Page 49 of Grasp The Moment

The food smells good, but I couldn’t tell you shit about how it tastes, considering she hasn’t let me breathe long enough to stuff my mouth.

Derek’s hand on my thigh is the only thing keeping me from storming out of here and cursing everyone for putting me in such an awkward position. But the person that I blame the most is myself—and Derek a bit.

Had we not gotten married in Vegas, we wouldn’t besitting here getting grilled out by a five-foot-one, red lipstick-wearing, mama bear.

Chuckling under my breath at the thought of the mother and son sharing a nickname, I take a small sip of my lukewarm water.

“So, what do you know about my son other than the fact that he has a $150 million inheritance?”

I choke on my water.

150 million dollars?!

My eyes cut to Derek in my periphery before focusing back on his mother. Had I known that his inheritance was a hundred-fifty fuckingmilliondollars, I would’ve told him to buy us lunch earlier instead of insisting on cooking today.

“Do you even know about Delilah’s mother? My son’s favorite meal? Do you even know Delilah’s middle names? I mean, you came out of nowhere?—”

To my horror, Derek is the one to cut his mother off. “You’ve been grilling my wife for the past forty minutes, Mamá. She hasn’t even touched her food yet. Let her eat.”

“No… uh… It’s okay! Derek hasn’t told me about Deli’s mom, but I’d love to know when he’s ready to tell me. We don’t force one another to talk about things,” I say, hoping I’ve said the right words as he gives my knee a squeeze.

I’m totally bombing this dinner…

Lidia chuckles under her breath. “La gringa ni siquiera sabe ese pequeño detalle?1.”

Am I supposed to be offended?

“¡Ya, mamá?2!” Derek’s voicebooms in the room.

Delilah’s spoon clatters to her plate, and I pause as in my movements, my cup mere centimeters from my mouth.

“Es mi esposa, pórtate bien?3.”

Those words seem to make Lidia go ramrod straight as she and Derek stare one another down.

I have no idea what they’re saying, but I know that it haseverythingto do with me…

Shit.

“Excuse me?” his mom exclaims, tilting her head and cocking her jaw at her son as he backs down slightly.

“Why don’t we move on to asafertopic, Mamá?” he asks to my surprise, although it’s not surprising considering I’ve never seen Derek so serious before; his mom agrees.

She plasters a smile across her face, and unease ripples in my stomach.

Coming into tonight's dinner, I was a nervous wreck—and for good reason. She fucking hates me, and she doesn’t even know me.

“You’re right, honey. Georgia, I assume you’re visiting family for spring break, no? So you’ll be missing out on our traditional break in Texas, right?”

Her tone is dipped in sugar, her smile is like honey, but her words are sharp; she wants to see me fail at this whole wife thing. She wants to be proven right.

“Yeah, she’ll be at her mom’s?—”

I cut Derek off, staring his mother down as I plaster on a smile of my own, “Of course I’ll be in Texas, why wouldn’tI be?”

“Girl, you don’t know shit about Texas!” Sienna cackles, and the penguin face mask she’s wearing crinkles with her laughter as Cleo and Denver join in.

Plopping down on the couch between Sienna and Denver, I sigh.