Page 115 of Awaiting

“I was just getting to know Bexley a little better. I’ll go find your father. He’s probably in his office, working.”

The woman walked right past her daughter without saying goodbye. Bexley was left sitting on the couch, wondering what had just happened.

CHAPTER 33

“Hey, are you all right?” Alex asked, sitting down next to her.

“She’s a lot,” Bexley replied.

“What did she say to you?” Alex ran her hand through Bexley’s hair.

“Nothing.”

“Bex, tell me,” Alex requested.

“She just had a lot of questions.”

“I told her we didn’t have time to talk about some of that stuff yet.”

“It’s okay,” Bexley replied. “She’s just being a nosy mom.”

“No, she’s being an overbearingmother.” Alex stood. “I’m going to talk to her,” she added.

“No, it’s okay. You’ll just make it worse, babe.”

“She needs to hear it. I don’t want her being rude to you. I can handle it when she’s like this with me.”

“And Iwashandling it when you walked in,” Bexley said, standing up.

“You were?”

“I was trying to until you interrupted.”

Alex lifted an eyebrow and said, “Tell me.”

“She may have insinuated that I was only with you because I’m, for some reason, interested in becoming a Princess myself.”

“She did what?” Alex asked, gritting her teeth.

“I told her that I had let her talk all over me with her questions but that I wasn’t going to let her say that.” Bexley unbuttoned the one jacket button and wrapped her arms around Alex under the jacket. “I wasn’t able to finish because you showed up, but I would have.”

“You told my mother off?”

“I was working on it,” Bexley replied.

“Is it wrong that that sort of turns me on?”

Bexley laughed and pressed her face to Alex’s chest.

“She’s intense,” she muttered against Alex.

“I think she asked the photographer to take extra pictures just to piss me off. If she could have, she would have put me in the back, behind everyone, to try to hide my haircut and this suit, but I have to be featured prominently in every family photo. Larry can hide a little if he wants.”

“Who would ever want to hide you?” Bexley asked, undoing that top button and kissing the spot between Alex’s breasts.

“Let me take you home,” Alex said. “I’m done here.”

“You’re coming, too, right?”