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Chapter 20
Valen swungby exactly when I told him, at noon on the dot.
Mom seemed surprised to see him on our front steps, but he won her over by bringing her a bouquet of beautiful flowers.
“Since it’s the first time I’m meeting Everly’s mother, I have to be thoughtful,” he said when she seemed confused. “My own mother would have my head if she found out I didn’t bring a gift, and I didn’t know what kind of wine you drink.”
“Red,” Mom said with a smile. “And thank you so much, it’s just so unusual for me to get anything like this from one of Everly’s...uh, friends.”
“Just a study partner, Mom,” I said and rolled my eyes at her. Sometimes she could be pretty embarrassing and so clueless I thought there was no way she knew about the Organization or what they were doing to me. And sometimes, like today, it felt good just to be a regular girl who could roll her eyes at her embarrassing mother. It was nice feeling normal every now and again, even just for a few moments.
“Okay, dear,” she said and watched Valen walk out the door ahead of me. Once he was out of ear range, she leaned towards me and whispered, “Are you still dating Kingston?”
“Sort of,” I replied with a shy grin.
“Does he know about this one?” she asked.
“He does,” I replied. “They all know about each other.”
“All?” Mom asked, and raised her brows. “You just be careful, don’t want to get hurt or break any hearts.”
“I’ll be okay,” I replied and I surprised myself by giving her a hug before I left. As I walked through the door, I added, “They’ll survive, too. I won’t break their hearts.”
She laughed and closed the door behind us.
“She’s so nice,” Valen said as he helped me into his Range Rover. “I can see where you get your looks from, too.”
“She’s not that bad,” I said and felt a momentary surge of pride for my mom. Something I normally didn’t feel.
Valen walked around, climbed in his side and we headed towards his place.
“Did you eat lunch yet?” he asked me along the way.
“Not yet,” I replied.
“Do you want to grab something out here or I could have my cook make us something at home,” he said.
I couldn’t imagine the privilege of having a cook to make me something on demand. The novelty was appealing, so I said, “Your place, please.”
“Don’t want to be seen with me in public?” he laughed and pretended to be offended.
We continued on like that with our lighthearted banter back and forth until we got to his place. Once there, he asked the cook to bring us some food in the solarium and we got set up to study math.
The solarium was beautiful, it was an enormous glass enclosed structure on the back of his mansion and was filled with beautiful plants, sculptures, and a fountain right in the middle. It looked like something out of a design magazine, beautiful, unique, and a place that made me feel both at home and like I didn’t belong among such beauty.
“This is incredible,” I said and took a seat at an elaborate wrought iron table where we could lay out the books.
“Okay, so how on earth are you going to teach me advanced trigonometry?” Valen asked. “I think I’m a little out of my league with this class.”
We started on our studies but didn’t get long before the cook announced our lunch. We moved to another table where it was laid out with charcuterie, sandwich wedges, sparkling water, and delicious French pastries for dessert.
“You’re going to spoil me,” I said, picking at the feast and helping myself.
“It’s nice to finally have somebody here to eat with me,” Valen said, and for a moment he looked forlorn, as if he was unhappy with the life he’d been born into.
“You have people living here, don’t you?” I asked.
“Sure, staff,” he said. “They’re paid to be nice to me. It gets lonely in this house, I won’t lie.”
