“Wyatt Carragan, Ember’s boyfriend,” he replied smoothly, never missing a beat.
Mom’s eyes widened for the briefest of seconds at the last name before she composed herself.
“Wow, a Carragan? Like the ranch in Raven Creek?” she asked, her voice a little less chipper.
Wyatt and I looked at each other. “One in the same.”
“Anyway, can we sit and order? I’m starving,” I stated, hoping to change the subject.
Lori rolled her eyes and took her seat back. “I swear, Ember. You’d think you’d possess even a modicum of class with Mr. Carragan here present.”
My teeth ground together, and I tried, once again, to bite my tongue and hold back my words, but for once, it seemed I didn’t need to.
“Wyatt, please, and trust me. Ember has more than a modicum of class. She’s a one-of-a-kind woman, and I’m beyond proud she willingly lets me stick around.” His words felt like honey, and I could’ve gone down on him right there beneath the table.
Instead, I lightly nudged him with my shoulder and smiled. “I don’t know about willingly, but me too, Carragan.”
He smiled, that stupid dimple making an appearance, and thankfully, the waitress came over to take our order before my mother could say anything else that would make me want to kick her in the shin and run away like a small child.
“So, Wyatt,” she said, as if seeing how the name tasted on her tongue. “Tell me about yourself. What do you do? How did you and my daughter meet?”
Wyatt looked over at me, an eyebrow arched, the silent question of should I tell her the truth or not—and honestly, I wasn’t sure. He nodded like he could fully understand my thoughts.
“I’m in cyber security.” He didn’t elaborate beyond that, and I wanted to laugh, but I held it back.
Lori’s eyes bounced between the two of us. “What does that mean?”
“I own my own company doing freelance work for larger companies to ensure their computers and documents are secure and can’t be broken into, to sum it up simply.”
“And how well does something like that pay?” she questioned as she leaned forward on the table.
I wasn’t sure if it was the question itself, or the tone of her voice, or just my general demeanor tonight, but I saw red.
“He’s the man who fucked me in the woods,” I stated plainly.
Wyatt started coughing, but I didn’t even glance at him. My eyes were locked defiantly with my mother’s instead.
“Excuse me?”
“When you came into my work and told me you set me up with that doctor?—”
“He was a lawyer,” she stated plainly.
I rolled my eyes. “Doctor, lawyer, politician, judge, demon, whatever. They’d all be banging the pool cleaner in fifteen years anyway. I told you I wasn’t going because I had a date with a man who was going to fuck me against a tree? The man was Wyatt. He fucked me against a tree, and it was phenomenal. He’s a strong, successful, smart, funny man, and I’m happy.”
She stared at me from across the small cafe table before she rolled her eyes. “I’m very glad you’re happy, Ember. Though I’m not sure I needed to know all of that. I only asked about whether it paid well to ensure that my daughter wasn’t taking care of some lazy man. Is that such a crime?”
She picked some piece of imaginary lint off her dress and looked down at her perfectly manicured nails before her eyes returned to mine.
“I know we don’t get along all that well, but I do just want you to be happy. If Mr. Carragan—I’m sorry, Wyatt—does that for you, I’m happy for you both.”
“Thank you, Lori. That means a lot.” Wyatt had a genuine smile on his face as he reached out and took my hand again.
I, however, was lost for words. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. For the second wave of backhanded comments and snide remarks to flow from her perfectly polished lips. But none of that came. We had a nice conversation while eating pastries that Wyatt confessed were not nearly as good as mine, and after an hour had passed, my mother invited us over to her house for dinner the following week.
Shocked was too little a word for how I was feeling as I stared down this woman, but at the same time, a small, minuscule part of my heart, the part I hadn’t touched since I was a little girl, felt hope.
37
