“Briar, you made it,” Travis says with a giant smile on his face, moving toward me, almost with a bounce in his step. I freeze, wide-eyed, waiting for someone to yell PUNKED. Instead, he hugs me tightly, lifting me until my Converse-covered feet leave the ground.
“Smile and pretend like this is normal, for fuck’s sake,” he hisses in my ear before putting me back on the ground. I let out a dry laugh and put the mask I perfected long ago on my face.
I’ve always known how to pretend like nothing’s wrong. It’s something I learned at a young age.
Pressing my hands down the skater-style dress I grabbed from the closet in my room here after arriving an hour ago, I’m fully regretting not asking Tobias if he knew what was going on tonight.
Sawyer bounds up to me once I’m back on the floor, lifting me and spinning me before kissing me smack on the lips then putting me down once more. “Sorry, Sunshine. We didn’t know the folks were coming until we got here, otherwise we’d have sent up a warning flag.”
“You didn’t even tell meyou’dbe here, and now you’re kissing me in front of your freaking parents, Sawyer,” I whisper-shout at him, becoming very aware that everyone is watching us.
Sweet baby Jesus, let a hole open up beneath us and make me freaking disappear.
“Well, isn’t this lovely?” my mom coos as she glides across the room toward us. “Briar, darling. Why didn’t you tell me?”
She hugs me tightly, but Sawyer doesn’t release my hand, which I can’t decide if I’m thankful for when his mom stares at the joining of us like she just saw two pigs fucking.
Oh yeah, the disdain is real.
“Just smile,” Mom murmurs in my ear before squeezing me and letting go. I glance over to Asher, who looks pissed at Sawyer, but also like he wants to rescue me.
Oh, fun.
That really fills me with joy.
“Briar, this is Erica and Thomas St. Vincent,” Mom says once she’s back at Chase’s side. I take a deep breath and release Sawyer's hand, preparing myself for dealing with his parents. “And this is Senator Theodore Beckett.”
Senator Beckett gives me what I would call a politician’s smile as I approach and holds out his hand, which I take and shake. “Lovely to meet you, Senator.”
“The pleasure is mine, I’m sure,” he responds, his eyes raking over me before he glances at his son.
I turn to the St. Vincents, my gaze locking with Asher’s before I turn to his parents as Sawyer joins them. “Mom, Dad, this is Briar,” Sawyer says cheerily.
His mom glances over me quickly, giving me a tight smile. “Lovely to meet you both,” I say, trying not to sound as awkward as I feel.
“Lovely to meet you too, sweetheart,” Thomas responds. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Oh, God,” I say, before covering my mouth and looking at him wide-eyed.
He chuckles before taking a sip of his drink. “Only good things, don’t worry.” He winks at me before turning to Chase and the senator, starting up whatever conversation they were having when I entered.
I head to the other side of the room to pour a glass of water from the jug, trying to compose myself. Any thoughts of apprehension I had about why I was summoned here swiftly departed upon seeing who was in this room.
“Deep breaths, Beautiful,” Asher murmurs in my ear, squeezing my waist from behind. “You’ve got this. Tonight is all about them, so don’t stress.”
I finish my drink, placing the glass back on the cart before turning around and realizing the four of them have formed a barrier around me. I just kind of blink at them, trying to work out what the hell is going on.
“We need to put on a united front against whatever this charade is tonight.” Travis’s eyes bore into mine as he speaks. “You’re new here, but this is a game we’re used to. We don’t have to like each other to be on the same side, you understand?”
I raise my brows, wondering why the hell he’d think I’d side with him after him being a colossal bag of douchery since I arrived here at the start of the month, but then I realize he’s right. Whatever this is tonight, they have more experience with it, and chances are that not only am I out of my depth, but I’m probably not going to like it.
Especially after my mom’s whole ‘just smile’ warning earlier.
“What do you think they want?” I ask quietly as the low hum of the conversation on the other side of the room picks up.
“No fucking idea,” Travis complains. “But when they gather us like this outside of a holiday function or party to pretend we have an awesome family dynamic, it's usually because they want us to play show pony for whatever new money grab they’ve dreamed up.”
His snark isn’t lost on me, but I’m too freaked out to really grasp it fully. This is a side of my new life that I knew would happen at some point. Money never comes without strings, and now it’s obviously time to pay the piper.