shirt, but he captured her fingers in his own. She tilted her head slightly to see what he wanted to say.
A slow smile curved his lips as he confessed, “You may be falling, Sandy. But sweetheart, I’ve already fallen.”
She fell back on the bed and he crawled next to her. And with kisses and touches, they made love long into the night.
21
“What do you mean you’re having dinner with her parents?”
Driving to work the next morning, Rory battled rush-hour traffic while trying to talk on the phone to his mother. “I mean exactly that. Her parents have invited me to have dinner with them tonight.”
“What about us? When were you going to consider us?”
“What I want to know is how you found out about this,” he argued in return.
“He should know he can’t keep a secret around here.”
If he hadn’t needed to keep his eyes on the road, he would’ve rolled them. He recognized Hannah King’s voice in the background and had no problem imagining her sitting in his mother’s kitchen, sharing a cup of coffee as they divulged all the secrets of their adult children’s lives—and probably picking them apart like vultures on a carcass. He’d never met two women who loved their families so fiercely and yet still managed to be up on all the latest gossip, haranguing them until all privacy was exposed. And he had no doubt that Hannah had ferreted out his dinner with Sandy from Blay.
“Mom,” he sighed, “it’s not that I was ignoring you. But you all have already met Sandy. Hell, she practically ran Sean and Harper’s wedding.”
“Don’t be obtuse, Rory. You know perfectly well that’s completely different! That was me getting to know Harper’s best friend. The Maid of Honor. It’s completely different to get to know her as your girlfriend. A girlfriend, I might add, I knew nothing about until Hannah announced it over coffee cake this morning!”
Blay, you’re busted. Just wait, man…
“What I want to know is are you hiding her from us or us from her?” his mother continued.
“Jesus—”
“Language, Rory!”
Losing the battle to roll his eyes, he was glad he was stuck at a red light. “Ma, neither is the case. We’re still kind of new and getting to know each other. You want us to come to dinner, let me know when. Her parents happened to ask first, so we're having dinner with them tonight. To be honest, I’m not exactly looking forward to it.”
And just like the mama bear she was, Sharon pounced on his last statement. “Why aren’t you looking forward to it?”
“Her dad’s loaded. Sandy doesn’t live like it. She lives off what she makes with her own business, and she’s not a trust fund baby. But I have no doubt that I’ll be grilled by her dad. A paramedic who doesn’t play golf and isn’t a part of the country club is probably not who he wished his daughter ended up with.”
“Well, if that man doesn’t know what a prize she’s got in you, then he can just—”
Pulling into the parking lot of the station, he interrupted. “Mom, don’t say anything that’s gonna make you have to run to the priest and confess. Honestly, don’t worry about it. I’m good with who I am. She’s good with who I am. If her dad doesn’t like it, so be it.”
“Humph,” she groused.
“Gotta go, Mom. I’m at work. You figure out a time you’d like us to come to dinner and we’ll be there.”
“Love you, baby boy.”
Parking, he was glad to start his shift. “Love you too, Mom.” He disconnected as he climbed from the cab of his truck and shoved his phone into his pocket as he jogged into the station.
By the end of his day, he was beginning to doubt his sanity even though it had only been an eight-hour shift. He had responded to a car accident with only minor injuries that turned into a brawl between the drivers, broken up by both men being arrested; a dumpster fire set by two teenagers that exploded, causing injuries when garbage projectiles hit one of the boys; working with the fire department in enlarging a house doorway to extract a bed-bound obese man who was having heart palpitations; a school incident where a child fell off the monkey bars and broke his arm; and responded to a police officer’s injury when he fell while chasing a robbery suspect.
With only an hour left, the final call of the day came in. Seventeen-A-four. Shooting Shania a