I wanted to groan and hide under the table.
Dante turned to smile at me, and I tried to smile back. “I have a lot of responsibilities as part of the royal family. Charities and events, things like that.” My father nodded. These were things my parents would easily understand, as they spent most of their free time doing the very same activities. “I am in the process of opening my own nightclub, and I have hopes that it will be successful. But even if it’s not, I will always be able to take care of Lemon. I will spend the rest of my life making sure she wants for nothing.”
Yes, I melted right into the floor. I hoped my mother wouldn’t be too mad at me for ruining her favorite rug.
“That daughter of mine has it in her head that she wants to have a career,” Daddy continued. “What do you think about that?”
Now Dante was in trouble. If he agreed with my parents, I’d be furious. If he agreed with me, it would probably make them not like him as much.
“I think that’s a decision between Lemon and her husband. If she were my wife, I would support her in whatever she wanted to do. If she wanted to work full-time, we would find a way to make it work for our relationship and our family. She’s so smart and so hardworking, and it’s very important to her to have her own career. How could I ask her to give that up?” He reached over to take my hand, and this time I just felt warmth and tenderness. It was so wonderful to finally feel understood.
He risked the parental wrath to side with me. But surprisingly, neither one of my parents seemed upset and both nodded thoughtfully. As if I hadn’t explained it to them repeatedly, and Dante was the first person who’d ever presented it to them in a way that they could understand.
“And where do you see yourself in the future?” my mother asked.
“I’ll be in Monterra. I’ll be able to have my own suite in the palace, but it will depend on whether or not my wife wants to live there. I would like for my nightclub to be turning a profit and be successful enough for me to franchise it. And I’m from a large family, so I hope to have a lot of children, and I would love for Lemon to be their mother.”
I couldn’t breathe. Whether that was because he foresaw me having an ungodly number of children or because he wanted me to be their mother, I wasn’t sure.
It also could have been because that was somehow the perfect thing for him to say. I was my parents’ only child, but not by choice. They’d suffered at least a dozen miscarriages and two stillbirths. All boys. I was the only one who survived. My parents were both only children and had hoped for their own large family. It hadn’t happened, which was one of the reasons they hovered over my life and wanted to have so much say in it. All their hopes and dreams were funneled into me. It was also why I let them down so often. There weren’t any siblings to distribute the guilt among.
My eyes flickered over to the cameras. My parents would be hurt if Dante had made this up for their benefit or for the show. He had touched a nerve that he couldn’t have been aware of.
“And it will hopefully coincide with Lemon’s plans, because her primary client is my family, so we’ll both be in the same place at the same time. And my family has a private jet, so you could come to Monterra to visit and we could come here as often as you’d like.” The show was going to have to edit half of this conversation out, with the references to his family and me working for them.
That turned to a discussion of Monterra and what it was like, and how my parents had been wanting to visit after I’d told them all about it.
Obviously, I hadn’t told them everything. Which was good, because if they knew the whole truth Dante probably would have had buckshot in his behind by now.
He totally and completely charmed them both. I could see it. He had them eating out of his hand. They already adored him.
My mother and I stood to clear the plates, and Dante put his hand on my wrist. “Please, allow me.” More brownie points with the Beauchamp women.
He took the plates from each of us and carried them into the kitchen.
“Fine young man, fine young man,” my father said. It might not have sounded like much, but coming from him that was high praise, indeed. “I’m going to see if he wants to play horseshoes.”