Page 118 of Awaiting

“Papa!”

“What?” he said, laughing. “You love her. I’m the father. I’m the King. You know that technically, you have to ask my permission to get married, don’t you?”

“Really?”

He laughed again and said, “Dinner.”

“Fine, but atmyhouse,” she replied.

“Your tiny house?” her mother asked. “How will we all fit?”

“Who else are you inviting?”

“Well, your brother, Margaret, and the boys, of course.”

“Fine,” Alex said, sighing. “My table has an extender.”

“Alex, don’t cook for that poor girl. Let me have the chef cook something and bring it over,” her mother said.

“Bexley likes my cooking,” Alex replied. “So, if you want us all to have dinner, you’ll come over in a few hours and pretend you like my food even if you don’t.”

“We’ll be there,” her father promised.

CHAPTER 34

“Idon’t know about this, Alex,” Bexley said.

“We’ll be on my turf, so that gives us home-field advantage,” she replied, smiling over at Bexley as the driver took them to her house. “You know, it’s strange to me that you’ve never been to my place.”

“Why? I’ve never been to England.”

“I think because we’ve known one another for a while. It just feels like you should have been there.”

“Your parents are coming over. How often do they come for dinner?”

“This would be the first time,” Alex admitted.

“Really? How long have you had this house?”

“A while. They come over, but we’ve always had dinner together elsewhere,” she replied.

“Who’s cooking?” Bexley asked.

“Remember when you told me you liked my cooking? I hope you weren’t lying…”

“You’recooking dinner? Alex, there are, like, eight of us.”

“I’m making something easy,” she said. “It’s the only other thing I know how to make, and I actually have everything to make it.”

Bexley stared at Alex for a minute. Then, she smiled, moved over in her seat, and rested her head on Alex’s shoulder for the rest of the drive.

???

“You made soup for dinner?” her mother asked.

“It’s more like a stew,” Alex replied. “And since I didn’t have fresh bread here, I asked the pastry chef to send some over. So, you’ll at least have something prepared by a chef tonight, Mother. I also asked her to send over something for dessert.”

“Is it the rest of our dinner?” her brother asked, looking down at his bowl.

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