Page 51 of Sold Rejected Mate
And she’s wearingheels. At the farmers' market.
The man standing with her, all sharp angles in a linen shirt and crisp slacks, must be his father. They look like they just came from a country club catalog or an upscale beach wedding.
“Mom,” Lachlan says, seeming to snap out of his shock.
I blink, watching him put on a voice I haven’t heard from him. He leans forward, kissing his mother on the cheek and shaking his dad’s hand—actuallyshaking his hand—like this is some sort of business meeting and not running into family on a Saturday. “What are you doing here?”
“Your father and I just joined the city board,” his mother says, her eyes darting to me for a quick second. “Thought it would be nice to support local businesses.”
Lachlan clears his throat, and I realize, without asking him, that he’s thought about this. That maybe he specifically picked this market because he thought for sure his parents wouldn’t be here.
“Shae,” she says, pulling off a glove—I hadn’t noticed theglovesbefore—and sticking her hand out to me. “It’s a pleasureto meet you, and I’m sorry to have to introduce myself, but my son seems to have forgotten his manners.”
I feel, rather than see, Lachlan’s jaw ticking.
“Mom, Dad, this is Valerie Foley,” Lachlan says. “Val, these are my parents, Frederick and Shae.”
“Call me Rick,” his dad says, notablynotshaking my hand.
Shae slides the glove back onto her hand, and I swear she’s only just barely hiding a grimace, like she’s thinking about all the germs from my hand getting inside the thing. Ruining the fine lace.
If my name rings a bell in their heads, they don’t show it.
“Foley,” Shae says, tugging on each finger of her glove, weighing my name like she might find a hidden meaning there. “I don’t believe we’ve met. You’re new to the area?”
“Uh, no, actually,” I say, glancing at Lachlan, feeling like I’m in the middle of an exam I didn’t study for. “I grew up here. Went to school with Lachlan.”
“Is thatso?” Shae looks to her son. “Lachlan, I can’t believe you’ve never told us about Valerie. Well, it’s nice to meet you. What is it that you do?”
I know this is a normal question for people to ask, but something about the cadence of the question coming from her feels like a loaded gun.
“I’m between jobs right now,” I say, rather thanaspiring chicken farmer,because I get the feeling that she won’t laugh. “Just figuring things out.”
“Ah.”
That word is enough to clearly explain what Shae thinks of people who arebetween jobsandfiguring things out, though I know, from conversations with Lachlan, that his mother doesn’t—and has never—worked. “Well, we’d love to have you over for dinner. In fact, Caspian is coming tonight—”
“We can’t tonight,” Lachlan says quickly, and I glance at him, wondering what his quick dismissal is about. “Dinner party with the supreme.”
His parents nod at this, clearly pleased about Lachlan’s friendship with Xeran.
“Sunday, then?” his mother says, tilting her head, looking very much like she’s not going to take no for an answer.
Lachlan sighs, glances at me, and agrees, setting his hand on my lower back. His mother notices, and I can tell she doesn’t like it.
When they walk away, I clear my throat.
“Well, that was…?”
“A fucking nightmare,” Lachlan mutters, wheeling me around and walking in the opposite direction from his parents. “We don’t have to go.”
“No, we should. I mean, it would be nice to meet them.”
I can’t stop myself from thinking about my own parents. They must know that I’m in town, and they haven’t said a thing. Not even tried to reach out once—in fact, I don’t even know for sure whether or not they’re still living in Silverville
They made it pretty clear after the fire that they wanted nothing to do with me. I guess part of me thought that after all this time, they might have changed their mind.
But they haven’t. And that’s their decision to make. I have no interest in chasing a relationship with people who don’t want me.
