“No, wait.”

Lulu? I heard her whisper before my mattress dipped.

I opened my eyes, blinking away the light, and turned onto my side, only to have a soft small hand poke my check. Alaric smiled brightly before signing ‘good morning’, which I understood because Luella interpreted.

“Good morning?” I copied his sign to say it back to him, and he clapped, giving me a thumbs-up.

“Good,” he said with voice, smiling.

“Thank you,” I replied, brushing back his hair. He looked to his mother, saying something quickly, and I followed his gaze to Luella, who was dressed in a bright floral sundress that stopped mid-thigh. Her beautiful brown hair was pulled back off her face. I was so mesmerized, I almost didn’t notice the tray in her hands or the surprised look she gave me.

“What?” I signed to them both, grinning and sitting up against the pillows.

She put the tray down over my lap before signing and saying, “Alaric thinks you’re a natural at this.”

“And why is that?” I asked.

Alaric’s attention was on me now. “Because you copied me right on one time. That’s really good, Daddy.”

I grinned. Who knew such a small compliment would mean so much?

“Thank you, bud. So, does that mean you’re going to be my teacher?”

His face lit up when he read Luella’s hands, and he nodded his head vigorously before replying, “First you need to know the your A, B, Cs, don’t worry, I’ll teach you lots.”

“Before he starts classes, how about we let him eat first?” Luella asked him but spoke aloud, nodding to the large breakfast in front of me. “We wanted to make something for you.”

“On your plate you will find scrambled eggs, with an almond milk base, tomato, fire-roasted Italian sausage, and spinach, as well as a dash of onions. Also, a Philadelphia cream cheese, banana, and walnut bagel with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top. Lastly, a blueberry and strawberry blended yogurt,” she said and signed impressively.

Alaric raised his hand to get attention before saying, “I got to beat the eggs and mix the yogurt.”

They both sat around me eagerly, staring. Alaric even handed me the fork. They looked so desperate for me to enjoy it, which was exactly why, no matter how it tasted, I was sure I was going to have to say I did. Using the fork, I took as much of the egg as I could before stuffing it into my mouth. They leaned in at the same exact same time, and I tried not to laugh, despite the fact that he got his personality from Luella.

This is good, I thought, glancing down at the eggs and taking another bite. As in unbelievably good.

“You made this?” I looked to her, lifting the bagel to eat.

But Alaric waved again to get credit. “I beat them.”

“Yes, we made it this morning. Do you like it?”

Could she not see me eating it? I grinned, nodding. “It’s amazing, better than whatever room service I would have called for. Where did you get all of it?”

“The fridge is packed, and even though these kinds of places never expect you to use their kitchen, I couldn’t help myself.”

I’d forgotten she’d been working at a restaurant. Finnick said she was looking to buy her own one day. With food like this, she had the talent for it.

“Mommy’s a food head!” Alaric signed, and Luella interrupted in mock shock and anger. He just grinned back and continued to sign. “Mommy loves food a lot. She’ll eat anything and try to cook anything. Aunt Eva says she’s hard to go out and eat with because if the food is bad Mommy will try and fix it to make it taste better. If it is good, she’ll try to figure out what’s in it. If it’s super good, she gets mopey because she doesn’t know how to make it. Everyone always wonders how she’s not as big as a house—”

“Okay!” Luella cut him off, giving him a spoon full of the yogurt from my tray. He actually just accepted, licking the spoon too. “Sorry, he’s a little excited.”

“Really?” I asked. “Because it looked to me like you just stopped him from telling me all about your deep love of food by giving him food.”

And as we were talking, Alaric leaned in to take more of the yogurt. It must have been because she stopped signing while talking to me, he’d magically become invisible enough to just lift the small bowl without us noticing.

She waved her hand in his face, and he froze like he’d been caught doing something sneaky.

“Alaric, you already had yours.”

When he turned to her and pouted, I laughed out right. He was so blunt about everything.

“Nice try—hey!” She directed the last part to me when I gave him the yogurt.

“Look at that face. How can you deny him?” I asked before biting into the bagel, and part of me was now curious as to how that yogurt tasted too. Everything tasted better than the last.

“Yeah, Mommy. How can you deny me?” Alaric added before happily sitting back against the pillows beside me and started eating. She gave him a look and he gave her a thumbs-up.

She shook her head before looking to me, smiling. “See what you did? Prepare to have him try to steal all your food. I might be a food head but he’s a little food monster!”

“So, a well-stocked kitchen is the key to both of your hearts?” I joked.

Before she could reply, she noticed Alaric as he signed, “Why would your heart need a key?”

I looked to her, and she looked back to me. It was so innocent and yet so profound. How could we not be amazed?

“I’m done, Mommy,” he signed and lifted the bowl for her to see. He had to be a monster because everything was gone already. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

“Okay.” She took the bowl from him. “Make sure to wash your hands!”

He nodded and waved to me before going out of the room. It was only when he left did I realize I’d just experienced something I hadn’t in a long time. Morning breakfast with other people.

“I hope we weren’t overwhelming,” she said gently. “I’m not sure what you usually do in the morning, but it’s pretty much always like this with Alaric and I…well, not in bed, but around the kitchen.”

“That sounds nice, and this was nice. You are a good cook.”

“Thanks, I have so much more to learn though, and do. But before I go off being a food head, I wanted to ask you what you wanted to do?”

“What I wanted to do?” I repeated, not sure what she meant.

“Well, I kind of took time off from work for the week in order to come here, before realizing I was meeting you. I would go back, since I already got permission, but I want to spend the week with Alaric. This is his last week of summer break then he starts first grade. I’m not sure what you have planned, but I’m sure he’d be excited to spend time with you.”

I realized just then I was experiencing another new thing—we people paid attention to seasons. I lifted the tray off me before pulling her onto my lap.

“Only him? You wouldn’t be excited either?” I asked, wrapping my arms around her waist.

“I’d be very excited,” she whispered, putting her arms around my neck. “How else am I going to make you fall in love with me first?”

I raised my brow. “First? Why do I have to fall in love first?”

“The first one to fall chases after that person—”

“Ah-uh.” I frowned. “So, this all part of your master plan to make me chase after you. Can’t I get time served already?”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Fine, I was actually trying to give you the easier job. Now you have to sweep me off my feet, make me see fireworks and all that jazz first. It won’t be easy.”

“I’m Dorian Rhys-Gallagher, I’ve never done easy,” I reminded her, and before she could reply, I kissed her lips softly. “Prepare yourself, at the end of the week you might be proposing to me.”

“Yeah, okay, good luck with that. I’m going to check on Alaric,” she laughed, kissing the side of my cheek before getting up. The moment she did, I missed her, but I had to get up anyway.

“Lulu,” I called out to her before she reached the door.

She turned back to look at me. “Yeah?”

“Nothing, I just wanted to call your name.”

She half-laughed at me and then pouted, which explained where Alaric learned it from. “Smooth, Mr. Rhys-Gallagher, very smooth.”

It wasn’t a line. I really did just enjoy calling her name.

LUELLA

“We’re doing what?” he asked me, utterly confused as he buttoned the cuffs of his dress shirt.

“We are taking a tour of New York!” I said the last part a little bit as if I were on Broadway, even giving them both jazz fingers. Alaric just yawned as if he was already bored of his weird mom.

“Aren’t we all from New York, why take a tour of where you're from?” Dorian replied, fixing the collar of his shirt. He still didn’t get it.

“Have you ever been inside the Statue of Liberty?”

“No.”

“Have you ever walked or biked across the Brooklyn Bridge?”

He frowned, knowing exactly where I was going with this. “No, I have not.”

“Ran through the fountains at Pier 84?”

“No, can’t say I have done that either—” Before he could finish his statement, he looked down at Alaric, who stared up completely mortified, tugged on his shirt cuff then signed to him.

“He wants to know why you don’t have fun,” I said, grinning.

Dorian looked between us and simply sighed. “I guess we are going on a tour of the city.”

When Alaric looked to me, I gave him a thumbs-up, and he just gave me two thumbs-up back before grabbing Dorian’s hands and leading him to where the doors were. Dorian laughed, looking back to me, and what else could I do but shrug? When I told Alaric, he was beside himself with joy. He couldn’t wait.

I glanced back at the hotel room, thinking about how quickly life could change. How you could expect one thing and get a completely different thing. Something much better without ever asking for or expecting it.

“Lulu?”

Facing them again, Dorian and Alaric were staring at me from their spot by the elevator. Well, Dorian was staring. Alaric was telling me to hurry up when the elevator doors opened and he was already getting in.

“I’m coming!” I signed back to him, shaking my head so I wouldn’t laugh out right as I got in the elevator.

“Should I call the car—”

“Nope, we can walk or take the subway.” The look on Dorian’s face was almost as amusing as Alaric’s. It made me want to take him around even more. I wanted him to do normal and random things, especially now that he wasn’t fighting me or us.

However, the moment Alaric took my hand and held onto Dorian’s, I couldn’t help but smile. I went up by myself and now I was coming down with a family, walking across the lobby like there was nothing to be ashamed of and having people smile and nod to us as we walked by. It was all so small, and so normal. But nothing in the world felt nicer.

My past didn’t mean I couldn’t have nice things, right? I could enjoy this.

“Mr. Rhys-Gallagher?” A female voice called out to us as soon as we stepped out of the hotel. She came out of a black Benz, the driver holding the door for her. She wore a dark red dress and had shoulder-length, light blonde hair with highlights. Her green eyes drifted to Alaric before moving to me.

Dorian paused, looking over to her. “Goldie?”

The woman he was speaking to on the phone?

“Good morning, Mr. Rhys-Gallagher. I wasn’t aware you were here, I had a meeting with Mr. Stone, but I’m glad I was able you meet you,” she replied and reached into her handbag. She handed him a stack of papers. “Here are the financials, along with your mock-up ideas. The interviews are set up and the applicants have been emailed. Mr. Sinclair is going to be expecting you, I’m not sure it can be put off.”

Dorian exhaled and then paused, glancing over to us, his expression softening. “Luella, this is my personal assistant, Marigold ‘Goldie’ Tate. I will give you her number. If you need anything, she will be able to get it for you. Goldie, this Luella Thorne and our son, Alaric.”

The way her eyes widened, the way she sucked in air, made me sure she’d stopped breathing. She looked like a wife who’d just walked in on her husband with another woman, too shocked to cry or even scream. Just stuck there in her own personal nightmare.

She was in love with Dorian.

I knew because that’s how I looked when I caught Donavan with someone else.

Alaric tugged on my hand before signing, “What?”

“Sorry.” I’d been so busy watching her body language, I’d forgotten to clue him into the conversation.

However, she beat me to it. She bent over and smiled kindly, shocking me and Dorian by signing, “Hi Alaric. My name is Goldie, I work for your dad. It is nice to meet you.”

Alaric grinned at her and waved.

“You know sign language?” Dorian asked.

“My grandmother was deaf. I learned as a teenager,” she replied and signed.

“You are pretty,” Alaric told her, obviously working that charm of his.

“Thank you.” She laughed through her pain, and if I didn’t know how it felt, I would’ve believed her act.

“I need to head to the Hamptons, and I’m not sure how long it will take,” Dorian told me with a frown.

“It’s okay, we can go around the city later?” I smiled, putting a hand over Alaric’s head. So much for a nice day. “We’re still going to be here.”

He glanced down to Alaric, and I knew he was disappointed, but I was sure Dorian would still see him.

“Alaric, do you like beaches?” Goldie asked him.

He nodded excitedly.

“Well, the Hamptons has some of the greatest beaches ever!” This time she looked to me. “I’m not sure what you have planned, but I feel bad for cutting into family day. Why don’t you all go?”

Dorian looked to me, unsure what to say.

“We can stop at your place and get anything you all may need. The Hamptons are still part of New York, we can still have a tour,” he said.

Alaric tugged on me again, and when I looked down, he was giving me one of those famous pouts of his. “Please, Mommy!”

“I guess I’m outnumbered. Sure.” I nodded to them.

“What of the house in the Hamptons?” Dorian asked Goldie, flipping through the files quickly.

“I’ve notified your staff. It will be cleaned and ready by the time you get there,” she replied, standing straighter. “I will be on call if there is anything else you need me to do for you.”

“Thank you. I’m hoping I won’t need you again afterwards,” he said, and it was like he’d stabbed her through the heart. But again, she smiled through it, nodding. “We should get going. Goldie, I want status updates from the office, and tell Rafael to only forward urgent calls.” He moved to the Benz she’d come out off. The driver nodded to him and held the door for us. Alaric let go of my hand and crawled into the car before me.

I took a step forward but stopped and looked to her. “Thank you.”

“No problem. It’s my job,” she said politely, taking a slight step back from me. Saying nothing more to her, I walked over to the side door of the car and slid in next to Alaric.

“I’ll call before the first interview,” was all Dorian said to her before he climbed in beside me, and the driver closed the door.

I couldn’t help but stare at her through the tinted glass. She just stood on the curb where he left her. It was like watching a better, but still lovesick version of myself. How fucked up was that? No matter who you were, no matter what type of life you lived, you could still be so easily heartbroken and left on the side of the street.

“What?” He managed to sign, making me smile. He was really watching our hands.

“How long has Goldie been your assistant?” I asked. Alaric was no longer interested in us but in the tablet on the back of the seat in front of him.

“About nine years, we went to Harvard together, and when I took over Rhys-Gallagher National, I needed someone I could trust. She’d already applied, so it worked out. Why?”

I shrugged. “No reason, she seems nice.”

“Many people at the office would disagree,” he snickered, looking back at the paperwork in his hands.

I shouldn’t tell him. It was none of my business. But I had a feeling she’d been waiting all those nine years for his attention. Part of me did feel jealous, but another part felt bad for her because the person who loved more was often the one who got hurt. I wanted to talk to her. Was it crazy that I wanted to be her friend?