CHAPTER 24: DINNER WITH THE STEWARTS

Victoria's POV

The next morning I was awoken by the familiar sound of my Bluetooth radio device. I quickly shot out of bed to see if the sound didn't wake anyone else, luckily Gracie and Leila were still fast asleep.

I got up and dugged my device out of my bag before tip toeing to the bathroom as quiet as possible. When the door was shut behind me I pressed the button.

"Hello Victoria." The Shadow's voice comes through.

"Hello? Is that all you have to say for yourself, what the heck is going on Shadow?" I whisper yell at him, finding it very hard to keep my voice down.

"Victoria calm down."

"Don't you tell me to calm down. What were you thinking robbing three stores and then an art gallery." I say.

"I know it doesn't look too good from your point of view-"

"Doesn't look too good? Have you lost your mind it looks absolutely horrifying from my perspective! How am I suppose to help you when there is a pile of proof telling me I'm doing the wrong thing." I say.

"Victoria I can explain everything, but not now. How about tonight?" He asks.

"No sorry I can't tonight I have plans."

"Okay tomorrow night it is then, I have to run see you tomorrow." He says and disconnects before I could give him a reply.

I'm fuming. I didn't want to wait another day for answers, I wanted them immediately. I know the White Hawk could have persuaded the Shadow to rob the stores, but why?

My thoughts were yet again interrupted but this time it was Leila.

"Hey Vici, you okay in there? I thought I heard a voice." She asks.

Oh no. "Yeah I'm fine. You must have heard me saying the lyrics of my new song." I quickly say.

"Oh okay, can I come in?" She asks.

"Just a sec." I quickly place the device in the back of my waistband, "come in."

The door opened and Leila stepped inside with her bag in hand.

"I wanted to take a shower before that other one wakes up." She says and we smile at each other. When she says the other one she means Gracie, Gracie is the late sleeper but she always gets mad when she has to shower last, so now we tease her by making sure to get up before her.

I give her one last smile before leaving the bathroom, closing the door behind me. Gracie was still sprawled out on the bed when I came back into the room. I took this opportunity to hide my Bluetooth device back inside my bag. I don't know how I'll be able to explain why I have such a device and where I got it, that's why I decided to hide it as far as I possible could.

"Are we there yet?" I heard Gracie ask behind me and I turned around to face her. Her eyes were wide open and she stared directly at me, I wanted to answer her question but she fell back down on the bed and continued to sleep.

It was the strangest sight I've ever experienced and I tried my very best not to laugh. Then all of the sudden Gracie sat up once more.

She stared at me for a few seconds before she wiped her hand over her eyes.

"Why are you guys up so early?" She asks.

"I don't know, besides it half past eight." I reply as I return my attention back to my bag, fishing my clothes for the day.

"Oh." She says and right at that moment Leila came out of the bathroom And I went inside to take my shower.

After a short, warm shower I dressed quickly for the day.

When I came out Gracie went in and Leila was busy doing her hair. I told her about Gracie's sleep talking and we both burst into laughter. We knew Gracie talked and occasionally walked in her sleep, and we enjoyed it to tease her about it.

After we all were dressed and ready to go we went downstairs where Gracie's mother already made us breakfast. The food smelt define and I enjoyed it immensely.

When our delicious breakfast was finished we all headed out, I threw my overnight bag in Gracie's trunk before we sped off to the mall for a movie. It took us a while to decide what we wanted to watch but in the end we finally agreed on something minions, what who doesn't like minions.

After the movie Gracie took me home saying that I needed time to prepare for my date. Even though I told her countless times it wasn't a date, but a family dinner.

When I was back home I dropped my night bag in my room before I headed to the living room. I wasn't sure how late Jaydan was going to get me and that's when I remembered I didn't even ask my parents for permission.

I quickly dialled my dad.

"Captain Wills speaking."

"Hey dad." I say as I take a seat on the couch in the living room.

"Oh Vici it's you, so are you home from the sleep over?" He asks.

"Yes I am, well the reason why I called was to ask for your permission to have dinner with the Stewart's." I say.

"Dinner with the Stewart's tonight? Yes of course you may go, just don't stay up too late." He says the last part in his stern voice.

"Thanks daddy you're the best." I say.

"Pleasure, any way your mother and I are coming back on Wednesday." My dad says.

"Wednesday? Why?" I ask bewildered.

"Well with the Shadow's recent robberies I want to get back on the case as soon as possible." My dad explains.

"Oh yeah I heard about it." I say vaguely.

"I can't believe it I'm gone for a few days and this happens. Honey I have to go, see you on Wednesday okay?" My dad says.

"Yeah, see you then, love you guys." I say before I hang up.

My parents were coming back on Wednesday, that means I'm going to have to sneak around again. Luckily the Shadow is coming over tomorrow so that we can clear everything up before my parents get here.

I quickly texted Jaydan to ask what time he will be picking me up and he immediately replied that he will be here at six.

When I looked at the clock I saw that it was only one o'clock that means I have lots of time to spare. That's when I decided to do some research on all the Shadow's robberies, if there was a link I was going to find it.

I went to my father's study and pulled every articles on every recent robbery in the city. When I had a boatload of information I printed it and went to my room to add it to my folder.

I scanned through all the articles as best I could to get as much information as possible. I even made a map for myself but the huge link I found in every single one is the White Hawk.

When I looked at the clock again I was shocked to find it was already 5 o'clock, I had an hour to get ready.

An hour later I was sitting on the couch waiting for Jaydan. My thoughts were still preoccupied by my research I had done and I almost didn't hear the knock at the door. That's what I liked about Jaydan he always comes to the door.

I opened the door and was greeted with the first guy who ever made my legs all wobbly, don't get me wrong I had crushes before but this guy was in a class of his own.

"Good evening Vic." He says with a beautiful smile and I just hope my legs hold me.

"Hey Jay." I say with a smile to match his.

"Are you ready to go?" He asks. I nod and close the door behind me locking it. He holds out his arm and I take it. He leads me to the car and opens the door for me. I slide in and he closes it behind me. He swiftly walks around the car and climbs inside.

"Here we go." He says and he starts the car.

Jaydan keeps his eyes on the road and we both ride in a comfortable silence. I take in his features, his perfectly arched eyebrows, his long lashes, his beautiful ocean blue eyes, his nose is a bit crooked probably from breaking it, and then his lips. I don't know what girls mean when they say a guy has beautiful lips, I mean lips are lips aren't they? I wonder what it feels like to kiss someone, is his lips as soft as they look?

I was still ogling his lips when his head turned to look at me, I averted my eyes quickly but I still felt the blush crawling up my neck. Stupid thoughts.

"We're here." Jaydan says with a smile as he opens his door, I follow suit. I didn't even realise we stopped.

Jaydan leads me to the front door and opens the door for me. As soon as I step inside I'm reminded of my mother's cooking. The smells coming from the kitchen was absolutely define and I had to stop myself from drooling.

We stepped inside a small room, it had a room on the right, a room straight forward and a room on the left.

"Good evening miss, may I take you jacket." A long man with grey hair asks. I quickly take off my jacket and hand it to him.

"Thank you." I say.

"Alexander, this is Victoria Wills, Victoria this is Alexander, our butler." Jaydan introduces us and I stick out my hand to shake Alexander's, he takes my hand and we shake before he releases.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Miss Wills." Alexander says.

"The pleasure is all mine, and please call me Victoria." I say and the butler gives a quick nod.

"Your father has asked me to bring you to the living room, if you will follow me." Alexander says and we both follow. He leads us through a few halls and rooms that are vaguely familiar. I can remember what the living room looks like, but I don't remember the way to the living room and I'm grateful for the butler leading the way. But why did the butler lead us, surely Jaydan knew the way.

We stopped at a big, brown oak door, the butler opened the door and I stepped inside followed by Jaydan. The door was closed behind Jaydan and I could hear retracting footsteps.

I focused on the room around me, it had a beautiful fireplace that was surrounded with black leather couches, leather couches always look stiff to me but these somehow looked comfy and I just wanted to lay down on them. On a leather chair infront of the fireplace sat a man. He was reading a book but when he heard us he quickly stood to greet us.

"Ah this must be Victoria, it's such a pleasure to meet you." The man says as he approaches us and sticks out his hand for me to shake, I grip is hand and we shake before releasing.

"The pleasure is all mine, sir." I greet back.

"Ah don't call me sir, please call me Jordan." He says with a smile and I know exactly where Jaydan gets his looks.

"Please come in and take a seat." Jordan says and I take a seat on the double leather couch across the one Jordan sat on, Jaydan came and sat down next to me.

"I must say my son and wife did definitely not exaggerate when they told me about your beauty, you are quite beautiful." He says and I feel my cheeks burning up, did Jaydan really tell his dad I was pretty?

"Dad!" Jaydan groans from next to me and something tells me he is just as embarrassed as I am.

"What I'm only complimenting her." Jordan says with a ghost of a smile and I think he enjoys seeing his son embarrassed, parents these days.

"Thank you sir I mean Jordan." I say.

"See just a compliment, so Victoria, Jaydan tells me you want to become a detective?" Jordan asks.

"Yes, it's been my dream for a while." I say.

"Is that so? And what does your dad think, he must be thrilled that his daughter wants to follow in his footsteps, hmm?" He asks.

"Not really, he believes it's too dangerous." I say.

"I see, that means he cares, I understand his feelings about the situation and I will lie if I said that I would be fine with it if my daughter wanted to become a detective. It is hard work Victoria, but something tells me that I should keep a keen eye on you for there is great things to come for you." He says with a smile and I can see that his calculating me.

The doors suddenly burst open and Mrs Stewart strolls in. She scans the room and when her eyes land on me they immediately light up.

She rushes over to me and immediately pulls me into a hug. I hug her back, but her grip is very tight on me and I start to struggle to breathe. Thank goodness Jaydan sees my dilemma and pulls his mother off.

"Mom, easy there you don't want to scare the girl off, now do you?" He says and looks at her sternly.

"Ah I'm just glad you could come, see Jorry this is the girl I've been talking about." She says as she beams at me. Why is she so happy to see me? That's way to much excitement.

Jordan stands up and walks to his wife putting an arm around her waist, "I see so love, so is Dinner ready yet?"

"Yes it is, let's go dig in." She says giving me one last smile, which I return, before she leads her husband out of the room. I follow after them but something pulls on my wrist stopping me.

When I look back I see Jaydan studying my face. He gives me an apologetic look before he scratches his neck.

"I'm sorry about my mother, she can get carried away sometimes." I can see he is worried that I'm freaked out.

I put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "You don't have to worry about your mother she's great and I like her." I say truthfully, yeah she is a bit too excited but I like that.

"Now let's go eat that dinner before they think we ran off." I say and Jaydan takes my hand before leading me out the door and through the house to the dining room.

The dining room was beautiful inside, it had a large table with a lot of chairs, gorgeous paintings adorned the walls and the curtains were a lovely cream colour. A big chandelier hung from the roof, the room looked very elegant but it felt very homely.

Jaydan pulled out a chair for me and took a seat next to me. Jordan sat at the head of the table and Amelia sat on his right. The food was the table full and I thought that they might have invited other guests because there was so much food.

The room was soon filled with chatter and laughter and I immediately felt at home. Amelia shared all Jaydan's baby stories with me even after he protested. I couldn't help to laugh along, she wanted to show the pictures but he drew the line just there.

Jordan wasn't like I expected him to be, he was very laid back and I immediately liked him. There was never a dull moment in the time I spent with them.

When dinner was finished I asked if I could help with the dishes but Amelia refused my help, she said that you never let your guest work in your house. She murmured something after that but I couldn't clearly hear, it sounded like future daughter in law. But I left it there. Jaydan took my hand and excused us.

He leads me through the corridors and I tried to figure where we were going, but it was no use.

He opened a door and then we were taken outside, to the small pavilion we went to the night of the ball. The pavilion still looked as magical as the first night I saw it.

"So this is where you're taking me." I say as I stare mesmerized at the scene in front of me.

"Yeah..." he says and I feel like he wants to say more.

"You'll never guess who visited me." I say.

"Who?" He asks.

"Alec, he came after you left." I say as I take a seat under the pavilion.

"So you guys are fine?"

"Yeah, he apologized and I forgave him."

"Victoria, you and Alec weren't together or something before... I mean I don't want to intrude if you guys are working on a relationship..."

"You think that...that Alec and I are together?" I ask bewildered.

"I mean if you like Alec and you want to be with him, I'll understand I mean you were best friends." He explains.

"The person I really want a relationship with is not Alec." I say, the person I want a relationship with is you, but I'm too scared to tell him.

"Oh." He says as he takes a seat next to me.

"You know what bugger this." He suddenly says after a few seconds of silence, he takes my hands in his and I'm completely shocked at this, "Victoria, I really really really really like, and I've been wanting to ask you this question for a while now. Will you do me the honours of being my girlfriend?" He asks as he looks at me with hopeful eyes.

I stare at him dumbstruck and the words don't want to come out. I don't know what to say.

"I'm sorry, I rushed it didn't I? It just that I think I'm in love with you Victoria, I will understand if you don't feel the same..." he says as he looks away.

"I'm in love with you too." I whisper softly. His head immediately snaps back to me and the most beautiful smile was formed on his face.

And right at that moment I knew this was the start of something beautiful.

___________________________________
Hey guys
So it's been a long time but I hope you all enjoyed it.
So are you guys happy about Victoria and Jaydan finally being a couple or not? Please tell me your thoughts.
Please comment and vote.
Thank you
-Amorie