You can’t just disappear to make out with your girlfriend for an hour, or make an early escape if things get boring. So, after a few, too-brief stolen moments, we were eventually forced to tear ourselves apart and head back to the party.
“Come on.” Bash sighed resignedly, linking our hands together as he led me down the hallway to the main room. “My dad wants to meet you.”
His words made my stomach churn with nerves, but I said nothing as we entered the main room and approached his parents. Judith’s clear blue eyes narrowed as soon as she spotted my hand entwined with her son’s, but her Botoxed smile didn’t waver. My eyes skittered away from her to take in the man on her left.
I’d seen him in pictures, of course, but they hadn’t done Senator Covington justice. He was classically handsome in the way that benefitted the most memorable politicians. He could’ve passed for a Kennedy with his broad white smile, boyish charm, and sandy blond hair. His eyes were a startling shade of green, but they were wide and full of welcome — a total contradiction to his wife’s icy stare.
“Lux!” He stepped forward and grabbed my free hand, cupping it within both of his. With a gentle tug, I was pulled away from Bash and into his father’s space. “So nice to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you and your interesting little family from Sebastian.”
“Dad.” The warning in Sebastian’s tone unmistakable.
“Oh relax, son. I’m not going to embarrass you.” The senator pulled me against his side and wrapped an arm around my shoulder, squeezing lightly. His enthusiastic greeting made me feel infinitely more welcome than Judith ever had, but a creeping sense of unease was stirring to life in the recesses of my mind. That unsettled feeling only magnified when I looked at Bash and saw how tense he was — his pulse throbbed in the protruding vein on his neck, his jaw was tightly clenched, and his eyes were locked on his father.
“So tell me, Lux,” the senator said, loosening his hold on my shoulders so he could peer down at my face. “What are your plans for next year?”
I swallowed roughly. “Well, Senator, I—”
“Andrew,” he corrected, beaming at me.
“Okay, Andrew,” I repeated, feeling an uncomfortable blush spread across my cheeks. “Hopefully, I’ll be at UGA.”
“She received a full academic scholarship,” Sebastian offered, still staring at his father. His expression was entirely closed off — nothing I’d ever seen from him before — and though his words were supportive, his voice was defensive.
“How wonderful,” Andrew said in a happy tone, staring back at his son with smiling eyes. When he turned his gaze on me, I barely stopped myself from taking an involuntary a step away from him. It was like looking into two empty glass orbs — up close, I could see that no genuine emotion or affection filled his stare, no warmth or welcome suffused their depths. He was hollow.
“Lux, tell me,” he continued, squeezing my arm tightly. “Has Sebastian given you the good news yet?”
My eyes darted to Sebastian, unsure of what to say and afraid to get in the middle of whatever was happening here.
“Dad.” Bash glared at his father, his reprimand even chillier than before.
“But I’m so proud!” Andrew gushed, his spirited laughter filling the room. “See, Lux, he’s been accepted to Princeton in the fall!”
I stilled, forcing a happy smile onto my face and avoiding Bash’s stare, which I could feel scanning my expression. “That’s fantastic,” I said, my fake enthusiasm discernible even to my own ears. I’d never been a very good actress.
“I don’t know what we’ll do without him around here — Princeton’s in New Jersey. That’s nearly two thousand miles away!” Andrew added, as though I didn’t possess basic, elementary-level geographic knowledge about the location of our states. The moment was beginning to feel less like a conversation and more like a chess game between Sebastian and his father — each careful syllable a rook, each nuanced word a knight, sliding across a board of unspoken meanings and moving in for the kill.
“With you here in Georgia and my boy up north, well, it’d be a miracle if you managed to make something like that work.” The senator smiled happily, his white teeth so perfect I wondered if he’d had them capped with porcelain veneers.
“That’s enough,” Bash growled, reaching a hand across the space and grabbing my hand. With one sharp tug, he pulled me out from his father’s grip and settled me into his side. “We’re leaving.”
“But we’ve barely gotten to know one another!” the Senator protested, grinning at Bash and me with an uncomfortably excited glint in his eyes. “Don’t steal Lux away yet. We’ve so much more to explore.”
I felt the blood drain from my face as I watched Andrew’s eyes travel slowly down the length of my body, perusing my every curve with a blatantly sexual stare. Hoping for some kind of intervention, I turned my horrified gaze toward Judith only to find her staring impassively at the wall, a crystal tumbler of amber liquid clutched in her hand. She appeared completely uninterested in her husband’s actions — either she was well-practiced at looking the other way during his indiscretions, or she was so caught up in her own thoughts of glamorous gatherings and guest lists she failed to even notice his inappropriate leering.
“Come on,” Bash whispered, pulling me away. “Let’s go.”
“So nice to meet you, Lux!” Andrew called after us. I made the mistake of glancing back over my shoulder at him, and felt my stomach flip when he winked lecherously. “See you soon, dear!”
Sebastian led me to the kitchen and outside, walking at a brisk pace. His anger was apparent in each stride he took, his steps pounding against the grass at an unmatchable pace as we made our way down the sloping lawn to the tree line. The sun had set hours ago and there was a chill in the air — I shivered, pulling my thin cardigan tighter around my short dress and trying not to stumble on my flimsy, borrowed pumps. I wasn’t used to walking in heels and, as I stumbled over a stray rock on the path through the woods, I knew I’d never become the sort of woman who wore them every day. They were so impractical.
Guided by the faint glow of Sebastian’s cellphone, we eventually made it to the clearing. Bash pulledour wool blanket from the tree hollow in the giant oak. He spread the blanket across the grassy bracken and settled in, immediately pulling me down beside him. I lay across the blanket, my long hair spread out in the grass around me and my white dress glowing luminous in the moonlight. Bash rolled onto his side to face me, his head propped against his hand and his eyes on mine.
“Lux, I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “My father, he’s—”
“Shh,” I breathed, reaching a finger up to press against his lips. “Don’t.”
“The Princeton thing, it’s not definite. It’s just what he wants. And the way he looked at you…” Bash pressed his eyes closed at the thought and his upper lip curled in disgust. “I don’t know how to make this up to you, but I swear I will.”