never assume he wants to spend all his free time with me, but the fact that he does, well… it starts to chip away at the wall I’ve put up.
“And tomorrow… do you think you could join Leonie and me for dinner?” he asks.
And well… my stomach practically explodes with a case of the butterflies. He wants me to meet Leonie, someone he loves and respects. This is different from him bringing me to dinner at his family’s home in Chicago.
Way different.
“Count me in,” I quip back, light words so they don’t admit just how much I love that he asked.
CHAPTER 23
Declan
“My dear boy, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you nervous like this before,” Leonie teases, reaching her hand out to pat me on my arm.
I give her a side look that tells her she’s being obnoxious in a way only she can get away with, and she smirks.
“She must be something special,” she murmurs.
“She’s something,” I agree as my gaze moves across the restaurant entrance. Bailey had texted she was running about five minutes late.
I had intended for us to pick Leonie up together, but Bailey didn’t want to spring herself on Leonie that way. So we decided I’d pick Leonie up for our planned dinner this evening, and I would tell her about Bailey on the way.
As expected, Leonie was over the moon when I told her I was seeing a woman and I wanted her to meet her. Knowing me better than probably anyone, she understood what a big deal this was.
She peppered me with questions the entire way to the restaurant. Laughing, she clapped with delight when I told her how we met and how I offered Bailey the job because she impressed me. I, of course, glossed over anything about The Wicked Horse.
I did tell Leonie about what happened in Chicago with my family. She’s the one person in this world who knows how dysfunctional my family is, and the only person I’ve ever complained about them to. As a young boy, she was a soft shoulder to cry on when I was overwhelmed or emotional. As I got older, she set my boundaries and helped mold me into a reasonably decent human being, although she couldn’t quite get rid of my arrogance. Mostly, she was the one I could vent to when I was angry at my parents for my perceived lack of authentic parenting they offered.
And over the years, despite what she’s witnessed and what she’s heard directly from my own mouth, Leonie never once bad-mouthed my parents. She may have had a pinched frown when she was angry on my behalf, or her eyes might have shone with sympathy when I was hurt, but the Blackwoods were her employers and she kept herself from censuring them to me.
Even to this day, despite the way they cut her loose so callously and then completely ignored her even though she was a member of our family for so many years, she never speaks ill of them.
Until now.
“Your mother said what?” Leonie had seethed on the way to the restaurant. Then she simpered with worry over Bailey. “That poor girl. She didn’t deserve that. Your mother always had a sharp tongue, and your sister could be very rude. I had the hardest time controlling her when she was growing up, but, then again, your mother had more of a hand in raising her than she did with you.”
That was true enough. My mom actually attempted some form of parenting with Marissa, but I expect that was more of a status thing. She loved to dress Marissa up in pretty things and show her off to the other trophy wives. As she got older, she treated Marissa like a younger sister and let her run practically wild.
I had to laugh at Leonie as we drove to the restaurant. For the first time I can remember, she went off on my parents because of their poor treatment of Bailey, a woman Leonie had never met. But no matter, Leonie already liked Bailey as much as I did, because I did. It was as simple as that.
“I’m glad to see you a bit nervous,” Leonie continues on, and I drag my gaze from the front of the restaurant back to the woman who is like my mom in all ways except giving actual birth to me.
“That’s your evil sense of humor, woman,” I say with a mock growl.
“You deserve it after the gray hairs you’ve given me