I take a deep breath as the car stops at a quaint-looking house in upstate New York. Ever since he informed me we had been invited to visit his mother, I have been dreading this meeting. Now, I was a few minutes from seeing her again after a decade. I want to grab the wheel and make a U-turn back to the city. Back to a comfortable state of being.
I had been dreading coming here ever since Damien mentioned the trip. I don’t know what his mother, Lorna, must think of me, but whatever it is, it’s not good. As someone who once worked for my father, I doubt she had anything nice to say about my family, and how we treated her son.
The son had driven himself this time. When he told me this, I expected him to take us to one of his sports cars. Instead, Damien stopped at a sedan. An expensive German type, but not one of his ostentatious and restrictive cars that he likes to drive. “What happened to your Ferrari?” I asked as I secured Lake into the car seat.
“I traded it in for a more practical model,” he said.
“Practical for what? Shopping errands at the mall?”
He shrugged. “School runs. Carpooling. Turns out, safety seats don’t fit very well in Ferraris.”
I tried not to dwell on how kind and forward-thinking he was about our son as I got into the passenger seat. Yet, with an entire trip ahead, it was going to be hard. The journey was quietmostly. Damien and Lake did most of the talking. I distracted myself from the handsome man next to me by dwelling on my meeting with his mother. Now that we’re here, the dread has only doubled.
Damien cuts the engine. An older woman with features like his, and dare I say, like Lake’s, appears at the door. She smiles and waves at the car. “We’re Damien says to Lake.” I turn to see him already asleep, his head leaning on the seatbelt. “Lake?” I say, nudging his leg. He jolts up and darts his gaze around. We have been traveling for some time; no wonder he’s tired. But then again, Lake falls asleep the second he gets into a moving vehicle. I help him out of his seat, much to his consternation.
Damien’s mother is waiting to greet us outside. She’s older than I remember, but she still has the same regal charm and poise she had back when I knew her. Back when she was my father’s assistant. I never saw her again after she resigned following my father firing Daemon. She worked for my father for decades, but her loyalty was first to her son. I’ve always wondered what she thought of me. What version of me did she hear from Damien? One of hate and derision, most likely.
But when she greets me, her hug is warm and comforting, and her smile seems genuine. “You have grown into a beautiful lady,” she says to me when we part. I take hold of Lake’s hand and draw him to her. “And is that the handsome gentleman I’ve heard so much about?” Lake looks unsure, like he always does whenever he meets new people. “How are you?” she says, extending her hand to him. Lake looks at me for approval. I nod, and he takes her hand.
“Lake,” I say, “This is your grandmother, your father’s mother, Mrs. Sinclair.”
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Sinclair.”
She chuckles. “You can call me Grandma or Grand mommy if you like.”
Lake steps back and leans against my leg, which elicits another laugh from Lorna Sinclair.
“He’s a bit shy when he’s around new people, but he’ll come out of his shell once he gets to know you,”I say.
“A bit like you.” Lorna lightly jabs Damien. “You didn’t want to be around people you didn’t know. You’d cling to my dress whenever we were in a new environment.”
Damien’s cheeks redden. A first. I was sure the man didn’t blush.
Lorna takes us into her house, and it is just as cozy as it looks on the outside. It’s styled like an American country house, but on a smaller scale. Lorna invites us to sit while she brings in tea and cookies, a treat that pleases Lake. Damien and I sit side by side on the same couch. My body is acutely aware of his, as always. The cologne that assaulted my senses on our trip here teases my nostrils now as I sit quietly and listen to mother and son catch up on each other’s lives.
It’s not that difficult to see how much affection the two have for each other. Damien’s demeanor is different around Lorne. He’s warm, soft and gentle. The only other time I’ve ever seen him like this is with Lake. Maybe that’s why he’s a good father. He treats Lake the way his mother treats him. With a kindness and gentle touch that I wish my mother had.
I feel a light squeeze on my thigh and turn to Damien.
“How is your family,” Lorne says.
I had become so lost in my own thoughts I didn’t hear her speak. “Sorry. They’re lovely,” I respond, sipping the tea.
“I hope my son didn’t cause trouble for your family. The papers were saying--”
“Don’t believe anything you read,” Damien cut in.
“So the rumors of the two of you being married are untrue?”
Damien shifts uncomfortably. He takes my hand in his and holds it on his thigh, making sure my ring is visible. “That part they got right. You know I told you so.”
Lorna shrugs and sips her drink. “You only told me you had gotten married. I was never invited to the wedding. It made me wonder what sort of wedding is it where one doesn’t even tell their mother, they’re about to get married.”
Damien and I both chuckle wearily. Before coming here, he had told me his mother didn’t like that we got married so hastily and was a little miffed that she wasn’t invited to the wedding. I didn’t ask him why he didn’t just tell her the truth. That it’s a simple marriage of convenience. Whatever he told his mother, it was clear he didn’t want to tell her the truth of our relationship, so I agreed to the lie. Now I turn to him for a cue, but he stares straight ahead at his mother. “It was initially meant to be a small and private ceremony, but we ended up in Vegas one night and decided to make it official there and then,” Damien says.
Lorna raises her eyebrows. I’m not sure she buys it. “And you never thought to tell your mother? I had to hear it from the news.”
“Like I said, I was going to tell you, but the gossip got ahead of me.”
