“Well, clap or somethin’ and get him to get a move on,” Chace ordered, his lips tipped up, meaning he was teasing and Valerie looked to me.
“Have you noticed he can be annoying?”
“Um…” I mumbled then shut up.
“Smart, baby, don’t answer that,” Chace murmured on a shoulder squeeze.
“Her non-answer is her answer and it was affirmative,” Valerie informed him.
“But it doesn’t count because it wasn’t verbalized,” Chace informed his mother.
She rolled her eyes.
I smiled at their back and forth.
Chace got impatient.
“Seriously, Ma, pâté isn’t my top choice but it’s food. We gonna get that before Faye and I have to move in?”
She scowled at him then called loudly yet still daintily, “Enrique! You can serve the foie gras now.”
“Fuckin’ brilliant,” Chace muttered.
“Chace!” Valerie snapped.
“Chace!” I semi-snapped.
“Not f**kin’ brilliant,” Chace muttered again, grinning.
I looked to Valerie. “He swears way too often.”
“We’re in accord over that, my dear,” she replied snippily, still scowling at Chace.
Enrique walked in.
“Fuckin’ brilliant,” Chace muttered again, uncurling his arm from around my shoulders and leaning toward the tray instantly as Enrique set it on the table in front of us.
I looked to Valerie and rolled my eyes.
Valerie looked to me and did the same.
Then I sat forward to get my foie gras because Chace might not find it a top choice but it was one of my favorites in the whole world.
* * * * *
Dinner went great.
Then it happened.
We were in the less formal family room which was, indeed, less formal but it was still more formal than I was used to. I was thinking that I was glad the material of my dress had a little stretch because after that dinner, I needed it.
Not including the foie gras, it was four courses of rich, complicated food and not those elegant, minimalistic, rich, complicated food portions but vast portions even my mother would balk at serving. Nevertheless, it was delicious but it was filling.
Wine flowed freely and Valerie relaxed. Between my forthrightness and Chace’s teasing, she already seemed relatively comfortable by the time we headed to the opulent dining room, its table laid with china, silver and crystal that was so delicate and refined, I suspected the Queen of England would find it a little daunting.
We’d only had one incident during dinner. This being that the flowers I’d ordered through Holly were gracing the table and Valerie calling my attention to them and expressing her gratitude so often that, in the end, I was running out of ways to say, “You’re welcome.”
Chace noticed this, it seemed to make him tense and eventually he muttered to his mother gently, “Ma, she gets it. You like ‘em. Let it go, okay?”