Page 40 of Right With You
Fifteen minutes later, we were escorted into a private room at the Silver Ridge Resort’s finest restaurant. It was the only truly fine dining place in town, but most people preferred the more casual options sprinkled around Silverton. We entered the small room to find a round table set for five and my grandfather, Aurelie, and Michele already seated.
“There you are,” Aurelie said and instantly stood to greet us. She kissed my cheeks, then Elise’s, and Michele did the same.
I approached my grandfather, who’d risen to his feet and stood quietly after buttoning his suit jacket with one hand.
“Good evening, Grand-père. This is my fiancée, Elise.” I settled my palm against her back in a gesture I hoped she would read as one of support as she held out her hand.
I held my breath, waiting to see how he’d respond. It wouldn’t have been altogether shocking if he had simply looked past her, but instead, he took her hand and bowed deeply over it to press a kiss there. “Lovely to meet you, Elise.”
“Thank you. I’m so glad to meet you, too, Mr. Devereaux.”
Grand-père released her hand, and she gracefully sat in the chair I pulled out for her. I would’ve preferred to have her next to Aurelie, or even Michele, but after that almost effusive greeting, I had hopes he might be on his best behavior.
I wasn’t giving him the benefit of the doubt here, but I hadn’t been able to do that in so long. Since my mother passed, at least. He’d grown harder, and of course our relationship had gone from loving to strained to nearly nonexistent in the years since then.
That could all change.
It could. But first, we’d have to get through this dinner.
Once we were all seated, a waiter arrived with menus and we all talked with him while looking at it. He returned with a bottle of red wine he opened tableside and poured a splash for my grandfather who tasted it, sloshing it around and letting it roll over the sides of his tongue like a true connoisseur, and then nodded. The waiter poured the wine into pre-set glasses and we ordered.
Aurelie and Michele dominated the conversation, blessedly chatting about all manner of things happening in their lives. They were redoing a wing of the historic home they lived in now, each finding the process grueling. My grandfather spoke up to add his memory of renovating while my grandmother had been pregnant with my father, and how he could still smell the way the paint had permeated everything and made my grandmother sick.
I hadn’t heard him speak about her, let alone any fond familiar memories, in years. Had he gone through some major life event in the last eighteen hours and decided not to invite Odette here? It seemed so at odds with the way he was almost jovially talking with Aurelie and Michele and occasionally sending winks to Elise.
“What did your parents do, Elise?” Grand-père asked.
And here it came. I’d thought it too soon.
Elise finished chewing a bite and dabbed the corner of her mouth with her napkin before smiling. The expression would likely seem lovely to anyone who didn’t know her well, but there was no ignoring the strain around her eyes.
“I never knew my father, and my mother has primarily been a homemaker.”
She gently cleared her throat and shifted in her seat—just enough to send my pulse up a notch. We hadn’t talked much about her family, and I was kicking myself for that. Of course my grandfather would want to know her lineage, almost like a collector would demand the provenance of a painting. It was a sick thought, but accurate, and I had no doubt he’d done the same thing with my mother. I’d warned her he’d look into her past, but somehow asking her here at dinner, as though he didn’t know, seemed particularly awful.
I had asked her—we’d broached the topic of family during our dinner at Guac, and it’d been obvious she didn’t like talking about this. I hadn’t wanted to be a mercenary jerk and push too much at the time. It wasn’t the wrong move, but only my grandfather would make me pay for trying to be a gentleman.
“Interesting. And how did she engineer such a lifestyle for herself without your father?” He nudged a little slide of wagyu filet mignon onto his fork and raised it to his mouth.
Aurelie saved me from throttling him right there.
“Grand-père, what are you saying? How rude!” She set her fork down and the genuine outrage on her face would’ve cowed a lesser man.
He, however, flicked a wrist. “It is a question worth asking, is it not?”
I felt paralyzed with a slimy sensation of disbelief, disappointment, and regret. I should never have done this. I should’ve been man enough to say no to my grandfather, or to play his games while he visited and let the woman down privately. Whatever the case, it shouldn’t have been this—putting Elise on the spot.
“I understand why you’d ask. I hope you’ll respect my choice not to elucidate my mother’s choices when they are not my own.”
My head snapped to Elise, and she set her napkin at the side of her plate.
“If you’ll excuse me for a moment,” she said and rose.
Michele, Grand-père, and I all stood. I tried to catch her eye, but she wouldn’t look at me. She walked with confidence out the door of the small room, and I whirled on my grandfather.
“How dare you ask such a thing? Why would that matter? How is that appropriate for a first meeting?” I wanted to take him by the collar of his bespoke suit and shake him.
No charming affect slipped into place now that she was gone.
