All or Nothing

17

"Are you ready, Leo?" Lauren asks after knocking on her son's door on Thanksgiving morning. She's been awake for hours, worried about today – she's not good meeting the family, can barely believe that things with Sofi had gone so well, and she can't imagine that Sinu Cabello is going to be quite so easy.

From everything Lauren has heard about the woman, she seems fiercely protective of the girl that had fallen into her care thirteen years ago, and Lauren knows that her approval matters to Camila, will matter if they want a future together, and that is something that Lauren wants very, very much.

Perhaps more than she's ever wanted a single other thing before (save building her own company, making her own brand), and the more time she spends with Camila, the less terrifying that becomes. The more she sees Camila around her son, coming home to find the two of them curled up on the couch watching a movie or painting quietly in the studio that Lauren had fashioned for Leo out of one of the guest rooms, the more sure she feels that she could build a life with this woman, if Camila will have her.

And maybe it's too early to be thinking about that, but she's in deeper with Camila than she ever has been before, even with the man she'd chosen to marry, and from everything Camila tells her and from the soft way she looks at Lauren, like she holds the world in her hands, Lauren thinks that the feeling is mutual.

But today is their biggest test yet – even more so than overcoming the obstacle of Lauren's own mother because Clara's approval didn't matter to her, because nothing she ever did was ever good enough, and soon enough Lauren had stopped caring enough to try.

Sinu Cabello, however, is a different story and Lauren doesn't imagine that she's happy that her foster daughter is in a relationship with someone a year older than she is herself, and Lauren knows that there's a lot riding on today, and she's terrified.

She doesn't remember the last time she felt this nervous, had barely slept last night and had wished that Camila was curled up behind her with a comforting arm wrapped around her waist, but Camila was busy catching up with her family, and Lauren would never begrudge her that.

She's spent her morning in her home office working in an attempt to distract herself from her impending doom. She usually spent Thanksgiving in her actual office, because Leo often spent the holiday with his father with it being so close to his birthday, and Lauren had very little to celebrate being thankful for when she was alone.

Jauregui Inc was quiet in the holidays, and Lauren reveled in it, the bustle of the bullpen absent and replaced by the low hum of her screens behind her, and she'd often work late into the night, watching the sunset from her throne and the lights of Miami twinkle to life, and she'd pour herself a glass of wine and toast to her empire, and for all the things to come.

But this year Leo had asked to spend the holiday with her and Lauren had been happy to relax at home for the day until Camila Cabello had swooped in and changed everything, and Lauren can still see the childish excitement that had been on Leo's face when she'd told him they were spending Thanksgiving with the Cabello clan, and it had warmed her heart because she'd meant what she'd said to Camila that day on her balcony.

All she'd wanted was a family for him, bright and large and happy and a world away from the lonely Christmases Lauren had spent at boarding school or avoiding Clara when she'd had one too many whiskeys, and in Camila, Lauren might have found that for them, and the thought floods her with warmth.

"Yeah, mom, I'm ready, calm down," Leo mutters as he yanks open his door, pulling her out of her thoughts. He's running a comb through his unruly curls and sighs when Lauren plucks it out of his hands and spins him around with a hand on his shoulder, making sure he looks presentable.