Surrendering to Us by Chelsea M. Cameron Page B

course.
    Lucah stood in front of the door, as if he expected me to knock. I gave him a look and started laughing.
    “We can go in. It’s my house.” I opened the door.
    “We’re here,” I called out. Mom came dashing around the corner with the biggest smile on her face. It wasn’t fake, either. No one could rock a fake smile like my mother, but this was genuine.
    “Lucah, it’s so nice to see you again.” She held her hand out and he shook it.
    “Thank you so much Mrs. Clarke.” She didn’t offer to let him call her by her first name, not that he would. She might have been his girlfriend’s mother, but she was also his boss’ wife.
    “Rory, can I take your coat?” I took it off and she took Lucah’s jacket as well. His eyes darted around the house and assessed it.
    “Would you like the tour?” Mom said, sweeping her arm out.
    “Yes, that would be great.” Only the very tips of his ears betrayed how intimidated he was. I took his hand in mine as Mom led us through the downstairs. He especially liked the dorky childhood posed photographs of me that were everywhere.
    “Fair is fair,” he whispered in my ear as I tried to hide one of them behind a vase of flowers. “You got to see mine, now I want to see yours.”
    “You’ve seen mine. Many times.” I whispered back. Mom was oblivious as she talked about a painting.
    “Where’s Dad?”
    “Oh, he’s just making a phone call. He’ll be right out.” She rolled her eyes.
    “So he’s been bringing his work home with him?” Instead of taking it easy and working less, he was just bringing it home. Lovely. “Which means he didn’t listen at all to either of us.” She shook her head, and pasted on her fake smile in front of Lucah. He might be my boyfriend, but he was a guest and she wanted to make a good impression. Just like I’d wanted to with his family yesterday.
    “Ah, there he is.” Dad came out of his study and seemed startled to see us all there.
    “Hi, Dad.” I went and gave him a hug, an extra tight one.
    “Mr. Clarke. Nice to see you outside of the office, sir.” Lucah shook his hand and Dad smiled.
    “Same to you, Mr. Blaine. Or Blythe. Still getting used to the name change.” Lucah smiled and I could feel a moment of awkward silence coming. But as soon as she felt it, Mom escorted us into the dining room and had us sit down. I looked at Lucah.
    “Now?” I whispered to him as Dad and Mom brought in the dinner. Tonight it was baked chicken with grilled artichokes and Brussels sprouts, with a lemon sponge cake for dessert.
    We all served ourselves and once our plates were full of food, I cleared my throat.
    “Dad? Can we talk about something with you?”
    “Now? Can’t it wait until after we’ve eaten?” Lucah nudged my leg under the table. It was now or never.
    “No, it can’t wait. Um, so Lucah informed me that, well . . . “ I trailed off. I couldn’t say the words. Before I could ask him to finish for me, Lucah opened his mouth.
    “There really isn’t a way to put this delicately, Mr. Clarke. The Board of Directors wants you gone and has been meeting in secret to try to figure out a way to oust you.” Well, I couldn’t have put it better.
    Dad put his fork down, steepled his fingers and rested his chin on them.
    “I know.”

 
     
     
     
     

     
    “You know?” I nearly fell out of my chair. Lucah was just as stunned beside me. Mom wore a grim smile on her face.
    “I’ve known for a long time. I might have been in the dark about all the recent unpleasantness, but there is no way I wouldn’t be aware of this. I expected it. Why wouldn’t they try to oust me? Some very illegal things happened on my watch. In their eyes, it was my fault for being incompetent. So. I know, and I’m doing what I can to take care of it.”
    “Meaning what?” Was this why he was spending so much time in the office? It all made sense now.
    “You don’t need to worry about it. I have it under control. Now how about we eat