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Luke’s smile turned hard. Keeping his attention on El, he slung an arm around my shoulders as if he was going to be friendly and companionable. But then he tightened his grip and transferred the move into a headlock before he bent me forward and rubbed his knuckles aggressively on my head. “And I know every embarrassing thing Fox here has done since birth,” he announced.
El merely laughed, watching as I struggled to break free. But we both straightened when Bella’s mom appeared before us.
“Boys. Behave,” Reese scolded, only to cast her gaze toward El with a big smile. “Don’t mind them. They might be a little rough around the edges, but I swear they both have hearts of solid gold.” She stuck out her hand a little too eagerly. “I’m Reese, by the way.”
I found it very curious that Reese had been the first mom to get in an introduction. Or maybe she’d just been the closest.
Yeah, that sounded more likely.
“She’s Reese Lowe,” I explained to El with lifted eyebrows as I shrugged out of Luke’s grip and irritably slapped my clothes back into place.
El’s eyes widened in understanding, and she turned back to Gray’s mom with a little more focus. Reese sent me an odd look for putting so much emphasis on her surname before she turned back to El with one of her classic please-like-me smiles.
“You know, when my husband first described you,” she admitted, leaning confidentially closer to El, “I thought he had to be embellishing your looks. But you’re just a complete darling.” Then she glanced between us and nodded out a satisfied grin. “You two make a cute couple together.”
“Oh!” I shook my head and waved my hands as El and I exchanged lee
ry glances. “No,” I told Reese as I turned back to her. “No, we’re not a couple. Not at all. El’s just my client.”
“I knew it!” Luke hooted next to me, while Reese frowned in confusion.
“But I swear your mother said you were going to have a date here tonight.”
“He does,” a voice answered from behind her. Reese spun to discover her own daughter standing there, grinning. “It’s me, Mom,” Bella announced. “I’m his date.”
“Wha—?” Reese started, blinking in confusion.
But Bella merely stepped past her so she could approach me and lift her arms to wrap them around my neck. I'm pretty sure the entire room erupted into a volley of scandalized gasps when our lips met, but I was a little too invested in kissing my girlfriend hello to fully notice. Or care.
“Oh my goodness,” was the first thing I heard when I finally pulled away to grin into those beautiful blue-gray eyes. “Oh my goodness,” Reese repeated, only to clutch her face with both hands. “Oh… I love this match even more. I mean…” Eyes widening in horror, she spun to El. “Sorry. I’m sure you’re lovely too. I just—I mean...” Wrinkling her nose, she tipped her face. “I’m so confused. Who are you, exactly?”
“She’s my date,” her son said, appearing behind El and wrapping his arms around her waist so he could rub his cheek across hers and then smack an affectionate kiss to it.
“Your…?” Reese’s expression was priceless as she watched El sink back into Gray’s arms and lift her hand behind her to stroke his silken, dark hair. Then Reese swiveled back toward Bella and me holding each other. Blinking rapidly between the two couples we made, she digested the facts before murmuring an awed, “Both my children are dating?”
Then her eyes widened, and she clapped her hands, squealing, “Both my children are dating! Finally! I’m getting grandbabies!”
“Mom!” Bella hissed with incredulous shock.
“Right, sorry.” Reese cleared her throat, attempting to sober herself as she stopped hopping and straightened her expression. “You’re right, of course. It’s way too soon for that. But someday…” She clapped again, once more losing her hold on her excitement. “Maybe grandbabies. And one with Fox, too. Oh, Bella, what a good choice. I just love him to pieces as if he were one of my own.”
She tugged me into an unexpected hug, and I laughed, catching my balance as she slapped a happy kiss to my cheek, only to catch me off guard yet again when she abruptly let go and turned away, toward El and Gracen. “And you. I didn’t even get your name yet. But I need to hug you too.”
El looked a little alarmed as she was yanked into Reese’s arms, but she didn’t freak out or have a panic attack like she might have a year before. She only blushed and gave a nervous laugh when Gray’s mother pulled back to finally learn who she was.
“Hey.” Luke bumped my arm, gaining my attention. “Bella, huh? Weird.” Then his gaze strayed toward El, and one eyebrow lifted with interest. “But seriously, you got any more clients?”
And that’s how the family finally learned Bella and I were together.
YELLOW
Sweat dripped down the side of my temple as I rounded the last bend of my Saturday morning jog around the sports complex. Next to me, Parker’s steady breathing kept me company.
But, uh, we weren’t supposed to be doing this alone. Together, we glanced back curiously.
There was no sign of the Lowe twins behind us.
Had they fallen that far behind?
