realized what had happened. Pausing, I turned to look down at her and found her glaring up at me accusingly. “We’re having dinner with your mother?”
My brows lifted. “Why are you mad? After how important it seemed to you yesterday, I thought this would be a nice surprise.”
“It is,” she whispered, shifting restlessly in front of me, and it dawned on me that she was feeling vulnerable.
Realizing this was only one more fuckup on my part, I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and urged her toward our table.
As we neared, my father stood, but to my surprise, so did my mother. She grabbed my father’s arm that he readily offered for support so she didn’t have to use her cane, and once she was steady, she gave my girl a beaming smile.
I cleared my throat, knowing I had to get this right. Fuck, from here on out, I had to get everything right. “Mom, I want to introduce you—”
“Oh, honey, I’ve known Arella since she—” she started to interrupt.
“—to the love of my life. My future wife and the mother of your grandchildren,” I finished. The rightness of those words eased something tight in my throat, and I silently vowed to introduce her to everyone we met exactly like that until she really was my wife and the mother of my children.
Arella’s gasp was like a slash to my heart, reminding me that I hadn’t even told her I loved her yet. But my mom’s smile only got brighter, if that was possible, and she turned to my girl, pulling her in for a tight hug.
“Again, that’s not news to me,” Mom said with a soft laugh as she pulled back enough to wink down at Arella. “Although I was beginning to wonder if my son would ever get his head out of his ass and make things official with you.”
Arella choked out a laugh, shooting me a teasing glare. “He does tend to keep it stuck pretty far up there, doesn’t he?”
“Sadly, he’s just like his father when it comes to things like this.” My mom shook her head in mock despair. “But fortunately for us, they eventually realize their mistakes and work hard to fix them.”
The two most important women in my life stood there, arms still around each other, and I’d never seen a sight that had warmed my heart so completely in my entire life. I didn’t even care that they were making fun of me. It was well deserved, and I would happily let them continue for the rest of my life if only I got endless moments like this one.
“Ladies, if you are done being disappointed in my son and me,” Dad muttered, his eyes seeming just as transfixed on the sight of them together as I was. “Maybe we could sit and have our first family dinner?”
Eighteen
Arella
“Love of my life.”
Those four words kept replaying in my head throughout dinner, making me so damn thankful that I was such a good actress because I was able to pretend like I was paying attention to at least half of the things Alexis Moreitti said to me. But, fuck, it was hard when her son had rocked my world repeatedly that evening.
The whole “my future wife and the mother of your grandchildren” didn’t really even register for me. I’d heard it, but my brain hadn’t fully computed it because all I could think about was that Jordan had just said I was the love of his life.
Pop-Pop had always told my siblings and me that the way a man introduced a woman to his mother was how he truly thought of her. That was why I’d always been kind of hung up on not sleeping with a guy until I met his mother. If he didn’t at least introduce me as his girlfriend, then I didn’t mean enough to him to give him my body.
I’d broken that rule for Jordan, but he’d more than made up for it with the way he’d introduced me to his mom.
One of my many fantasies had come true with how Alexis had welcomed me with open arms. After everything that had happened since my eighteenth birthday, I’d never thought it would happen. Hell, I’d thought she didn’t even really like me. So many times, I’d caught her frowning at me. I’d always thought she was sizing me up and finding me lacking. That she didn’t want me to be with her only son, but she was just too nice