Page 70 of Masked in Deception
Jack:
:)
Chapter fifty-two
“Agreed. These renderings are much better. If they can fabricate the displays within the next two weeks, we should be able to salvage the opening date.” I sigh, finally heading to my office for the lunch meeting with Mom I’ve been excited for all week. After basically floating around in my own little happy sex haze for so long, my last encounter with my masked man has left me ruffled. We’ve texted, and I feel settled and reassured about what happened. It’s just not something that I’m used to. Pretty sure the last time I didn’t get my way was literally two years ago when…nope, not going there. We’re in a truce, and we’re friendly acquaintances. I’m not forgiving him, but we’re being adults. LJ will be here soon, and he’ll need an aunt and uncle who are a united front.
Luckily for me, the company contracted to provide some displays for the store completely mangled them and delivered a truckload of hot garbage to my doorstep two days ago. I wouldn’t display dog food on them, no offense to dogs, let alone my custom lingerie pieces. We’ve gotten another bid to have themall remade, and it’s taken every bit of my energy to solve this issue. I haven’t been able to sulk once. I also haven’t gone to Pilates, or enjoyed a soak in my tub, or read a single page of a book. My meals have all been takeout, and not even the healthy kind. I’m not feeling very girl boss. My spinning plates are starting to wobble.
“Darling, if you insist on being introspective, at least unfurrow your brow. You’ll get wrinkles!” My mother breezes into my office, carrying our lunch with her and closing the door behind her with her hip. Kissing my cheeks, she unpacks and sets up our salads and fries, lining up all five of our favorite dipping sauces from this particular burger joint.
“It’s disturbing to know that you can tell when I’m being introspective.”
She rolls her eyes and launches into a spiel about how disturbedIwould be if I knew the things she knows, and how it’s her job to know everything about all four of us.
“Even Jack?” I ask, although I already know her answer.
“Of course, darling. You know I consider him just as much my child as the three of you. I’ll have you know my will is split evenly four ways, although I might have to amend that now that I have grandbabies on the way.”
I choke on a fry, then cough it up, sending it flying across my desk toward my mother, who is sitting undisturbed, with one eyebrow arched.
“GrandbabieS?” I rasp out before sipping water. “Is someone else pregnant? Did Jack get someone pregnant?”
“First of all, are you really surprised I consider him one of my own? I had rather hoped it was clear based on how I treated him all these years. Second, no, to my knowledge, only LJ is technically cooking right now. But! I have quite the intuition, you know, and I justfeelthat this is going to truly open the floodgates. I think Christmas in a few years will be quitedifferent from this past one,” Mom finishes her explanation of her inconceivable choice of plural noun, and daintily goes back to eating her fries.
“Well, I mean, I know you love Jack like a son. I guess I just never saw him as a brother, so it’s hard to think of him as your son,” I say, unsure why I brought this up or why I even care.
“No, I never did think that he was really a brother to you, although he was always so sweet the way he looked after you,” she says, and I roll my eyes. “Well, he was, Margot. I don’t know what to tell you. I’m not surprised you didn’t see him that way, though. He was always such a handsome little guy, and now, well. He’s quite the catch these days. I’m not sure he’s done much over the past couple of years but work and work out.”
“Yeah, he mentioned that’s just about all he’s had time for since he came to New York, but I didn’t really believe him,” I mumble, moving on to eat Mom’s fries since mine are long gone.
“You’ve been talking more?” I swear my mom’s eyes are sparkling right now. I’m surprised she’s not rubbing her hands together like a cartoon villain based on the look on her face.
“Uh, yeah. We’ve been catching up a bit. Went to seePhantomlast week with Marco and Mark. Going to seeSleeping Beautynext week. It’s been nice,” I say. I’m a little bit flummoxed as to why exactly she’s so invested. It’s not even like she would’ve known much about my falling out with Jack, and me being an ocean away was really lucky. If I had been Stateside, there’s no way in hell I could’ve kept our mortal enemies status a secret.
“You went to seePhantomand didn’t invite me!” she pouts, and I’m more convinced than ever that I’ve inherited all my dramatics from her.
“Well, you had a pickleball tournament. You weren’t even in town! And besides, it was a very last-minute thing. Marco had never been, and Jack mentioned tickets, so we went. It was nice! That’s all.” I sigh.
Mom studies me thoughtfully, and usually nothing good ever comes from these looks.
“Whatever you’re thinking, you might as well go ahead and say it now, Mother.”
“I was just thinking about how happy I am to see you wearing this lovely cream sweater dress, darling. It was a couple of years of all sleek Parisian black and chignons. Your hair looks wonderful down in your curls again,” she says primly, then continues in a soft voice. “I was also thinking about how much you lovedSleeping Beautywhen you were younger. You were so fixated on Jack being your prince. He really handled that well for your entire childhood, you know. Such a good friend and protector for you. Henry was of course always busy, and Ledger was going through so much with your father, but it felt like Jack was just for you and me. A darling child, never causing me any trouble. And I could count on him to play with you and never complain.”
I give her a soft smile and indulge her in her reminiscence. “He told me that he and Ledger still gorge themselves on cheesecake every year. I can’t believe you still go!”
At this, she throws her head back and lets out a hearty laugh. “We all still go, darling. You’ll have to join us now that you’re back.”
Clearing my throat, I deflect a bit. “Yes, well. Back for now. If this shop does well, I’m not sure how long I’ll stay. I had built quite a happy little life for myself in Paris, you know.”
“You also had quite a life here when you left,” Mom says.
I hadnothinghere when I left,I want to scream at her. Less than nothing, actually. Not zero but an unfathomably huge number in the negative, a hole the likes of which I didn’t expect I would ever meet the bottom of. That’s what I had here when I left.
“I’m just ready for the baby to be here. I can’t imagine how Sloane and Ledger feel,” I say, not even pretending that I’m doing anything other than shifting the conversation to safer waters.
Mom takes my bait, at least momentarily. “I think they’re going crazy with excitement at the moment. Both of them just feed into each other’s energy. It’s like having two individual balls of chaos merge into one supernova. Sloane is nesting and made an offhand comment about how she felt like nothing was clean enough. Ledger offered to burn down the house and build a new one, to which Sloane said the smoke particles would be even worse for the baby. After that, your brother had a state-of-the-art air filtration system put in the entire house. It’s actually clean enough and with fresh enough air that you could make sterile products! He had it tested!”
