Toxic Bad Boy(62)

CHAPTER NINETEEN





“A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness.”

-John Keats

CALEB

I drove my car into a parking garage near the Italian restaurant we were meeting our parents. Downtown was less busy on Sunday evenings, most people at home relaxing before the coming workweek. Gianna sat in the passenger seat in a dress and heels which I thought could be put to better use than dinner with family.

Finding a spot on the second level, I cut the engine and ran a hand up her silky thigh. “Spread your legs, baby.”

“Stop it, Caleb. Don’t get me all flustered before we meet them,” she scolded, pushing my hand away.

She made to open her door. “Stop, wait until I come around and open it for you.”

With an arm around her waist, I led her to the restaurant. I gave the hostess my dad’s name and we were ushered to a table in the middle of the place. My dad and Gianna’s mom sat across from each other and I wondered if it was by design so Gianna and I would be forced to do the same.

“Hi, honey,” Julie said, getting up to kiss Gianna on the cheek.

My dad greeted us, staying seated.

Pushing her chair in, I took my own seat and leaned forward with my elbows on the table. “Let me guess, you two are hooking up again?”

“Caleb,” my dad began, only for Julie to finish.

“Your dad and I still love each other very much. We’re trying to work things out.” Her smile creeped me out. She hadn’t smiled genuinely at me like that since before she found out I was fucking her daughter.

Gianna looked as weirded out as me. “Mom, are you guys getting married again?”

“Those lawyers were a waste of money,” I muttered, earning a reprimanding look from my dad.

My dad answered Gianna. “If things go in that direction, you two will be the first to know.”

Gianna smirked at me. “So we’ll be stepsister and stepbrother again?”

I winked at her, making her giggle. “Does Chance know?” I asked my dad.

When he nodded with a grin I knew that conversation had gone well. “He’s excited for us.”

Looking Julie in the eye, I had to test her. “Well, you’ll be my mother-in-law one day, so may as well add stepmother to that.”

Did her fingers whitened as she clenched them around the stem of her wine glass. “Caleb, your dad said you have a show on the 12th? Congratulations.”

Ah, so Julie was seeing the possibility of green in Gianna’s future. Did that make me more palatable as a future son-in-law? “Yes, the show will co-feature another artist. You’ll be coming?”

Her eyes moved to my dad. “Your father asked me to come with him.” My mom would enjoy that. She no longer loved my dad, but she couldn’t stand Julie.

“Dad is coming, too,” Gianna informed them of something I already knew.

“Will you be going to an art school after you graduate?” Julie asked me.

Keeping eye contact and resisting looking at Gianna, I told her, “I’ll go to whatever college Gianna does.”

“That should be the other way around, Caleb,” Gianna said. “Your art is important and I don’t even know what I want to major in. If you go to an art school, I could attend a regular college nearby.”

I reached for her hand across the table. “They’d have to be close. It’d be easier for when we get an apartment together.” Gianna glared at me, suspecting I was trying to rile her mom. My eyes darted to Julie to take in her reaction.

Her face was carefully blank and I knew whatever she was really feeling couldn’t be good. She forced a smile for my dad. “Scott, don’t you think the kids are too young to discuss moving in together?”

From my dad’s concerned expression, I knew he agreed with her. “Caleb, you two haven’t been together long enough to think about cohabitation or marriage.”

I shrugged. “Fine, we’ll talk about it again after we graduate next spring.” I’d had my fun. Julie had to at least pretend to tolerate me dating her daughter if she wanted to win my dad back. Whether or not she ever approved of me no longer mattered, never really had.

“So, Gianna,” her mom began cheerfully in an obvious change of subject, “Tell me about Cece’s invitation to the Colorado Ballet Academy.”

Keeping a straight face, Gianna said, “She turned it down.”

“Why it the world would she do that?” her mom asked.

Because Dante knocked her up.

Instead of the truth, Gianna lied, something she’d gotten in the habit of doing a lot lately. “She doesn’t think she can handle the pressure.”