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She steps out of my embrace and smiles at me brightly. I fall even more in love with her in that moment. She has more grace in her little finger than my mother does in her entire body.
I smile back at her, and her smile wavers.
I frown. “What?”
“She's coming over here, and she’s with another woman. That woman is looking at me like I pissed in her cereal. Who is she?”
I close my eyes and groan inwardly. This is a fucking shit show in the making. I turn around to face them and lean down to whisper into Milly’s ear, “That’s Nicola, my ex-fiancée.” She whips back to stare at me. She looks horrified.
“I didn’t know she would be here. I’m sorry,” I mumble, feeling like the world’s biggest ass. I hope the mess this scene is about to create isn't something I can’t clean up. I look at Milly, silently begging her to understand.
To my everlasting surprise, Milly’s look of trepidation and surprise transforms into a smile. She steps closer to me until she's tucked into my side. My arm automatically goes around her waist. I look at the two women who are now standing about three feet away from us.
“Dean, this is embarrassing. I can’t believe you’re flaunting this in everyone’s face,” my mother bites out at me as she stands with one hand on her hip, and the other one locked through Nicola’s arm.
I feel Milly stiff slightly beside me.
“What exactly am I flaunting, Mother?” I ask calmly, even as I feel my anger rising exponentially.
“Everyone knows who she is. Everyone knows she's responsible for our family’s biggest tragedy. And you’re walking around here like Romeo and Juliet!” The volume of her voice increasing.
A few people glance our way. Milly steps out of my hold, but grabs my hand. When she looks up at me her eyes are molten with anger. But when our eyes meet, I smile at her and she smiles back. My anger tamps down a little at the way her smile reassures me. She looks back at my mother and Nicola.
“You need to keep your voice down, Mrs. Orleans. This is a very important night for Dean. It wouldn’t be fair to have this discussion here.”
“And who are you to tell us what to do?” Nicola snaps at Milly. I lean forward slightly and growl, “Nic—”
Milly’s hand on my forearm stops me. She looks at them again. “Please, let’s all go into the office in the back and talk.”
And without waiting for anyone to respond, she turns and walks away. I follow her and know my mother and Nicola will follow as well because they are obviously spoiling for a fight.
I trail her through the double doors that lead to the administrative section of the venue. She steps through the first open door.
I hear the click of heels behind me, and I know the two troublemakers are hot on my heels.
They follow me into the room, and as soon as they walk through the door I shut it.
Milly is leaning against the desk that is in the corner of the room,
“Mrs. Orleans, you were saying?” she says politely to my mother.
My mother actually sniffs and turns her nose up at Milly before she turns to face me.
“I understood when you wanted to walk on the wild side in high school. I mean, it was cute. Her father was powerful, but now on top of everything else that’s happened, it’s crazy for a man like you to have a woman like her,” she nods her head at Milly, “on your arm.”
I'm stunned speechless. I look at Milly to see if she's okay, and she look speechless, too.
“I mean, you have Nicola. She's perfect. She comes from a nice family. One we know isn’t associated with theft and terrorism, and God knows what else.”
She flings her hands in the air for emphasis as she talks, but this manages to shock me out of my stupor.
“What did you say?” I ask carefully. My anger is held in check only by the fact that this woman is my mother.
“Well, who knows what her father was into. He's from Syria. And he ran away with all that money. God only knows. And it doesn’t even matter. It’s because of people like him and the other scumbags at Enron that your father is dead!” she yells at me.
Before I can even catch my breath to respond, Nicola chimes in.
“Your mother told me that you were seeing the same girl in high school, who disappeared on you and whose father stole all that money belonging to other people. I had to come. I knew when you saw us side by side you’d realize what you’d thrown away. I mean, I get it, she’s your high school sweetheart and everything.” She actually has the temerity to smile at Milly. “But, you cannot be serious. You’re a CEO. Cristal said she's your event planner. You can’t date the help,” she says, like she’s saying, “the trash.”
