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“Could you, uh, take this somewhere else?” They asked politely, avoiding eye contact with us.
“Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, we’ll leave.” I took Taylor’s hand and helped him up, he looked the most embarrassed I’d ever seen. He wouldn’t make eye contact either.
We hurried out, almost jogging, to our car. Once we were in, we caught our breath. Then, I couldn’t help it, I laughed. I laughed so hard I snorted.
He chuckled a little too, but soon began to full out laugh. It was a beautiful sound.
When we finally got it under control, we looked at each other. His gaze was soft. “I’ll take you back in the Spring. Show you every flower.”
“I think I’d like that. But now, I want to get home as soon as possible to finish what we started.”
***
When we got home, I immediately wanted to get back to what we were doing. Once we stepped through the door, I took off my shoes and when we got to the kitchen, I tossed my coat over one of the bar stools.
He got his jean jacket off and I leaned in, ready for round two. But, with our luck, we were interrupted again by a knock on the door.
“Who would that even be? No one ever comes here,” I remarked, a little put off by the interruption.
“I have to check,” he said and walked back to the hallway to see who it was through his cameras. I waited in the kitchen, still buzzing, still needing Taylor’s touch. Surprisingly, I heard the door crack open and footsteps approach.
Taylor came into view with his grandfather and two other people I didn’t recognize. Taylor’s jaw was held stiff and his gaze looked far away. It terrified me. It terrified me because he looked scared and angry. He’s never looked that way to me before.
“Lydia.” His voice was calm and controlled, no emotional in his words. “These are my parents.”
Chapter 10
Lydia
We were seated in one of Taylor’s sitting rooms for guests. I had never really been in this room before. We didn’t really have guests. I wanted to change that, perhaps slowly see if Taylor would be interested in having more people over more regularly. But it was hard to think about the many plans I had made in the short time Taylor and I realized what we were to each other. We now sat on a loveseat couch, hand in hand across from Taylor’sfamily. His grip was slightly crushing my hand, but he didn’t even seem aware of it.
His mother sat on one side and his father on the other of his grandfather. From what I had learned very briefly, Taylor’s parents had been divorced for almost his whole life and they likely didn’t get along since they weren’t talking to each other and instead seemed to act like the other wasn’t there. His dad, Mr. Lincoln Hayes, lost the right to see him very often, and Ms. Hara Hirano had held custody over him.
Taylor got his face from his dad but not much else. He had a strong jaw and faint ginger hair. He was dressed in a nice-ish suit but nothing designer. He wasn’t where the wealth came from apparently. His mom was the one who he looked like the most with the eyes she got from Ikari and the dark black hair she had cut to shoulder length and used curlers on to make the bottom curl up. Her outfit was expensive. I didn’t have to be a designer to know that.
“It’s nice to meet you.” I smiled, but my tone was fake to my ears. I had some idea of why Taylor was so terrified. His actions, his cold exterior, sometimes that was a result of how you grow up. And the way he acted around them proved to me that they had done something to him. I wasn’t going to pry; I didn’t need to know if he didn’t want to tell me. But now I knew that I was playing a game with these people. I had to figure out who wanted to hurt us and get them out of here as soon as possible without destroying what Taylor and I had made and also without costing him the company.
“Taylor hadn’t told me he was getting married.” His father said and smiled back. I watched his body language first, years of running a business taught me how to read people. Something about his eyes were sad. He was looking and talking to me, but he kept looking at Taylor, his expression cracking a little when he did. Was he feeling guilty?
“It was rushed, I’ll admit,” I said, throwing in small laugh.
“Why wasn’t I invited?” His mom said as if I wasn’t already speaking with someone.
I looked at her and kept my happy face up. “It was such a small ceremony, over in less than a minute. And with the quick decision, I couldn’t invite my family either. I hope you’ll forgive us; we just couldn’t wait any longer!” I decided to play up being love struck, hopefully it would mask how much I was inspecting them.
“That’s no excuse Taylor. I raised you.” She said in a light tone, but even I felt threatened. I was the one talking to her, not him.
“It was my idea to get married at the courthouse,” I interjected. “Right Taylor?”
He seemed to snap out of his daze a little to look at me with panic in his eyes. I could handle anything these people said. Taylor was so out of it. I wanted to protect him. I needed him to let me protect him.
“Right.” He said calmly.
“So, you didn’t think it was appropriate to even tell us?” His mother snapped her gaze from Taylor to me. It was insidious the way she talked to us. Any outsider would hear the casual tone of her voice and assume it was an honest question, but I could tell by the way her gaze hardened, that she already didn’t like me and was accusing me of whatever she wanted.
“She said that they wanted it done quickly, Hana.” His dad saved me from thinking of an answer. “And do you think a wedding with our families would have been a good start for their relationship, or any relationship?”
Hana smiled. “Of course not. It was smart thinking of her.”
