An adult beverage

You didn’t get an answer to the look Grace gave you right away but Grace grabbed extra glasses and filled up one of them to pass to you.

“I think you can have at least the one glass,” Grace explained, sliding it over the counter in your direction.

You looked to Mom to see if she would say otherwise but she just gave you a smile.

“At this point I don’t think you need my permission to have a glass with us.” Mom replied with a smirk to herself, relinquishing control over to you.

“I’m fine with Emma having one too but what about Sarah?” Grace asked, Lucy seemingly old enough to not come into the conversation.

That made Mom pause for longer than before, apparently feeling more confident in your actions than Sarah’s.

“Tonight will be fine if she wants one. I think everyone would enjoy having a night to unwind a little. Especially with your exams.” Mom replied, giving Grace the go ahead to pour the other glasses.

“Thank you” you said, reaching out to grab your glass. “As long as none of my teachers find out I should be good” you joked.

“Agreed. And as long as none of my students see me drinking on a school night I should be fine too” Rebecca shot back, grinning at you.

You both conspiratorially clicked your glasses together and the joke got a smile out of both Mom and Grace. You could see Mom occasionally glancing between the two of you as if trying to suss out your relationship but you didn’t comment on it, letting her come to her own conclusions first but asking her how she felt.

“Dinner is practically ready so if you wouldn’t mind setting the table Max that would help out” Mom suggested, turning to stop a timer just before it went off.

“Can do, I’ll go check on the others while I’m at it” you replied.

You sent a glance to Rebecca in case she needed a sign to tag along with you but with a smile and a quick nod to you, she seemed comfortable enough to be left with both Mom and Grace.

The conversation they might have while you were gone did worry you but if it helped Rebecca settle in even more then you would happily let the discuss anything in your absence.

You moved into the dining room with your glass of wine and slowly went about setting everyone’s places. You didn’t rush yourself as it gave you a brief minute to sort your thoughts as if you were in a play that had an intermission between scenes.

You’d already figured out where you hoped to have everyone sit and this gave you an opportunity to set down your glass where you thought it was best for you to go.

Listening out when you were just about done, you heard the sounds of light conversation still coming from the kitchen but there was nothing you could hear from the rest of the house.

You assumed you would have at least heard from Lucy as she had been at the top of the stairs earlier and with Emma taking care of Sarah, it seemed strange that she hadn’t made her way downstairs yet.

You had already said you were gonna go check on them so you made your way upstairs to see if you could hear anything there.

Still nothing.

Stopping on the landing, you couldn’t hear anything but the doors to both Lucy’s and Sarah’s rooms were shut, Lucy’s being closer so you checked there first.

You only started getting worried when you got no response after knocking on Lucy’s door. You felt brave enough to open the door and when you saw that nobody was inside, you closed it again and headed for Sarah’s room.

The sounds of muffled voices finally started to be heard when you reached the door but you still couldn’t make out what was being said, working up a bit more courage to knock on the door.

“It’s me” you said once you heard the voices quieten down from inside.

“One minute!” you heard from Emma before the voices went back to a quiet murmur.

If you had been mildly worried about the conversation downstairs, this one was definitely something that was making the hairs on the back of your neck stand on edge.

After an excruciatingly long wait of a couple of minutes, the door opened and Sarah exited the room, shutting it behind her as quickly as she left.

“Hey, is everything alright?” you asked, not being sure who you had expected to come to the door.

Sarah looked a little flustered and her appearance was an odd mix of well put together and also her usual house wear. You could tell she had put her makeup on, just enough to highlight her already great features but from a quick glance it felt like she hadn’t quite managed to finish getting dressed yet.

“Sorry about me delaying” she said, immediately apologising.

“No, that's not a problem. Take all the time you need but… Mom has said the food will be ready soon and… is there anything I can help with?” you asked, not wanting to rush her as that would only make things worse.

“It’s… okay so I had two ideas for what to wear and Lucy thinks I should go with option one and Emma said option two. I was hoping to get their opinions but with both of them saying different things I got a bit stuck” Sarah said.

“But they both said it would be my decision in the end so they aren’t forcing one on me or anything” Sarah quickly added, making sure Emma and Lucy weren’t portrayed in a bad light.

“Can I see the outfits?” you asked, hoping to see the two choices and get the best of both worlds.

“...I’d rather it be a surprise” Sarah said, shaking her head.

“Okay… without seeing the outfits I can’t tell which would be…” you went to say, getting cut off.

“Oh I’ll just tell you the jist of them! The first is more formal and fits with what I saw Mom wearing earlier” Sarah explained, having gone downstairs at some point before you had got in.

“And the second… I think it will fit in more with the rest of the night after dinner. It’s a bit riskier…” Sarah shyly revealed, presenting her case for both.

And now you could see why Emma had been suggesting the second outfit while Lucy had gone for the first, with Emma trying to sneak a way in to get the party started earlier than you had expected.

“What do you think?” Sarah asked, looking for you to make the final decision.

With Sarah relying on you more and now Mom having an effect on the KDK that did the same, you felt the need to add your input even if you thought they should think for themselves to some degree, getting some pleasure out of telling them what to do.