He held up his hand in front of me, a chain dangling from his fingers.
“A necklace?” I reached out and placed my open palm under the chain, letting him drop it into my hand. Definitely not a necklace. I smirked as I held it up, pinching the two barbells with little spiders hanging from them and a chain connecting the two pieces. I leaned in and kissed his cheek, whispering, “I can’t wait to wear this later.”
“You like it?”
My cheeks heated. “Of course. I love it.” Only Seth would buy me jewelry for my nipple piercings. But I love that he embraced my kinks and never made me feel weird for them, unlike other guys I’d dated in the past who shall forevermore remain nameless.
The door to the house slammed shut, startling me, and I closed my fist around the barbell part of the chain and brought my hand down to rest on my lap just in time.
His mom stood there smiling at us. “That’s a pretty chain.”
Shit. I glanced at Seth who just stared at me, smirking. Asshole.
“Yeah, Mom, it’s for one of her crystal pendants that she makes.”
Lying to his mom, now. Great. I guess it was better than telling her it was for my nipples.
“Those are so pretty.” She sat down in the rocking chair in the corner. “Seth sent me your website. I’m trying to decide which one I should get. You suggested rose quartz for Shelby earlier. What do you think I need?”
“Umm.” I assessed her, tilting my head. She hadn’t complained of anything specific this evening, so I wasn’t sure what she needed. “Clear quartz is a master healer, and you can’t go wrong with amethyst or citrine. Labradorite is popular for anti-aging…” I cringed. Did I just imply his mom was old? Awesome. “But I don’t have that one. I could always look into getting it if you wanted it, though.”
Oh my God, Violet, just stop talking.
She waved that off with a flutter of her hand. “Don’t go through the trouble. I think women should embrace their age. And I love the color purple.” She smiled, glancing over at Seth. “Amethyst has always been one of my favorite gemstones—especially since both my boys were born in February—so maybe I’ll order one of those.” She glanced up toward the sky. “But I do love the sun, and didn’t you mention earlier that citrine was like the sun stone? So I don’t know…” She took a quick breath and looked back at me. “Maybe I’ll order one of each.”
I loved how his mom tended to ramble like I did sometimes. It all made sense why Seth wasn’t bothered by it, and even seemed amused at times.
Mason appeared in front of us, hands on his hips and a glare aimed at Seth. “Did you tell Dani we could go get ice cream after dinner?”
Seth chuckled. “I did not.”
Heat crept up my neck as Mason looked down at Dani just as she came up beside him.
“Violet said we could,” she blurted.
Mason slowly turned back to me with an eyebrow raised. “Is that so?”
“Sorry, I’m a sucker for ice cream.” I shrugged. “Besides, she did that cute please face that Seth said was hard to say no to and he was right, I couldn’t say no.”
“We can take her if y’all don’t wanna go,” Seth offered, shooting me a smirk.
Shelby joined the group, looking at Mason with renewed hope in her eyes, her smile filled with anticipation. “We haven’t been to get ice cream in forever.”
Mason stared at her for a beat before his lips pulled up and he nodded. “Yeah, we haven’t.” He turned back to the group. “Alright gang, let’s load up.”
“Maybe your dad and I should stay here.” His mother worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “You know the doctor wants us to watch his cholesterol.”
“The place we go to has a sorbet, and I think frozen Greek yogurt too,” Mason offered.
“Please, Mimi.” Dani folded her hands together under her chin, giving her grandmother the same expression she’d used on me earlier.
“Now, how can I say no to that?” His mom stood and held the little girl’s hand as they walked inside.
I chuckled. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one affected by the cute please face. Seth stood, offering me his hand, and I stuffed the chain I was still holding into my pocket before taking his hand and following his family inside.
This trip had gone perfectly. Much better than I expected. Part of me worried about them accepting me knowing that less than six months ago he had asked Lucy to marry him. But literally from the moment we’d arrived, I felt nothing but welcomed.
Going home to visit my parents would be harder since it required us to take more time off and either fly or road trip it. Hopefully we could make it work before Thanksgiving, when they were coming to us in Half Moon Lake.
