Protecting Her(24)

Why is she pushing me to do this? I don’t want him up here all alone in this cold, stark room. He’ll be scared and lonely. And I don’t want the maid checking on him. I don’t even know the maid.

“Eleanor, I appreciate you setting up the nursery, but I need to keep him with me. If it ruins your dinner, then maybe we should leave.”

“No. Of course not. We’ll try to make it work.”

Make what work? Dinner? Why wouldn’t it work?

We go back down the stairs. Pearce and his father are no longer in the foyer.

“Right this way.” Eleanor takes me down a long hallway to a very large dining room. There’s a bar in the back, complete with a bartender. Pearce and Holton are there, having a drink.

Holton eyes the baby. “I thought we were having cocktails, Eleanor.”

She fakes a smile. “We are. I’ll have a gin and tonic.”

“And you?” Holton asks, refusing once again to use my name.

“Nothing for me.”

Pearce wraps his arm around me. “Are you sure? There’s sparkling water, soda, anything you’d like.”

“No, thank you. I’m fine.”

Holton coughs and takes a drink. Then he coughs again, repeatedly.

“Do you have a cold?” I ask him, not wanting him around Garret if he’s sick.

“He’s not sick,” Eleanor says. “Something’s just been irritating his throat lately.”

“Have you seen a doctor?” Pearce asks him.

“I’m going this week,” he says.

Eleanor smiles. “I’m sure it’s nothing. Shall we go sit down?”

She leads us to the formal living room that’s just off the dining room. Pearce and I seat ourselves on the beige sofa and his parents sit across from us in high-backed upholstered chairs, then everyone, except me, has their drinks. Holton keeps giving me annoyed looks for having the baby here, but I don’t care. This is a huge house and I feel like Garret would be miles away up in that nursery.

At seven, a man in a white shirt, black vest, and black pants, who I’m guessing is our server, comes in and announces that dinner is ready.

“Could you go get the baby carrier?” I ask Pearce.

“Mother said there’s a crib upstairs. He can be up there while we have dinner.”

“I don’t want him up there,” I say quietly, but Holton hears, and I swear he almost rolls his eyes. “I’d rather have him here with us.”

Pearce senses my anxiousness and says, “I’ll go get it.”

During dinner, Garret sleeps quietly in his baby carrier, which I put on the chair next to me. Holton and Eleanor are at the ends of the table and can’t even see the baby from there so they have no reason to complain.

“How is your job, Pearce?” Holton asks.

So far, the dinner conversation has been mostly about Kensington Chemical. Holton has monopolized the conversation, mainly just talking to Pearce. I tried to ask Holton a question, pretending to act interested in what he was saying, but he interrupted me, acting like he didn’t hear me.

“The job keeps me busy,” Pearce says, purposely being vague. He doesn’t want to talk about his job with his father because he knows Holton will just find fault with it. Pearce said his father hates Jack.

When dessert is served, Pearce tries to include me in the conversation. “Rachel, tell my parents how you’re teaching Garret to swim.”

“He’s not really swimming,” I say. “I’m just getting him used to the water.”

“Rachel used to swim in college. She’s very good. She has several medals and trophies.”

There’s a loud ringing noise and Pearce quickly gets up and takes out his phone. It’s the cell phone he uses for work.

“I’ll be right back,” he says, racing out of the room.

Why is he answering his phone during dinner? Surely his parents don’t approve of that. But they don’t seem angry. They’re calmly eating their dessert as if the phone call didn’t happen.

“Did you enjoy the meal?” Eleanor asks me.

“Yes. It was very good.” I’m just being polite. It wasn’t very good. I’m not even sure what I ate. The main course was some type of meat but it wasn’t beef, chicken, or pork. At least the dessert is good. It’s a chocolate torte with raspberry filling.

We finish our dessert in silence, and when we’re done, Pearce finally comes back. He’s walking really fast and looks stressed.