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“Ah,” he said, drawing out the word. “Which is why you said that stuff about the Jason Momoa dude. To get her off your trail.”
“Yep.”
He rolled his eyes with a smirk. “Man, I really made a mess of everything.”
“A beautiful mess.”
“If you say so,” he replied, kissing my forehead. “How’s it going with Jason, anyway? He still showing interest?”
I pushed him in the chest and went for my purse. “No, Will. He figured out I was off-limits the second he saw you.”
His boots hit the porch with a thump as he dropped off the wooden rail. “Good.”
I looked over at him with a playful glare. “I see some things never change.”
He stalked over to me then, wrapping an arm around my waist and tugging me roughly against him. “Nope.”
* * *
When we arrived at my parents’ house on the back of Will’s bike, the rumble of the engine sounded even louder on their quiet street than it had whenever he approached my cabin on the B&B’s property. I knew it was only because my parents were about to royally flip out on me, though. Surely it couldn’t be as loud as I thought, right?
Wrong. As soon as Will turned off the engine, the front door flew open, and my mom came charging out at warp speed. “Will Paxton. Youdidn’t.”
I pulled off my helmet and shook out my hair, cringing when her eyes shot to mine. “Hi, Mama.”
My mom’s eyes grew as round as the tires of the bike as she blinked at me. “Aria? What in the world are you doing? Are you crazy?”
Just then, my dad came out of the house behind her. “Wow, I didn’t think you’d actually go through with it after—”
His words cut off when he belatedly saw me. Man, did they think Will was bringing some other girl home for dinner? Is that why it had taken them so long to notice that I was the one sitting here? Thankfully, he’d never done that before. It would have killed me. And if I had anything to say about it, he never would.
I took Will’s offered hand and hopped off the bike. “What do you think? Pretty cool, huh?”
Mom folded her arms over her chest as she glared at my dad first, then at Will. “Coolis not the word I was looking for. Dumb, deadly, and downright demented is more like it.”
“Good alliteration, Mom,” I teased as Will dismounted and took off his own helmet.
She reached over and swatted my dad’s arm. “Why are you just standing there? Say something. Tell him to take it back.”
“That’s not quite how it works, sweetheart,” he replied. “Besides, they’ve got jackets and helmets. And Will’s an experienced rider, aren’t you, son?”
She guffawed. “Experienced, my foot. The truck driver who’s not going to see him in the dark isn’t going to care about his experience when he smushes him like a bug on his windshield.”
The rest of us recoiled from the image she painted, but before anyone could reply, Paul and Shelby pulled up in his truck. They hopped out with big smiles on their faces, and Paul crossed his arms over his chest as he joined us. “Which part was more shocking, guys? The bike or their news?”
All eyes turned to Paul. Except Shelby’s. She was busy covering her face with her hands. Was he seriously that dumb? He couldn’t find out if we’d told them yet before spilling the beans like that? If I’d thought I wanted to kill him after he’d been a jerk to Will, I definitely wanted to kill him now.
Paul looked at each of our faces, then paled. “Oh, shoot. You didn’t tell them yet?”
“No, Paul,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Tell us what?” Mom asked. She looked between Will and me with a furrowed brow. Then her eyes lit up. “You’re together?”
Will stood straighter, taking my hand. “We are, yeah.”
Mom whirled on my dad again, but this time when she slapped his arm, she was grinning from ear to ear. “Itoldyou. Didn’t I tell you?”
“You sure did,” he replied, rubbing his arm with a laugh. Then he stepped forward and stuck his hand out to Will, who dropped mine and returned my father’s handshake. “This has been a long time coming, hasn’t it?”
