was just a fling I would have brought her here to meet you?”
“Well, she‘s certainly not the first girl you‘ve brought home. You were very serious about Jessica and—”
“Luca,” this warning came from his stepfather, who until now had been observing the whole exchange in silence. “This is none of your business.”
“My son is most certainly my business,” she spat, lifting her small frame from the table, “I refuse to watch him throw his life away for an opportunity hungry…”
“Let’s go, Olivia.” Caleb grabbed my hand and pulled me up from the table. I was holding a mouthful of half chewed potato in my cheek. I swallowed it abruptly and looked at Caleb in growing confusion. Was he really walking out in the middle of supper because of me? Should I do something?
“I have never spoken harshly to you before and I’m not going to start today,” he said to her calmly, though by the rigid set of his shoulders and the firm grip he had on my hand, I knew his calmness was a farce. Caleb’s anger boiled beneath the surface like hot lava and when it erupted, there was no getting away. “If you don’t accept Olivia, then you don’t accept me.” And then he walked me out of the room so quickly I barely had a chance to digest what had just happened.
“Caleb?” I said when we were in the driveway. He stopped walking and I almost toppled over as I was pulled to a skidding halt. Before I could say anything else, he spun me around like we were dancing and pulled me against his chest.
“I’m sorry, Duchess,” he said kissing me softly on the lips. Both of his hands were on my face and his eyes were locked with mine in such intensity I wanted to cry.
“What are you sorry for?” I whispered, leaning up on my tiptoes to kiss him again.
“For that,” he said beckoning to the house with a nod of his head. “I was expecting her to give you a hard time, but nothing like that. Her behavior was inexcusable. I’m so ashamed I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything. She’s your mother and she wants the best for you. I would probably be suspicious of me, too.”
“You are my family now,” he said earnestly, “and if they can’t accept that then to hell with them.”
He hugged me tightly and led me to the car. I followed him mute and trembling. No one had ever done anything as tangible to let me know that they loved me. Caleb’s family meant the world to him and he had just chosen me over them. I clung to his hand in the car on the ride home and tried to make sense of things.