AllFreeNovel
Share Us
This was getting worse and worse in her eyes. “Now you know why I’m still single,” she said with a pained look on her face at her boyfriend. She had no idea they’d embarrass her this way.
“It looks as if you’ve got wine,” Whitney said. “Why don’t I open that and Gillian can down a glass. None for me.”
“Thank you,” Gillian said. She turned to Rick. “I’m sorry. I had no idea.”
“Don’t be sorry. You haven’t met my family yet. They might do the same thing. Though they can’t compare you because they haven’t met anyone I’ve dated in years.”
“Oh?” her father said.
“I’ve lived in California. Visits were only a few times a year, me coming here or them flying out. I didn’t happen to be dating at those times. I’m sure Gillian told you what I do for a living and for the past few years my job kind of took over along with the startup.”
She hadn’t told her family about that. “Startup?” her mother asked.
“I didn’t say anything,” she told Rick. “Just what you did and that you moved back to be closer to your family.”
“What are we missing?” her father asked, looking more serious.
“Nothing bad,” Rick said. “A friend of mine had an idea for a startup company. He needed help and I spent a few years getting it off the ground. In the end he was bought out by a big company for the technology we created. We got our shares and I decided it was time to come home.”
Whitney was grinning at her, Trey moving off to get a beer. “Want one?” Trey asked holding it up for Rick. “It might make it easier to get through this.”
“Sure,” Rick said. “But it’s all good. I’m an open book for the most part. Ask me what you want.”
Whitney started to rub her hands together. “This is going to be fun.”
“No,” Gillian said. “That’s not nice.”
Whitney laughed. “I wasn’t going to. I’m just joking. Maybe.”
Rick put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “I like Gillian a lot. I’m a little older than her. I’ve been focused on my career for years and life got away from me. I’ve found a good degree of success and decided it was time to come home and think about the rest of my life. Nothing more than that.”
“So you’re looking to settle down?” her mother asked. “Gillian wasted too many years of her life waiting for that before.”
“Mom!” she said again, her face getting red.
“What? It’s the truth. Why waste your time again?” her mother said.
She let out a sigh. “It’s fine,” Rick said. “Gillian and I have talked. I’m not opposed to it. Not at all. We are taking things at a pace that seems to work for us both.”
“It’s been a little over a month,” Gillian said. “That’s nothing compared to ten years. Can we drop it now?”
“We can,” Trey said. “Because football is on and that is what I’m going to watch before I have to go to work. Unless my wife needs more help in the kitchen?”
“I’ve got it covered. Go be with the men. Take Rick with you and your father, and Leslie and Gillian can join me.”
“Where’s Ben?” she asked.
“He’s napping. I fed him already and put him down knowing he’d miss his nap later. He should be up soon and ready to run.”
“Then let’s leave the men alone and go get some snacks to bring out,” her mother said.
They got to the kitchen. “Mom. No more. You’re embarrassing me,” Gillian said.
“I know,” her mother said. “I did it on purpose. I wanted to see how he’d react to it. He was great. Some men would have busted on you or gotten annoyed. Rick went with the flow and pulled you close. Almost to protect you. That’s all I wanted to see. I’ll be good now.”
She had no idea her mother could be that sneaky and in a way was kind of glad.
16
