Page 87 of Welcome Home to Ivy Falls

I waited for that itch in my throat again, the pull in my stomach. How my brain would run through all the scenarios about how I could have one glass and be fine. But in this moment I felt nothing except for the warmth of Ford’s hand against my back. The need to be grounded and one hundred percent present for him tonight.

Once Gray finished the second glass he said, ‘Mom and Dad got in a fight before they got here. I guess Dad planned a golfing trip to Scotland with his friends and didn’t tell her. The weekend he’s gone is the annual Botanical Gardens Ball. Not exactly a great start to an evening that is supposed to be about their “enduring love”,’ he said with a sarcastic edge.

Ford grimaced. ‘Let’s get through the night in one piece. That’s all we need to do. Okay?’

‘Agreed, and once the toast is over, I’m going to make the fastest exit possible.’ Gray tried to hide the slur in his voice but Ford gripped his shoulder.

‘Cool it with the drinking. I have no intention of propping you up during the toast.’

‘Fine,’ Gray huffed. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me I need to hunt down George Bryce. He lost a thousand bucks to me in a poker game last weekend and hasn’t paid up.’ He turned and gave me a formal bow. ‘Nice to meet you, Piper, and a word of warning about our mother…’

‘Gray.’ Ford gave him a look of warning.

‘I’m only offering her a bit of advice.’

‘Make it quick,’ Ford grumbled.

‘I love the matriarch of our family, but she can be a viper. Ignore anything and everything she says tonight, because she can be a tad bit protective when it comes to my little brother.’

‘Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll try to stay away from her fangs.’

An apologetic smile slid over his lips like his advice still wouldn’t be enough to protect me from his mother’s vicious bite.

It was okay. In all the chaos I’d had to deal with in my life, one overbearing mother didn’t feel like too much of a threat.

Ford grabbed me around the waist. Pressed a gentle kiss to my temple. ‘Let’s enter the fray. The sooner we make our appearance, endure a bunch of worthless small talk, the quicker we can get out of this place.’

For the next half-hour I shook hands, swapped conversations about the stock market and whatever fast and slow greens were. Ford’s charm was ratcheted up to a ten. He was good at remembering people’s names. What they did for a living. How many children and grandchildren they had. If I didn’t know him, I’d have thought he was a regular member of this crowd.

We were finishing a conversation with a banker and his third wife, when an older woman with pale blonde hair, bright red lips and the most stunning diamond choker I’d ever seen placed her hand on his shoulder. Ford spun and gave her a forced smile.

‘Hello, Mother.’

‘Sweetheart.’ She pressed her lips together as she took him in. ‘A yellow tie? For evening? Really, Crawford?’

His hand flew to his neck and I hated the way her caustic tone made him flinch. ‘It was all I had that was clean.’

Her steely gaze left her son and focused on me. ‘Who is this?’

‘Mother, this is Piper Townsend. She’s from Ivy Falls where I’m working right now.’

In her white silk gown with a regal tilt to her head, Ford’s mother reminded me of the Narnia witch. If I didn’t know better, I would have guessed she had ice water in her veins.

‘Piper.’ Her cool stare moved over the way I had my hair pinned up. How my dress cut across my shoulders. Her slow and torturous survey of me stopped at the tattoo on my wrist. Her lips thinned as she added, ‘Pleasure to meet you.’

‘You too, Mrs Foster.’

‘What is it that you do in Ivy Falls? How did you meet my Crawford?’

‘I have several jobs. One of them is directing a musical for our children’s theater. A young actor had a minor accident and Ford took care of him.’

‘Local theater?’ she sniffed. ‘That is an interesting profession.’

‘I love it. The kids are wonderful. It is very fulfilling,’ I said with a little too much force.

‘Can’t imagine that pays much.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Ford interrupted. ‘She’s damn good at what she does.’ He reached out and laced his fingers through mine. ‘She sings and plays the piano too.’