by S. J. Smith
So is this.
Taking a deep breath Alexis adopted a state of calm and took in everything that Lucas was telling her. Eventually they crossed the threshold into a bedroom. As she was taking in the pictures on the bookshelf and the neatly displayed pop vinyls, Lucas shut the bedroom door. She didn't take much notice as he came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. She was too busy studying one photo in particular.
It was a photo of the two of them at school. They were at one of the picnic benches that were scattered around the school for students to eat at. He was straddling the seat and she was between his legs, her back against his chest. Her head was resting against his shoulder, his arms around her. He was looking at her as if she was the most precious thing in the world. She didn't understand how he could feel that way about her. Her.
"Aaron took that photo and sent it to me. I liked it, so I got it printed and found a frame," Lucas explained, finally seeing what was holding her attention. She tore her eyes from the photo and turned in his arms, leaning back to look at his face.
"I love it." Another feeling filled her heart, and she almost spoke the words out loud but choked them back at the last second. Lifting herself up onto her toes Alexis captured his mouth with hers. She poured all of those new feelings into the kiss, hoping that maybe that look in the photo was something Lucas really felt.
◆◆◆
Alexis and Lucas spent the next half hour before dinner playfighting and making out. During their initial kiss Alexis had somehow tickled him which was enough provocation for him to tickle her, not buying that hers had been an accident. When Louise called them for dinner Lucas had needed to take a minute before they left the room. Apparently he liked when they playfought. Alexis was not about to argue.
When they entered the dining room Alexis realised that the universe wasn't done surprising her for the night. Sitting there alone in the dining room across from two empty seats was Miss Peters, her new history teacher. Lucas didn't know that she knew his dad, but he definitely could've warned her about this. Looking up from the empty plate in front of her, Miss Peters beamed at them.
"Alexis, so nice to see you."
"Um, hi Miss Peters." The confusion in her voice made the teacher laugh softly.
"Outside of school it's Clare, I'm guessing that Lucas didn't mention that we're related," her smile was genuine and kind.
Alexis shook her head as she took her seat next to Lucas who had already occupied the seat across from his sister.
"Yeah I did," Lucas defended himself.
"Yeah no. You told me that you had an older sister. That was it," Alexis glared at him, a hint of a smile on her lips.
"Ouch baby brother, you don't talk to me at school and now you're not telling your girlfriend about me. That's harsh."
The two girls shared a laugh at Lucas' expense. It had him wondering how it was that within seconds of officially meeting they were ganging up on him.
"So, are you going to introduce us properly or what?" Alexis poked him gently in the ribs for good measure. Watching him jerk away like he'd been zapped made it even better.
"Alexis, Clare. Clare, Alexis," Lucas said once he'd regained his composure. It was then that Louise and Andrew chose to enter the dining room, a dish in each hand.
"Well it sounds like you're all having fun," Louise said.
"Just torturing Lucas a little bit," Clare smiled innocently. Alexis sat quietly, suddenly nervous in front of Lucas' parents. It was not a feeling that she was fond of. As if he could sense her unease Lucas squeezed her thigh under the table, a comforting gesture that had her genuinely smiling.
She didn't know what she'd been honestly expecting from dinner with the Peters', but Alexis was glad that all the scenarios she'd thought up in her head had stayed just that, in her head. They'd spent the first few minutes of the meal passing dishes of food between each other, taking as little or as much as they wanted.
Clare told her about how she and Lucas had agreed to not tell people that they were brother and sister. The teachers knew and in the event that Lucas was put into one of Clare's classes then another teacher would mark his work to avoid any allegations of favouritism.
Alexis spent most of the dinner conversation directing all questions back to the Peters' family. She knew though that soon enough she'd have to answer questions about her own. Sure enough by the time dessert was brought out, Louise was determined to find out more about her son's girlfriend.
"So Alexis, what is it that your parents do? Lucas wasn't quite sure." Louise seemed genuinely interested. Alexis wondered if maybe she didn't know anything who her husband worked for.
"Um, my dad owns a construction company." Alexis glanced around, gauging everyone's reactions to see if there were any signs of disbelief. She'd made up a lot of occupations for her dad over the years, owning a construction business was the closest she'd ever actually come to the truth. That and ringleader.
Being the head of a mafia family could be a lot like running a circus sometimes.
"And what about your mum, what does she do?" This time it was Andrew who raised the question. It was almost like a challenge to come up with a more convincing lie.
"What doesn't she do?" Alexis chuckled softly and was joined by Louise.
"I hear that. Being a stay at home mum is definitely a full-time job. Or more like ten full time jobs rolled into one."
If only that was all her mum was.
Before any more questions could be thrown her way Alexis turned the tables.
"So Andrew what is it that you do." She hadn't meant for the accusatory tone to slip into her voice but it was there now.
"I run a private security company."
Alexis made herself appear more interested than she was. "That's must be interesting work. My dad actually just hired a new private security company for his business."
Andrew's tight-lipped smile said it all. She was toeing a fine line here. No one else at the table seemed to find her questions odd but Andrew knew.
Before anymore questions could be asked, Lucas stacked his empty dessert bowl inside hers and excused them from the table. His parents let them go and Alexis wasted no time expressing her thanks for dinner before following closely behind Lucas.
◆◆◆
AJ was waiting in the car outside. Lucas was in the kitchen with his mum, and she was wrapping up some dessert for Alexis to take home with her. Clare had gone to bed early as she had plans to go for a dawn hike with some friends, to see the sun come up and all that. This left Alexis and Andrew in the foyer, staring each other down.
"My children don't know who I really am or who it is that I work for, and I'd like for it to stay that way."
There was something about his tone and the way he was looking at her, as though he was assessing a threat, that just rubbed Alexis the wrong way.
"Do you really think that they don't know or even suspect?" Alexis had her reasons to believe that Lucas at least had suspicions.
"I know that they don't. I've managed to keep my business life and my personal life separate, until now. If one day, God forbid, the truth comes out about your family, I don't want my kids knowing that I had anything to do with it."
"In case you weren't aware, people already suspect what my family is."
"Those are rumours, there's no factual proof that your parents have anything to do with the Family."
Alexis was getting fed up with all the beating around the bush. "What is it exactly that you want from me?"
"I don't want my kids anywhere near the Family and I'd appreciate it if you didn't try and get Lucas involved. I'd also appreciate it if you kept my business dealings with the Family to yourself as well."
"Look Mr Peters, you seem to be under the impression that I go around announcing my family status to everyone. I don't. My parents also tried to keep me as far from the Family as they could when I was growing up, but guess what, I've known who my dad was since I was six. So I wouldn't be at all surprised if
Lucas knows more about your business dealings than you give him credit for."
Before Andrew had a chance to respond Lucas and Louise walked into the foyer, with Lucas carrying a plastic take away container with three pieces of the cheesecake that they'd had for dessert.
"Oh thank you so much. I'm sure mum and dad will love it."
"You're very welcome Alexis, it was an absolute pleasure to meet you."
After saying her goodbyes to his parents, Lucas walked her to the front door where he gave her an all too short kiss goodbye before escorting her out to the waiting car.
“You know you could’ve just kissed me goodbye here?”
Lucas gave her an incredulous look.
“Yeah... no. I still haven’t met your parents and I don’t need your driver telling them that I was being inappropriate before I have a chance to make a good impression.”
Alexis opened her mouth to tell him that her mum had already seen the hickey he’d left on her neck but quickly closed it again. No need for him to be freaking out the night before he met them.
Chapter 22
Knock knock.
Lucas turned in his desk chair to see his dad standing in the open doorway. The look on his face said that there was something bothering him.
"What's up dad?"
His dad took a deep breath before he walked into the room, taking a seat at the end of Lucas' bed.
"So Alexis, how did you two meet exactly?"
As normal as the question was, Lucas wasn't sure why it was making his dad so serious.
"At school, I thought you knew that."
"Yes, I did. What I meant was, did she pursue you, did someone introduce the two of you?"
Pursue him?
"We literally bumped into each other after class one day. I'd seen her around and in one of my classes, thought she was nice and cute, so I asked her out. What's this about dad?" Lucas didn't bother to hide his confusion.
"I don't think you should go to dinner over there tomorrow night."
Lucas might've thought it was a joke if it hadn't been for how dead set his dad looked. His own eyes narrowed as it dawned on him what was going through his dad's head.
"And why exactly is that dad?" He just needed him to confirm it. Needed him to say the words out loud.
"I think you can guess why I don't want you seeing her."
"Oh, so it's not just that you don't want me going to dinner, you don't want me seeing Alexis at all. Why don't you spell it out for me dad?" Lucas felt his body heating up, his blood roaring. When his dad didn't answer straight away Lucas decided to goad him into it.
"Could it be that she's Italian? Or maybe that she's not all that into sports? Oh, is it because she's a cat person?" There was a snideness in his voice that he had never dared use with his father until now.
"Don't act stupid Lucas, it's not a good look on you. And you can knock off that attitude while you're at it."
"Well then be straight with me dad, why is it that you don't want me seeing Alexis?"
"I think you can do better than her."
"That's crap, she's smart, gorgeous and amazing."
"Try thinking with the head on your shoulders."
With every non-answer from his father Lucas grew more and more frustrated. He knew that it was because of the rumours about the Angelo crime family. He also knew that if those rumours bothered his father that much, then he wouldn't be in business with Tony Angelo.
Taking a deep breath and holding it in his lungs, Lucas forced himself to calm down. If he was going to call his dad out then he needed to be smarter about it.
"Look, if you came in here to convince me to stop seeing Alexis, then the answer is no. You haven't given me any valid reasons for why we shouldn't be together, and I think that when it comes down to it, I'll be the one to decide what it is I deserve."
The muscle in his dad's jaw twitched.
For so long Lucas had gone along with everything his dad said. Done everything he was told and rarely questioned anything. He knew more about his father's secret life than he had ever let on. As far as Andrew Peters was concerned, his family was perfectly in the dark. The day Lucas had discovered the truth, it hadn't made sense. He'd only been ten at the time but then as he got older, more pieces of the puzzle fell into place.
Finally his dad got tired of staring him down and not getting any kind of reaction. He got up from the bed and walked to the door.
"You're grounded Lucas. You'll understand one day that I'm just doing what's best for you."
Before Lucas even had a chance to process the words that had been said – to think about the punishment that had been dished out without justification, his dad closed the door behind him. Lucas almost leapt from his chair, wanting to go after his dad, wanting to continue the argument, get him to reconsider the unjust grounding, but right now, that would only just make things worse.
Fuming, Lucas paced around his room, working out the best way to approach the situation. It was during his endless pacing that his mobile vibrated on the desk.
21.04 - Home now and just crawling into bed. It was nice meeting your family. I'm going to make you pay for not warning me that our history teacher is your sister though. Night babe xx
He knew that he should tell Alexis about what his dad said. He knew he needed to more than that he wanted to. Not to hurt her feelings in anyway, which he knew that it would, but because she deserved to know what it was that she was getting into. She should be prepared for the next time that she came over and had to deal with his dad's new attitude.
21.05 - Night babe, have a good sleep xx
Not tonight though. Tonight she would be able to sleep easy under the belief that his entire family had liked her. Tomorrow he'd tell her the truth.
Chapter 23
"Daddy I have a favour to ask," Alexis said, leaning against the doorframe to her father's study. All night she'd been replaying her dinner with Lucas' parents and after what Lucas had told her this morning she kept coming to the same conclusion. Andrew Peters was going to try and kill her relationship with his son. She didn't want that to happen but she needed to figure out a way to stop him from interfering.
Then the answer came to her that morning over breakfast.
Tony looked up from his paperwork to see his daughter looking troubled. Straight away he was thinking of ways that he could make that look disappear. Unfortunately his wife had already banned him from offering to buy Alexis a car whenever she was sad. Apparently it was bad parenting and didn't actually solve the problem. He still felt like it had merit.
"What's wrong princess?" Tony asked gesturing for her to sit down. She took her usual spot in the armchair on the left, looking down at her hands the entire time. When she did finally speak, it was mumbled and Tony had to ask her to repeat herself.
"Lucas' dad doesn't want us to be together."
A part of Tony Angelo was glad to hear it. He didn't particularly want some hormone driven teenager pawing at his daughter either. There was bigger part though that felt angry for Alexis. Who was this man to decide that his daughter wasn't good enough?
"And why exactly is that?" Tony asked, pushing down the urge he had to do unpleasant things to the man.
"He wouldn't admit to it, but Lucas thinks it's because of the rumours about our family."
Tony was silent for a few moments while he thought about the best thing to say. While the rumours about their family were just that, rumours, there was still the fact that those rumours were true. Confirmed or not. Whatever this man thought he knew about their family, he was trying to protect his child and Tony couldn't fault him that. However he also remembered when he was a teenager and what he'd done when his parents had told him not to do something.
"And what may I ask, are Lucas' thoughts on these rumours about our family?"
While it wasn't an unexpected question, it just wasn't where Alexis thought her father was going to go.
"Um, he doesn't care what people say about us. He said tha
t he knows what kind of person I am and if there's any truths to be told about our family then I'd tell him when I'm ready."
"He's a smart boy," Tony said, and he meant it. He wasn't unfamiliar with people’s prejudices about the Mafia. They either wanted in, or they wanted to be as far from it and the people involved with it as possible. Even if those people were their closest friends once upon a time. So long as this kid meant what he said and didn't hurt his only child, then he would support their relationship.