Falling For His Escort [Book #3]

Chapter 16

Mason's POV
After last night's incident, I was in charge of cooking family dinner. My mother thought it would be a suitable punishment to make up for making a mess in her kitchen and running around her house with my jewels out.

Little does she know, I don't mind cooking. So I decided to use my love for cooking as an opportunity to apologize to my parents. I was high and a tad bit drunk last night. And I shouldn't have brought Dove back here.

No matter how fun it was.

I checked to make sure I had followed the step by step ingredients of how to make my grandmother Adeleine's famous lasagna. I nodded my head in approval, pleased that I hadn't missed anything. Especially because I already put the lasagna in the oven.

Placing the index card back in the box with her other recipes, I moved on to the garden salad.

"It's smells good in here," I heard my little brother say. He strolled into the kitchen with his nose pointed up to the ceiling.

Making himself comfortable at the Island where I was chopping lettuce, he reached for one of the baby red tomatoes sitting in a bowl.

I smacked his hand away. "Fuck off."

"Oh come on," he whined. "I'm starving."

"Dinner won't be ready for another hour."

"An hour!?" He exclaimed in disbelief. I heard his stomach grumble. Loudly. "I'm going to starve to death by then."

Hayden can be so dramatic sometimes.

"Get a snack out of the pantry."

"I would if your girl hadn't eaten everything."

"Dad should be back from the grocery store any minute now."

His eyes went wide. "Dad went to the grocery store?" I nodded. "Without mom?"

"Yeah, why?"

He let out a groan of frustration. "Dad never gets the right stuff. He's always buying the expensive shit no one has ever heard of. Last time he went grocery shopping alone, he came home with Cheez-its that tasted like rich ass."

I dropped the lettuce into the stainless steel colander and rinsed the leafy greens under cold water.

"What the hell does rich ass taste like?"

"Like those fake ass Cheez-its," he replied, before grabbing a couple of tomatoes and running out to the backyard where everyone else was located.

I rolled my eyes, not bothering to waste my time chasing after him. I still had to finish this salad and put some yeast rolls into the oven.

****

By the time I had finally finished preparing dinner, I was hearing the doorbell to the front door being rung and my overly excited mother rushing to answer it.

I gave my family a confused expression, wondering who was joining us tonight. It was just immediate family today, so I knew that none of my uncles, aunts, or cousins would be coming.

Other than my father, they seemed just as confused and curious as me.

"Dad, what is mom planning?"

"She didn't tell you?" He questioned, genuinely surprised.

"Tell me what?"

He opened his mouth to respond, but no words came out. His attention was no longer on me, his head turned to the left along with the rest of my family.

"Hey, Mason."

I slowly turned my head at the sound of Dove's feminine yet slighty deep voice in my ear.