Tell Me You Crave Me (Search and Seduce #3)(10)

“Well, it’s still rude, Natalie, and honestly, if you want to get a man to stick around, you have to first stay for the whole date.”

“I know, Mom. But you and I have different opinions on the role a man plays in my life.”

“Well, be that as it may,” she said, dismissing Natalie’s words. “You need to settle down.”

“I have my own shop, my own home. I’m settled.”

“You know that’s not what I mean by settled. Start a family. You have all your other roots here. Honestly, I don’t see why you don’t want more.”

“I do want more.” Just not in the form of weekly ladies’ groups and debutante status. Yes, Natalie wanted a man, but she wanted him for passion and fun. Not as sweater-vest-wearing father-of-four material.

“Well, Charles was your last chance to find a date before your brother’s wedding.”

“His wedding is in two weeks. And who cares if I have a date?”

“I do!” her mother snapped. “You’re pushing thirty, and all the good men with good families are already taken. Your friends are getting married, having babies—”

“I’m twenty-five, mother.”

“Exactly. Already a quarter of a century.”

That familiar hollowness in Natalie’s stomach started to tug again. Her mother was a good woman, but she was hard to live up to. She knew her family loved her. Especially her mother. But they were nothing alike, and the things her mother wanted for her would never fit with the life Natalie wanted, least of all the idea that one day she would be a “kept” woman.

Yes, her friends were moving on, and yes, it played on some insecurities she had about her life and the clock ticking. But she was tired of being invisible. Even on her best dates, she was never noticed as a woman.

Until last night. Why was the one man she ought to stay far away from the one man who’d ever made her feel seen?

Her mother came over to clasp her shoulders. “Sweetie, I just want what’s best for you.”

Natalie nodded. “I know.”

“So I’m calling Harrison.”

“What? Mom, no.”

“Now, Natalie, your brother’s wedding is a big event around here, and I won’t have my only daughter showing up alone. You’ll look uneven in the pictures. It’s bad enough you wander about unattached as it is.”

“Wait…” Natalie had to take a few steps back. This was more about the family name and the fact that Natalie going stag would start some gossip at her mother’s women’s group than anything else. Was Lemon-Anne really becoming that embarrassed of her own daughter? Natalie tried not to think so, because it made a sting rise behind her eyes. “What do you mean Matt’s wedding is a big event around here? He’s getting married in Connecticut.” Where he lived with his fiancée.

“The church they booked got flooded, along with the reception hall. Terrible storm. So they’re moving everything here to Beaufort.”

Oh crap…

Now Natalie was going to be around her big brother and his gorgeous fiancée and likely all her equally gorgeous friends, and her mother wanted to set her up on the world’s worst date for the whole event.

“Mom, I’ll help with the wedding and all, but I’m not going with Harrison. He’s my cousin, for Christ’s sake.”

“Watch your mouth,” Lemon-Anne snapped. “And he’s your second cousin by marriage. Not blood-related so it’s fine.”

Nothing about this was fine. It was humiliating. Because she knew, one way or another, her mother would get her way. The whole town would show up, and Natalie would once again be the weird ugly duckling of the otherwise prestigious St. Clair family. No, no, this could not happen.

“I have a date,” Natalie lied. But it was the best she could come up with.

Her mother’s perfectly penciled brows lifted. “Oh?” she smiled. “Who?”

“Well, ah…” She glanced over her shoulder toward the back room and thanked God East was still hidden behind the closed door. “I mean, I have some prospects of dates. I’m sure one will be perfect.”

If looks could kill, Lemon-Anne’s could sting, burn, and bludgeon. Natalie knew that expression. She was assessing, looking for a weak point in Natalie’s plan—her lie, that is. Thankfully, her mother finally gave a tight nod. “Well, in that case, go on your dates, but if you don’t have a suitable man on your arm come the rehearsal dinner, then I’m calling Harrison.”

And Harrison would show up, and Natalie would have to repeat the traumatizing experience of her junior prom all over again.

“I’ll have a date, Mom.”

Her mother smiled, and Natalie tried not to let it hurt that her mother placed so much value on the man—theoretical or not—in her life that it overshadowed Natalie as an individual. But she’d deal with that later. For now, she just needed her mother off her back, and then to get East the hell out of here and figure out how she was going to come up with “suitable date material” in two weeks.

“I look forward to hearing all about your time, dear.”

With a light pat on her cheek, her mother left. Natalie closed the door and took a deep breath. She had to open her shop in an hour, and she was a mess, and now she was in deep shit to boot.