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He closed the door and turned to look at her, taking her face in his hands. “Thank you, darlin’. That’s what I need. Someone with real life experience—who isn’t part of this damn incestuous company—telling me I’m on the right path.”
Saoirse grinned up at him. “I have plenty of that. Your sister thinks I’m too old for you.”
Sutter pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Lark was on the warpath tonight. I could see Mom firing her up. She’d have found something to say even if we’d been born on the same day. I heard what you said to her. Thank you for being nice to my baby sister.”
“You’re welcome. She actually said she approved of me.”
Sutter barked a laugh. “She would. Lark has zero filter.”
Saoirse’s smile turned wry. “Don’t worry, I like it. She has some good ideas about the club. You should talk with her.”
Sutter slipped his finger under her chin and stroked the soft skin there. “I will. Want me to run you a bath, baby? Next time, I’ll stay and play with you in the bubbles, but this time, I’d better go meet with my mother before she sends the Mounties after me.”
Saoirse giggled. “I think the Mounties are Canadian.”
“Fuzz? Po-po? Coppers? Bobbies?”
“I think English police are bobbies.” She stretched up on her toes for a kiss that he lavished on her. When he let her up for air, she said, “I don’t want to keep you from your mother. I’ll shower tonight and maybe a bath tomorrow?”
He ran his forefinger down the bridge of her nose. “Definitely a bath tomorrow. I won’t be too long with Mom. I’ll be back for a big cuddle and a bedtime story. If I’m a gentleman and keep my hands to myself, could I convince you to sleep in my bed with me?”
“No convincing necessary. I’d have begged if you hadn’t offered.”
Sutter’s throat tightened. “Let’s rewind. I’d like begging.”
Saoirse laughed. “I can do that.”
He pulled her close for a last kiss, releasing her at last to face his angry parent.
Sutter’s mother never shouted,never lashed out in anger or frustration, even though Sutter knew she’d been a bubbling cauldron for decades. Her sickly-sweet coldness was worse than a shout; her bitter disappointment was worse than a slap.
“You’re so close now, Sut,” she said from where she was perched in one of the V.I.P. lounge’s deep leather chairs as if on a throne. Her legs, perfectly tanned and toned despite her age, were demurely crossed. Her high-heeled boot tapping in the air was the only sign of her agitation. “We’ve worked so long to get you the keys to the castle. You can’t be distracted by a passing fancy.”
Saoirse’s anything but a passing fancy, Sutter thought. He was already turning over ways to keep seeing her after he moved to New York. He knew it would be difficult. Long-distance relationships, particularly one so new, were hard. But he’d spent the last few days reading guides on how to make such a dynamic work and thought he could use the physical distance to build trust and draw out her Little. Sutter wasn’t afraid of hard work.And when her Daddy’s the most important thing in her world, the way my Little will be in mine, we’ll figure out a way to be in the same place at the same time.
“I’m not distracted, Mom. I’m here. I’m doing everything I need to do.”
Her eyes, cold and hard as emeralds, flicked over him. With an effort, Sutter kept himself from straightening his suit jacket against her scrutiny.
“You’re different this weekend. When I saw you at graduation, you were focused and determined—”
Sutter shook his head. “Mom, when you saw me at graduation, I wasexhausted. I hadn’t taken a day off in five years. I’ve had the summer to regroup. I’m focused and determinednow. I know what I need to do. I know how important this is to you. I won’t let you down.”
Cordelia’s mouth pursed before she lifted her champagne to her perfectly plumped lips and took a sip.
“I really think you should give Tanya Nichols a call when you get to New York. She’d be the perfect hostess for events like this, Sut.”
Sutter wanted to scoff. The girl he remembered was a social butterfly: her high school aspiration had been to be presented at the annual International Debutante Ball. If she’d been on his arm tonight, she would have stayed in the nightclub with his family and sipped champagne, remaining willfully ignorant of the club’s truth going on under her Louboutins. There wouldn’t have been a scene or any of the happiness still fizzing in his chest like a sparkler.
“No, Mom. And don’t you dare call her on my behalf.”
“Of course, I wouldn’t interfere like that. Just break it off with that… what was her name again?”
“It’s Saoirse, and you haven’t forgotten the name of anyone you’ve been introduced to in the last thirty years. You’re the one who taught me to say the name of every person I met three times to set it in my memory and keep a file on anyone important. I know you, Mom. I know you don’t approve. You need to give me this. I’ve never balked or tried to go back on my promise. I’ve been your golden boy. I’ll stay on track, but I want Saoirse. I’m not asking you to cozy up to her the way you would Alison Nichol’s daughter, but don’t try to come between us.”
When her face only stiffened as much as it could around the Botox, he sighed.
“What, Mom? What’s made you take an instant dislike to her?”
