“Why would you be in trouble for playing hide and seek?”

“Because that’s not what we were supposed to be doing. We were supposed to be learning how to be little ladies and gentlemen and how to ‘network’ with each other.”

“As kids?” He could hear the skepticism in his voice, but, to his surprise, Sharon didn’t jump all over him for it.

“Mmm.” She leaned forward as he came to a halt in front of the house. The door opened to reveal a man dressed in a suit. He was tall and rail-thin with blond hair and didn’t look a thing like Sharon.

“Who is that?” Jake asked, nudging her with his elbow.

“Butler. His name is Thomas, he’s here on weekends.”

“A butler?” Now he really felt out of his depth.

“He’ll help with the bags and take the car around to the garage,” Sharon explained. Which wasn’t really an explanation. Seriously though, Jake was feeling intimidated now. She blew out a long breath. “Come on. They know we’re here so no sense in delaying the inevitable. Just leave the car running so he can move it.”

Feeling more like he was at a hotel than a house, Jake did as she directed. Well, except that a hotel would have allowed him to take his own bags in. Sharon just told Thomas to bring them in and then took Jake’s hand to lead him up the stairs and into the house where her parents were waiting for them.

The grand foyer - he couldn’t think of it any other way because it really was grand - stretched up all three levels of the house and there was an honest-to-God chandelier hanging down in the center of it. A gold one, with what looked like thousands of crystals shimmering from it, like something out of a movie. The floor was marble, the double staircase boasted delicate filigree rails and wide banisters ending in two marble columns.

In the center of the room was a large plinth topped with a blue and white china vase holding an elaborate bouquet of flowers. Not roses or anything like that, but flowers Jake had never seen before and could definitely not identify. His first thought was that his mom would have loved it.

His second thought was that the two people standing in front of the arrangement might look like Sharon, physically, but beyond that he didn’t see the resemblance at all. Both of them were shorter than him but taller than her, although her mother only topped her by a couple of inches - then he realized that was just the heels she was wearing.