Maggie reached for Steve's hand again. "You always told me that I'd know when I met the right person," she answered smoothly.
"She's the most amazing woman," Steve said, with complete honesty. "If you could have seen her trying to save all those kids…well, as soon as I met her, I knew that she was beautiful inside and out."
Right answer. As Maggie's parents both beamed at him, she squeezed his hand.
"She took a foolish risk," Inez said in a forbidding tone.
"We all did," Steve said. "I mean, would you have left a bunch of little kids to die?"
Oops, he thought as Maggie, Carmina, and Martín all inhaled sharply. He'd forgotten the first rule of abuelas—never back-talk one.
"Hm." But apparently his question hit home. Tellingly, Inez switched topics. "Does your family know that you intend to mate my granddaughter?"
"I haven't had the chance to tell them yet," Steve confessed. "But I'm planning to."
Right after I convince Maggie Ornelas to date me for real, he thought.
* * *
Salt & Bourbon Steakhouse
That evening
Steve had never been to Salt & Bourbon before. The high-end steakhouse chain wasn't the most expensive place to eat in Denver, but it came pretty close.
He'd grown up eating at restaurants like this, but now that he was earning a smokejumper's salary, they were definitely out of his budget.
Thor claimed that Salt & Bourbon's meats were worth every penny. Of course, he was biased, because his family's Grizzly Creek Ranch was one of the steakhouse's suppliers.
The fact that Maggie Ornelas had invited Steve to join her grandmother and her parents for dinner here, apparently without a second thought, told him something about how successful her bakery chain was.
As they followed the maître d' into the depths of the restaurant's dining room, Steve decided that he really liked the atmosphere of Salt & Bourbon.
The place was the epitome of both retro and masculine, with its white linen tablecloths and napkins, booths with banquettes upholstered in deep red leather, and polished brass sconces set against the dark wood paneling of the walls.
Maggie walked at his side as he limped along, her hand tucked into the crook of his arm to help support him. Steve didn't really need the assistance. His knee-crutch was a huge improvement over traditional crutches—for one thing, the way it strapped to his thigh and around his cast gave him greater mobility, and it left his hands free to carry things.
But he didn't object. He liked having her so close to him. The heat of her hand soaked through the fabric of his dress shirt, and he couldn't help imagining what her hands would feel like, touching and stroking him all over.
His cock stirred at the sudden, vivid image of Maggie naked and riding him vigorously, all slick heat and panting gasps as her cheeks flushed with arousal and her thick black hair tumbled over her shoulders.
After they were seated at one of the larger tables in the center of the dining room, the conversation died away while all of them perused the menus. Maggie ordered wine for all of them.
After they'd placed their orders, and while they waited for their food, Steve answered her parents' questions about his smokejumping career. For her part, Maggie mostly just listened, sipping her wine while Steve talked.
She Iooked tired, and Steve guessed that she'd had a really early start this morning, followed by an extremely busy day.
Inez didn't say much either. As he told a few of his tamer stories about fighting wildfires, her sharp gaze studied him with disquieting intensity.
He wondered if she was buying the whole "love at first sight" story that he and Maggie had improvised. It was hard to believe that they were actually getting away with lying to a bunch of shifters.
Even his Ordinary abuelita could sniff out a falsehood a mile away.
When the waiter delivered their food, all conversation ceased for a few minutes as they served themselves from the silver side dishes of vegetables and salad and doctored their baked potatoes from the tray of toppings that the waiter had left for them.
Steve's thick slab of prime rib was perfectly cooked and so tender, he was able to cut it with just his fork.
As they dug in, he asked Maggie, "How did your grand opening go today? When we left, it looked like things were getting really busy."
It hadn't escaped his notice that Carmina, Martín, and Inez hadn't mentioned the event at all.