Under His Control by Leona White

Author:Leona White [White, Leona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-10-09T00:00:00+00:00

14

EVA

Tessa held up another end of the pink and blue streamers for me to measure. I hurried onto the stepstool too quickly and almost fell, making her laugh.

“Easy there,” she teased. “I don’t want to deal with ordering more streamers and ribbons if you crumple all these.”

I smiled, recalling how Olivia had crawled into the box of party decorations Tessa and I had been going through at the big house. I’d been staying in my room there so long now while my place was being repainted that it was feeling more like the home I belonged in. With Nina and Tessa both there, it was easier to spend time with them.

And Olivia. That precious girl was too cute. Even when she crawled into the box and messed up the streamers and ribbons Tessa bought for Nina’s baby shower we would be throwing at this downtown tea room in a couple of weeks. Tessa and I were here to practice setting up the décor, just to see if we had enough, or too much, or if we liked the theme of the space with the things we’d gotten already.

Dante suggested hiring a party planner, but Tessa wouldn’t hear of it. Now that we were so busy preparing for it, I liked doing it ourselves too.

“Just store the boxes of supplies somewhere baby safe,” I told her as we stretched our arms up and stuck the hanging lengths at equal loops.

“Yeah, I will. But Liv’s too cute to be mad at.”

You’ve got that right, I mused as we stepped back.

“Hmm. Maybe the middle dip can hang lower and the side ones can be higher,” Tessa said.

“No.” I took the seat where Nina would be at the head table. “If she’s sitting here, any pictures with the low loops behind her at the height would make it look like she has horns coming out of her head.”

After Tessa cracked up, agreeing, she adjusted the décor with me again. “And she really hasn’t been devilish during her pregnancy.”

“No. She hasn’t.” Nina was a sweet-mannered woman, though, so I wasn’t shocked that the pregnancy hormones hadn’t turned her into a crazed, mean mama-to-be.

“Now you, on the other hand,” she teased.

I shot her a dirty look. “What about me?”

“You’re already a handful as a pampered princess, so you’d only ramp that up if you were expecting.”

I pressed my lips together and sighed. There it was again, that difficult label. It followed me through my childhood, into adolescence, and it dogged after me into adulthood.

“I’m just teasing…” She elbowed me as we searched through the boxes for more décor items to stage and place.

“I know.” I was aware that she was teasing me, but it was getting old.

“Honestly, I don’t know how you managed to be as normal as you are.” She shook her head, musing. “Living with constant danger puts a different spin on a childhood.”

“It’s not so much that as the never-ending demand to be on. To look powerful. To stay aloof because everyone will want to tear you apart.

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