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“Well, then,” my mom said after a moment, “I guess Dad and I are going to have to make a trip to see you.”
Rosie’s eyes somehow even went wider.
I kept laying it out. “Probably better bring the sisters too.”
More choking. More wide blue eyes.
Laughter in my mom’s voice. “And you, my baby boy, probably need crawl yourself out of the hole you just dug.”
Considering the look on Billie’s face, thatprobablywasn’t probably.
“On it, Mom.”
We exchanged goodbyes, I hung up, and I tipped up Billie’s face.
I tabled the digging for later and just asked,
“Want to meet my family, Rosie girl?”
Thirty-Four
Billie Rose
Iwas not a woman who took surprises well.
So, Joel springing his family on me—on Date Freaking One no less—shouldn’t have been something that made me happy.
But…there was something soft about the way his mom spoke to him through the phone, the gentle admonishment about taking a call on a date, the love clearly shining through her voice that felt…right.
I was glad Joel had that.
I was also…terrified.
And really freaking thankful that I was going tonotthink about it like I had over the last couple of days—for a few hours at least.
Because Bailey was having her girls over.
Dessie. Me. And…Veronica.
For a game and wine night.
I really wanted a wine andwinenight. And a wine and more wine night.
Mostly because tomorrow I was meeting Joel at his house to see the progress on his rebuild, and then—unless there was some crisis that I was able to conjure up in River’s Bend so that I could escape—I was meeting his family.
I couldn’t believe that the phone call had developed in an actual meeting so quickly.
Not that it should be a surprise.
It was Joel, after all.
What he wanted, he got—no matter how hard I tried to put distance between us.
Which, seriously, was becoming a problem with him.
We were dating. Not fucking. Just exchanging chaste kisses and cuddling on my trailer’s steps. And he was steadily winning my heart by bringing me more washi tape and stickers and, last night, a hairbrush specifically designed for curls.
Winding himself tightly into my life.
