A Life Without Fear (Life #2) (10 page)

I hear the sound of heels clicking on the floor as we approach followed by solid footsteps behind that. Turning the kitchen corner, we come upon Mr. and Mrs. Harper. They’re both beautiful. Mrs. Harper is a gorgeous woman. She has a long blonde bob hair style, light makeup, and amazing fashion sense. Mr. Harper is dapper in khakis and a dress shirt. They’re both matching one another—they’re wearing a light blue color. That’s the cutest yet cheesiest thing ever.

“Mom, Dad, this is Angelica Cane, my girlfriend.” He smiles at them both. I break eye contact with his parents to meet his eyes. He knows what he’s said and he knows I heard him loud and clear. He pulls me closer to his side. I’ll have to discuss that with him later. “Angelica this is my mother, Charlotte and my father, Michael.”

“Good evening Mr. and Mrs. Harper, it’s a pleasure to meet you both.” I step forward and put my hand in front of Michael, he surprises me by grabbing me into a full-on bear hug.

“None of those formalities for us sweetie, we hug in this family. Call me Michael.”

“And call me Charlotte, please,” Charlotte says from beside him. Michael releases me then she takes me in her arms and hugs me just as tightly.

“God, Mom and Dad, you guys promised not to embarrass me.” Blake is looking at his feet and his cheeks are beet red.

“Oh hush, we aren’t embarrassing you, Blake,” Charlotte says as she winks at me. After she lets go of me, I walk back beside Blake and hold his hand.

“Oh Michael, look how perfect they are together.”

“
Mom!
” Both of his parents start laughing and I can’t help but to join in.

“Okay, okay, I’ll try to stop embarrassing you,” Charlotte responds.

We all walk into the kitchen and grab our glasses of wine. Blake has us sit in the living room and he starts a fire with a click of a button, then walks to retrieve a restaurant menu so we can order.

Just as I’m beginning to fear the awkward silence, Michael speaks, “So Angelica, how long have you lived in the city?”

“My whole life, I grew up here. My grandfather owns a large ranch in Texas that I often visited as a child, so I like to think I grew up there too.”

“How lovely, what part of Texas?” Charlotte asks.

“Three Rivers, it’s a small town.”

“I think I’ve heard of that area, it’s an oil town right?” Michael questions.

“Yes, sir.”

“Yes, I think a golf buddy of mine has mentioned it in passing.”

“Does all your family live in Texas?” Charlotte asks with a smile. I mirror it.

“No, only my grandfather does. My mother lives here in the city.”

“Oh, how wonderful that you have her nearby,” she says innocently.

“Yes, it is.” I nod in response. No need to mention that my mom is a bitch.

“Mom, Dad, no more fifty questions, please.” Blake comes from behind. He hands his parents each a menu then returns to me and whispers in my ear, “I’m sorry about that.” I smile and nod at him, he has nothing to be sorry for.

“What’s the specialty of this restaurant Blake?” I ask him.

“They have an amazing steak and their baked potato is phenomenal.”

“I’ll have that then.” I close the menu and hand it to him.

“Oh, a woman that likes steak. You’ve found yourself a keeper, Blake,” Michael says.

“Oh, honey, enough. But that does sound delicious I’ll have the same,” Charlotte adds.

“Four steaks coming right up.” He grabs everyone’s menus then walks back to the kitchen and makes the call to the restaurant.

I take a sip of my wine as Charlotte begins to speak, “Angelica, please accept our condolences on the loss of your dog.” Her voice is soft. The comment was so unexpected, I hadn’t been prepared and I feel tears sting the corners of my eyes. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Angelica. I did not mean to upset you.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I’m sorry, it’s just still fresh. I’m waiting for the time to come when it gets easier to talk about.”

“Losing an animal is like losing family. We understand, we lost our family dog about two years ago. Blake was devastated.” Michael looks longingly at his son.

“I had no idea, I’m sorry.” I sniffle a little and Charlotte rushes to her purse then back to me with a tissue. “Thank you.” Blake ends his call just as I take the tissue from his mother.

“What happened?” He walks quickly to my side. “Are you okay?” He looks from me to his parents.

“I’m fine really, it’s nothing.” I smile at him then wipe my eyes.

“Why are you crying?”

“Blake honey, we’re sorry. Your mother mentioned the loss of Angelica’s dog,” Michael says. Blake looks at his mother with his brows turned down.

“Mother, how could you be so thoughtless?”

“Blake, enough.” I rub his arm. “I'm okay, your mother was merely being polite. Eventually, I won’t make a fool of myself and cry every time someone mentions Rodger.” I smile at them all.

“To Rodger.” Michael raises his glass. Another tear falls from my eye.

We all raise our glasses and cheers to an amazing dog, gone too soon. After my rather embarrassing crying session, we fall into easy conversation. I ask them about their Hawaii property and they tell me how they’re going back next week, they love it there and hope to eventually make a permanent move. They tell us about the food they enjoy and the people they’ve come to meet. Watching them both take turns talking and finishing one another sentences is a beautiful thing. Someday I hope to have a very similar relationship, not only with my significant other but with my children. How wonderful it must have been for Blake to grow up in such a loving home, with not only one but two amazing parents to look up to. Luckily I had my granddad, but God only knows had I lived with him, my childhood would have been so much better. Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I lean back into Blake, who’s sitting beside me and listening to the three of them talk about family vacations and the memories they made. I smile and answer questions when asked, but am somewhat checked out. I envy what Blake has, I wish I had fond memories of my mother, and I don’t even know my father.

“It’s so lovely to see the two of you together like this, you seem to be perfectly at ease with one another. Your body language is that of a married couple.” Charlotte points between Blake and me.

“Mom seriously?” Blake responds to her comment. I look between us and see that she’s right; I hadn’t even noticed the way we’re sitting. He’s sitting behind me with his arm around my shoulder rubbing small circles on my upper arm. I’m pressed up against his front with my empty hand resting on his knee. We truly do look very comfortable with one another. I pat his leg and smile at them all.

“She has a point, Blake, I hadn’t even noticed.” I turn and smile at him. He surprises me by kissing my lips tenderly.

“Oh my gosh Michael, look how perfect they are,” Charlotte squeals from the other couch. I break away from Blake and laugh.

“God Mom.” Blake can’t help but to laugh along with the rest of us.

The chiming of the bell can be heard from the foyer.

“That will be dinner, let’s go to the dining table.” Blake steps away to answer the elevator as his parents and I make our way to the dining room.

Blake returns a short time later with a server in tow. Blake comes from behind me and pulls my chair out, I notice Michael does the same for his mother. Once seated the server starts to plate our entrées in front of us as Blake heads to the kitchen to retrieve the wine. Who knew that not only could you order food from a restaurant here, but they would even serve you. Now that’s what I call service. The food looks amazing and smells even better. Once Blake is seated and the server is done, he heads back the way he came.

“That must be why you don’t use that fabulous kitchen of yours,” I tell Blake.

“It certainly is part of the reason, it’s extremely convenient.”

“What would the other reason be?” I ask.

“I can’t cook,” he responds.

“That’s your own fault, I tried to teach you plenty of times, you wanted nothing to do with the cooking, only the eating. And boy did you like to eat.” I giggle into a bite of steak. Holy shit this is good. “I even tried to get you to grill with your dad, but no, you would just sit out there and eat with him.”

“Mom, seriously?”

I giggle again, it’s kind of cute seeing Blake so embarrassed.

We all dig into our meal which is simply delicious. The steak is cooked to perfection, it’s perfectly rare but not bleeding at all, how they do that is beyond me. The baked potato is perfectly seasoned and topped with everything—cheese, sour cream, butter, chives, and bacon. Good God, I’m so going to have to run tomorrow. Our conversation is fun and we talk more about how Blake went through a phase where they thought he was going to eat them out of house and home. Blake laughs now instead of yelling at his mom, although his cheeks still turn bright red. We’re almost done with our meal when Michael’s phone rings. He excuses himself from the table to take the call, so polite. Blake refills our glasses while he’s gone. Not even a minute later he returns to the table with a frown on his face. Blake’s immediately on alert.

“Dad, what’s the matter?”

“I’m sorry son, but your mother and I are going to have to end our night early.”

“Why, what’s wrong?”

Michael looks from me to Blake then back again. I’m not sure what that means, but I get the feeling that I shouldn’t be witnessing whatever’s about to happen.

“If this is a family matter, please don’t let me intrude I can leave,” I tell them all.

“You will do nothing of the sort. Michael, what is the matter?” Charlotte asks her husband.

“Jon.” Is his single word response.

The room goes quiet. Damn it! That means they know what happened between him and me, that’s why he was hesitant to say his name in front of me. Now that I think about it, he wasn’t mentioned all night when talking about Blake’s childhood. How could I barely have noticed that? I’m so dumb. God, how embarrassing. I start to stand when Blake grabs my arm to still me.

“You’re not leaving, Angelica.” Blake stares straight into my eyes as he speaks. I sit down again. “What did he do this time?”

“He seems to have made a scene in front of Gracie again, and Alicia felt it was necessary to call the police. He was arrested.” Charlotte gasps at Michael’s words.

“Oh, heaven’s no.” Charlotte goes pale.

“God damn it, when is he going to learn?” Blake stands abruptly and looks at his father. “We can’t bail him out every single time he gets into trouble, Dad. He’s a grown man and he needs to learn there are consequences to his actions.
Especially
around Gracie, she shouldn’t have to be exposed to her father’s behavior when he’s acting this way. What did he do to get arrested?”

Michael looks uncomfortable, he lowers his head not making eye contact, seemingly ashamed of the words he’s about to speak.

“He slapped Alicia.”

“God no.” Charlotte is out of her chair quickly. “We have to go to Gracie. Oh, my sweet grandchild, can you imagine what she must be thinking after seeing her father hit her mother?” Michael grabs Charlotte in his arms. “Michael, what did I do wrong? How could he lay a hand on a woman?”

“Don’t you even think that this has anything to do with your parenting, Char.”

“Dad is right, Mom. Don’t you dare think this has anything to do with you. Jon is making these mistakes all on his own.”

I feel so out of place right now. This should be a private family matter and here I am in the middle. Worse is that they most likely know what I almost did with Jon. I want to run home so badly, but I know I can’t, Blake wouldn’t let me. What a mess!

“Sweetie, forgive us, but I think it would be best if we went to see Alicia and Gracie,” Charlotte tells Blake.

“I can go home. You should all go,” I say to them all.

“No, I’ll stay with you. My parents are fine to go without me. I don’t want to overwhelm Alicia anyway.” Blake captures my hand and squeezes it. “Mom, Dad, please let me know if they need anything. I’ll make sure it happens.”

“We will darling.” Charlotte walks around the table and pulls Blake into a warm embrace. Michael follows suit. “Angelica please forgive us for our sudden departure. It’s been a wonderful evening with you. You’re a blessing to our Blake, you make him so happy.” She hugs me tightly and I return the hug this time. Her words have made my eyes watery.

“I’m sorry this happened to your family. Give Gracie an extra hug from me,” I say to her.

“I’ll do that honey. Thank you.” I hug her tightly again then go to hug Michael.

We all say our goodbyes then his parents quickly dash away to the elevators. As Blake sees them off, I return to the dining room to clean up our plates.

“Stop Angelica, someone will take care of that in the morning. Come with me.” He extends his hand out for me to take, I take hold and follow him back to the living room. He pulls me down onto his lap and wraps his arms around me. “I’m sorry for the way the evening ended, please don’t think anything he did or does has to do with you. Jon is going through some shit and isn’t dealing with it well. I don’t want you to think about him.” He turns my head, so I’m looking into his eyes. “Thank you for meeting my parents, they loved you.”