that is new. My mom and dad opened this part of the farm up about ten years ago. They weren’t working the ranch still but wanted to see the place used for more than just oil.” His voice drops to a mutter. “I think it’s also a way of my mama living vicariously since she doesn’t have any grandkids.”
I laugh. “Neither of your brothers have kids?” At some point, he mentioned having two younger brothers, but not much about them. I’m not even sure how close they all are or where the other two live.
“Nope.” He turns his head toward Ella briefly. “She’s the first. Which explains that.” He nods toward the house in front of us.
A woman who must be his mother sprints out of the big farmhouse toward the truck, her white curls bouncing around her head. I can’t help but smile, even though that familiar reminder of missing my own mom starts an ache low in my chest.
Gavin sighs. “Prepare yourself to be overwhelmed.”
He has no idea how overwhelmed I already am, and not for the reasons he might expect.
I try to tell myself that Gavin’s mother is excited about Ella, not me, but the moment I step out of the truck, she’s right there, wrapping her arms around me in a surprisingly tight embrace.
Hugging Gavin’s mother is like being enveloped in a freshly baked loaf of bread. She’s warm and soft and smells so comfortingly familiar, her big smile drawing out one of my own before I can even think to stop it. I can’t say that I mind the unexpected affection a bit. Especially considering the way my nerves have been like piranhas this last stretch of the drive, chewing me down to the bones.
“Mama,” Gavin drawls, his voice already sounding more accented than before. “Let’s not maul our guest, please.”
“Mind your business, boy,” she says in a mocking tone that makes me chuckle.
“Zoey is my business,” Gavin says, and I can’t help but meet his eyes over his mother’s shoulder.
There’s a look in them that makes a shiver travel from my toes up to my head, one that I hope his mother doesn’t feel. Heat flares through me, until the weight of his words sinks in. Business. Keep this to business. Yeah right!
His mother squeezes me even tighter, reminding me of just how futile it is to think that I can keep up any boundaries. I’m locked into what has to be the longest hug between two strangers in the history of the western world. Call me desperate, but I am here for it.
And then she walks me up to the edge of the emotional cliff I’ve been hovering near and shoves me right off.
“I’ve never had a daughter,” she says.
No, she didn’t.
She did not say the kind of words that have the power to flay my heart wide open. Except she did, and I struggle to keep my emotions from erupting like some kind of geological event. Now, I’m clutching her like a lifeline. Because I know if she lets me go now, it will be painfully obvious that I am a complete wreck. So much for distance. I can’t get much more tied up than this.
In my two years of crushing on Gavin, I did not one time imagine meeting his parents. Any time I did indulge in letting my mind consider us together, it was things like a stolen kiss in the elevator or a romantic dinner date.
Not … coming back to his family’s ranch and letting his mother hug the daylights out of me, telling me that she never had a daughter.
Yet, here I am. And I already want it to be something that it’s not. I want to be meeting his parents as his girlfriend, not his surprise daughter’s nanny. I want to be more to him, more to his mom. Why didn’t I just say yes when he asked me to come?
Keep it together, Zo. Keep it together.
But tears burn my eyes as I squeeze them shut. I hate being a cliché—the girl who lost her mother and now is desperate for this kind of motherly embrace.
Who am I kidding? That’s exactly who I am. I squeeze her tighter. Thankfully, she doesn’t let up either, allowing me the time to suck those tears back where they came from.
Is this awkward? I don’t even care.
“It’s so nice to meet you, dear,” his mother says, her words tickling the hairs on the back of my neck.