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Brow arched, he grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her in close, then kissed her. She kissed him back briefly then pulled away.
“Behave!” she scolded.
His eyes lit with mischief. “Behaving is no fun.” When he nipped her bottom lip, she pushed his chest and laughed.
“I thought you wanted to impress my parents!”
“We’re just making out in the car.” He shrugged. “And I’m sure they don’t think you’re a virgin.”
She snorted. “Just don’t bring it up with my Gran.” As she reached for the door, she added, “She’ll tell you all her crazy stories about ‘going parking.’”
Fox followed her to the door. Her parents were in the living room, taping boxes. Her grandma scuttled around as she directed what to put where.
“Addy!” she shouted once she noticed Addison then gave her a big hug. When Gran let her go, she narrowed her eyes at Fox. “Don’t tell me this is your new boyfriend.”
“Yes, this is Fox.”
Her grandma’s eyes went wide. “Wowee! I never thought you’d catch a man, let alone one so handsome!”
Addison opened her mouth then closed it, not sure which part of that, if any, was a compliment. “This is Rosalinda,” she told Fox.
He nodded. “Nice to meet you.”
Rosalinda pulled Fox into a hug then cut off abruptly to yell at Addison’s dad. “I told you to wrap them in tissue paper, Roger! Don’t just throw them in the box like some cheap plastic knickknacks. These are hand-painted, one-of-a-kind figurines!” Then she murmured, “If you weren’t my daughter’s husband . . .” The rest of the threat was too soft to hear.
Fox chuckled and Addison leaned in and whispered, “I told you she was feisty.”
Then she took Fox’s hand and towed him toward her parents. “Mom, Dad . . . This is my boyfriend, Fox.” She smiled then gestured to her parents. “This is Roger and Marilyn.”
Fox extended his hand and smiled winningly. “Nice to meet you.”
Her mom blinked a few times as she stared at his heavily tattooed arms but her dad jumped in with a friendly greeting and shook Fox’s hand. He didn’t seem surprised or bothered by his ink. She wondered what they’d think of hers when she finally got the nerve to show them. It wasn’t as if she was worried they’d ground her or something—she was an adult. It was more about disappointing them.
“It was nice of you to offer to come help Addison’s grandma move,” Roger said.
“It’s my pleasure. Addison has told me some of her favorite stories about her grandparents. I like them already.”
Her dad nodded. “She’s their only grandchild. I used to think it made her spoiled but now that I’m older I realize, what’s so wrong with being spoiled once in a while?”
Fox smiled. ?
?I agree.”
Addison breathed in relief. So far so good. The last boyfriend she’d brought by, her dad had given the third degree. No one took Roger seriously, though, because with his little beer gut and short legs, he just didn’t have that scary overprotective Dad factor. Jeremy had provided expert answers but her parents weren’t surprised when, before a year of dating, she’d broken up with him. On paper, they might have been a match, but there’d been no chemistry.
“Oh, this came for you at the house, Addison. It’s from school.” Her dad pulled an envelope out of his back pocket and handed it to her. “You should probably give them your apartment address.”
She took the envelope, looked at it curiously then stuffed it in her purse. Strange. They were in the middle of a semester so the school shouldn’t be sending out grades.
“So what kind of work are you in, Fox?” her dad asked.
She pushed the letter from her mind, deciding to worry about it later, and focused on the conversation. She could tell her dad was trying to sound friendly but his eyes narrowed as if waiting to pounce on an inadequate answer.
“I run a family business buying, selling, and fixing computers,” Fox answered easily.
“Family business?” her dad questioned. “So you’re close to your family then?”
“Definitely. My cousin and brother run the company with me. We inherited it from my uncle. My dad and uncle live in Chicago now but they visit frequently.”
