The Off Limits Rule (It Happened in Nashville 1)

My eyes widen, and my mouth falls open. How did she know that?!

“You did what, young lady?” asks my dad. It’s so hard to take him seriously while he’s planking across the furniture.

“Oh, hush, Scott. Your daughter is not a baby anymore. She’s allowed to spend the night with a man.”

“Not unless she has a ring on her finger and I’ve handed her off in front of God and a preacher.”

Mom rolls her eyes. “You do know how we got our precious grandson, right?”

Levi’s head suddenly pops up and swivels in our direction. “How did you get me?”

“The stork,” we all say in practiced unison, and lu

ckily, Levi accepts our answer for now.

Mom’s eyes whip back to me, and she jumps to the ground, yanking me down with her. “Now, come on, I’m putting on a pot of coffee and you’re gonna tell me all about him.”

“La, la, la. I don’t want to hear any of that heathen talk!” my dad yells at our retreating figures, but I can hear the amusement in his voice.

“Then plug your ears, old man.” Mom drags me down the hall, nearly pulling my arm out of its socket.

“Levi!” I bellow over my shoulder. “Come save me from your grammy! I’m going to need a rescue mission!”

Mom keeps tugging me. “Levi, if you stay out of the kitchen for fifteen minutes, I’ll bake you chocolate chip cookies and let you eat them for lunch.”

“Oooh, you’re ruthless.”

Once we’re in the kitchen, she turns to face me and cocks a sassy eyebrow. “You’re gonna have to up your ante if you want to play with the big kids, darlin’. Now, sit and tell me all about him.”

I pull out a kitchen chair and do as I’m told. “How do you even know I spent the night with a man?”

“Unless you’ve changed your perfume over to Old Spice, it was beyond obvious. You smell like the men’s body wash aisle, and I do mean that in the best way.”

I smell like Cooper? Why does that thought make me feel all tingly and hot?

“Well, you’re right. I did hang out with a man last night, but not in the way you’re thinking. We’re just friends.”

“Pumpkin, I’m not stupid. You don’t come away smelling like your friend when you’re just hanging out.” I wish she wouldn’t do that—plant ideas in my head that shouldn’t be there. It’s every parent’s responsibility to think their child poops rainbows, but she shouldn’t be trying to make me think that about myself too. I tried going after someone above my level before…it didn’t work out for me, and I don’t care to do it again. Cooper had a chance to prove me wrong last night, and he didn’t. He pulled away from my kiss, and that told me everything I needed to know.

“I only smell like him because after we got done swimming, he let me wear his clothes.”

Her eyebrow rises another centimeter into the smug-mother-who-knows-everything zone.

“Mom, I’m serious. Please don’t make this something it’s not. I’ve embarrassed myself in front of him more times than I can count, and it’s clear that he is not interested in me like I am in him. I need to get him out of my head, and your meddling is not helping.”

“But—”

“Mom.”

“I just—”

I cut her off with a zip it up gesture and matching sound.

Her shoulders slump over adorably, and she rolls her eyes like she’s the teen and I’m sucking all of her fun. “Fine, I’ll zip it up. But are you SURE he’s not interested and you’re not maybe projecting your own insecurities onto the situation?” Clearly, she doesn’t know the meaning of zip it up.

“Unfortunately, yes…I’m positive he’s not interested.”

“I’m interested in your sister,” I say to Drew after he takes the last sip of his second beer. It’s Friday night, a few days after my pool adventure with Lucy; and yep, I did bring Drew out for drinks, buy him wings to butter him up, and then get him a little bit buzzed in hopes that he would not knock my teeth out when I announced I had feelings for Lucy. I also brought him to a crowded sports bar so there would be witnesses.