Page 122 of Soul Mates: Hercules Valentine and I

The foyer is glass walled and surrounded by a lush enclosed garden filled with the most exotic, beautiful, real-looking artificial greenery and colorful flowers. My parents wanted to feel as if they walked into another world whenever they returned home from a long stint of traveling or an exhausting day on the job. They had fake foliage and flowers installed because they wanted same effect all year long. All Gabby—one of the maids—has to do is make sure they’re clean.

“Is that my long-lost beautiful daughter?” my mom says.

I whip myself around. She’s standing under the arched opening of the front great room. It’s the space my parents entertain in if they have more than ten guests but less than twenty.

I throw up my arms. “There you are!”

I get an eyeful of her as I walk toward her, feeling more at ease with each step. She’s wearing a pair of loose-fitting acid-wash jeans. Her antique gray V-neck T-shirt hangs on her in an easy manner. And even though it’s chilly out, she has on sandals. Now I understand Lake’s comment about my West Coast appearance. My mom looks positively Californian. We hug, and I relax into her embrace. Next to Hercules, her scent is the best.

Arms linked,my mom and I walk to the sunroom, where we’ll have dinner. She says my dad will be out of town for the next two weeks.

“I can’t believe you haven’t stopped by his office to eat lunch with him like you used to do whenever you’d come home from college. By the way, how’s the new project going?” she asks.

“The new project?” I’m still confused that she would want me to risk blowing my cover by doing lunch with dad.

Unless…

“Yes, the final phase of TRANSPORT. It’s your first time working in the Battery Park offices.” She flexes her eyebrows while grinning, truly happy for me. “That’s a big deal. I was so happy to learn that you wouldn’t be so cooped up in Palo Alto anymore. Max’s house is such a depressing place. I’ve told your brother thousands of times to get you out of that house or I’ll do it for him. I know you’ll follow him to the Gates of Hell, but I wanted you in the real world with people your own age, living your best life.”

I’m speechless. I didn’t know she felt that way. And I’m positive she doesn’t know that I’ve been working at VTI under a fake identity.Why the hell not, Max?

I decide notto let my mom know what I’m really doing in New York for a number of reasons—Hercules being at the top of the list. As soon as I walk into the sunroom, Caroline rushes me with hugs. It feels like ages since I’ve seen them. Caroline and my mom have known each other since kindergarten. They grew up in the same Southern California desert neighborhood. When I last laid eyes on Caroline at my mom’s fiftieth birthday party seven years ago, her long braids were dark brown. Now they’re gray.

“I stopped fighting the inevitable,” she says when I mentioned how the change of color makes her look regal.

The silver against her flawless chestnut skin is striking. And like my mom, her beachy sense of fashion hasn’t changed. She’s wearing oversized wide-leg jeans that seem to gobble up her slender lower half while giving shape to her hips. And the easy, flowing white T-shirt that lies over her breasts is deceptively sexy. She was single until last year. Now she’s Mrs. Caroline Hill Anderson. She still works full-time as a marriage and family therapist in Los Angeles. Her husband, Calvin Anderson, plays lead detective in a weekly prime-time drama on NBC.

“What’s the name of the show again?” I ask. She already mentioned it, but I’ve been an awful conversationalist tonight. I can’t get the fact that my mom knows nothing about what I’m doing at VTI out of my head.Max tells her everything—why not that? And does Dad know?

“Team Justice LA.” She sounds worried that I needed her to repeat it. Perhaps she should be worried since she just said it less than ten seconds ago.

“She doesn’t watch TV much,” my mom says.

“I see…” Caroline says, frowning contemplatively at me. “Tell me about you, Paisley.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “Tell you what?”

“You look totally different. I swear, I’m looking at Heart forty years ago. Are you seeing someone?”

I’m panicking on the inside as I glance at my mom, who takes a sip of red wine. I think she’s waiting for my answer too.

I would love to mention Hercules, but I can’t. “I’m single,” I say. Technically, I am.

“She certainly resembles me, but I think she looks a lot like Treasure too.”

“Your niece, Treasure, who just wrapped up that god-awful reality show now that she’s marrying Quinton Long.”

My mom grunts cynically as she rolls her eyes. “Yes. But my daughter is prettier, and I'm not just saying that because she's my daughter. The proof is in the mirror.”

Caroline laughs.

Here we go.My mom and Aunt Londyn will always be competitive with each other. However, Treasure and I made a pact not to let them make us participate in their pettiness. I can never understand why the two sisters-in-law can't just get along. I think it has a lot to do with my uncle Leo, who was once in love with my mom.

“Mom, be nice.”

“I’m not being mean, Paisley. It’s the truth. And beauty isn’t the be-all and end-all. She could make herself smarter.

“Mom,” I chastise. “And that show’s been on the air for eight years. Treasure not only stars in it, but she produces it too. Therefore, she can’t be stupid. The proof is in her accomplishments.”