He was so masculine, so handsome, and he had this super confident thing going on, that it was very distracting to look at him. Yep, this is Jonathan in 30 plus years. Somehow I was able to collect my thoughts and put together a coherent sentence.
“Yes, it was wonderful. I have never flown in a private jet before. Thank you for flying me here.”
“You are very welcome my dear, I hope you enjoy your time here this weekend. We are certainly very happy to have you here.” He winked at me and I could feel the warmth flood my cheeks.
Just then I heard heels clicking on the floor and a statuesque brunette, wearing a form fitting, simple black dress and black high heeled boots walked over to Mrs. Hunter. She was pretty but nowhere near as stunning as her twin sister.
“Mom, I can’t find my phone. Do you or daddy have it?”
She didn’t so much as glance in my direction.
“Abigail Hunter, where are your manners? We did not raise you to behave so rudely toward our guests.” Mr. Hunter’s voice was firm and Abigail’s eyes gave me a withering once over and then she plastered a saccharin sweet smile on her face.
“Oh how rude of me, I apologize. Who is this?”
His parents seemed satisfied once they heard her apology and walked over to talk with Bunny, Lauren and Jake, and Jonathan was not pleased and I could see him tense up as he spoke to her.
“Abby, this is my girlfriend Sklyar who I told you about, remember? Sky, this is my sister Abby.”
She slowly gave me a head to toe once over and her cold, dark eyes settled in mine as her lips pulled across her teeth to make a forced smile.
“Oh, right, right, Skylar. Well Sky, it’s nice to meet you.” I don’t know if it was possible for her to sound any less thrilled to meet me.
Nervous butterflies fluttered in my belly and I could feel my mouth go dry as I tried to speak.
“It’s nice to meet you too Abby. Jonathan has told me so much about you. I was telling your sister I thought it must be pretty awesome to be professional ballerinas.”
“You were, huh?” She glanced over at Claire who was chatting with Lauren and rolled her eyes. “And what did my perfect sister say?”
Whoa, what is going here?
“She agreed that it was awesome.” I glanced at Jonathan and then back at Abby and managed a cautious smile.
“I’ll bet she did.” There was definite snarkiness in that comment.
“Abigail! What is wrong with you?” Jonathan’s irritated voice caught me off guard and I could tell that he was not pleased.
“Nothing Jonny, I’m just getting to know your little friend here.”
“You need an attitude adjustment right now! You’re being rude, now cut it out!”
She cut her eyes toward me and apologized but it just didn’t ring true. “I’m sorry if I was rude Skylar, I had a huge fight with my boyfriend and I’m not in the best mood right now. Can you forgive me?”
The sincerity did not reach her eyes so I didn’t know how to respond her. I decided that the best thing to do was just play along so as not to cause any sort of drama with the entire family there.
I forced a smile. “Of course, I’m just happy that I was able to finally meet you.”
Jonathan seemed satisfied by our exchange so we joined the rest of the family and talked about the plans for the weekend. A few minutes later, Jonathan’s mom showed me to my room which was absolutely gorgeous. I felt like I was in a fancy hotel by the way that everything was set up, I even had my own adjoining bathroom! My bags were already in my room and I started to unzip my suitcase when Mrs. Hunter asked if she could talk to me for a few minutes. Oh no, what have I done wrong? I was terrified of what she was going to say to me.
“Sure.”
“Have a seat next me, Skylar.” She patted the spot next to her on the edge of my bed and I felt a very uncomfortable and scared to death of what she was going to say. Is this where she tells me that I’m not good enough for her son and the only reason I’m there is because he insisted that I join them?
When I looked at her I was able to relax a bit because the look on her face was so gentle and kind. I sat next to her and turned so that I could see her face.
“Skylar, I know that this world we live in can be intimidating because there are so few people in the world that are able to live this way. But I want you to know something, this family is very accepting and what matters most to us is how much we care for one another. Things are just that, things. I didn’t come from this world, I grew up with basically nothing and I worked my way to the top, and it didn’t matter one bit to Joshua that I didn’t have a pedigree. All that mattered was how much we cared for one another, money has never been an issue. I’m telling you this just to let you know that it's what's in your heart that matters to us, not what's in your bank account. I hope I haven't made you uncomfortable with this little talk, that wasn't my intention at all. I really want you to enjoy yourself and feel comfortable while you're here this weekend.”
“Thank you for telling me this Mrs. Hunter because, to be honest, I was feeling very out of place and a bit insecure.”
"There will never be any reason for you to feel that way around us, I just want you to know that. Our son adores you so that means that we adore you, okay?” Her smile was so incredibly genuine and welcoming and I couldn’t help but smile back at her.
“Okay.”
"Alright, I will let you get back to unpacking and when you're done just come on downstairs, we’re going to have hot chocolate and sit by the fire and chat.”
“Okay, I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
She closed the door behind her and I sat on the bed and took it all in for just a minute. I could not believe that I was in a gorgeous mansion in the Hamptons. What? Who really lives like this? It was all so crazy to me and I was going to enjoy every single minute of it.
I heard a light tap on my door which snapped me out of my daydream, and I told the person to come in. Jonathan stood there, beautiful as ever, with a big smile on his face.
“Are you getting settled in okay?”
"Yes, everything is great. Jonathan, this house is so amazing and your mom is so amazing. She had a talk with me a few minutes ago and she really put me at ease.”