Heartburn (Love By Design 3)

I ignored her huff and stared ahead into the sun glare and possibly my last trip across the bridge. We still had another good hour to cross Manhattan if the traffic held on the way into Brooklyn followed by my last rites if what she said about her parents was true.

“Chin up, Amelia. Meeting your parents is not going to be the end of the world.” If her mother didn’t shoot me first and bury my body somewhere in the Jersey meadowlands for taking her daughter to Vegas.

“You haven’t met them yet.” She wrung her hands nervously wiping the palms on her dark jeans.

“I could just tell them I stole your virginity and then we could have a shotgun wedding today and solve everything at once.” I tapped on the steering wheel hoping to diffuse the situation. All I got was a side eye and a snort that didn’t sound encouraging.

“Seriously, Whit? That’s what you went with?” She rested her head on the window ignoring me.

“Hey, come on babe.” I snuck a peek at her face turned out the window avoiding me. I let my fingers spider crawl up her leg, but she pushed my hand off. So much for promising.

“Ugh, just drop me off and go back home before they find you.” She picked at her nail and I grabbed her hand to stop the anxious habit.

“You say it like you already know how they feel about me which means you had to have told them something about me, and not all of it good by the look on your face.” My voice trailed off wondering. “Come on, you can tell me. I can take it. I’m a big boy.” I puffed out my chest and drove one handed putting the blinker on to switch lanes for our exit.

My free hand rubbed my thumb over hers when she snatched it back screeching, “What? No! I didn’t tell them anything.”

“Okay, so I’m going to walk in with you and we’re planning on blindsiding them? Come on babe, I’m trying to do the right thing meeting them before we go away together. I don’t want them thinking it was me who dumped your body in the desert if you go missing out in Vegas.”

“Missing?” This girl had side eye mastered so well that I wondered if she was spending extra secret time with Kristen I didn’t know about.

I shrugged gripping the steering wheel while I smiled on the inside. If I took this any further she might actually hit me while I’m driving.

So much for reassuring her, I was only making myself start to second guess things. I knew her relationship wasn’t one hundred percent with them, but I also knew what it was like to grow up without parents and I couldn’t imagine anything worse.

“Oh, I’m sure they’ll scour the National Parks for the first few weeks before making you the number one suspect. You’ll be the grieving boyfriend while I’ll be in some Mexican brothel by then servicing high-ends clients who like pretty pale girls with crazy hair.”

“You say that like you don’t think I’ll go all Creek Stewart and Crocodile Dundee trying to find you.” I grabbed her hand and pulled it into my lap refusing to let her go this time. She was acting irrational. I bit my tongue to keep from saying that. I’d saved this girl once on a dark and stormy night. Why did she think I wouldn’t do it again?

“I get it Whit. If I get kidnapped and have to make it bushwhacking back to Vegas through the desert, I’m going to need fire, shelter, and food.”

“Not sure how much bushwhacking there will actually be in an arid desert.” I mumbled trying to calculate reasonable ways she could shelter until I found her.

“Oh my god, look it’s not the kidnapping part my parents are worried about and I’d like to remind you that I didn’t really want to do this in the first place. I agreed to go to Vegas, not the Spanish Inquisition by having you meet them beforehand.”

“Amelia, this is important me. I’m your boyfriend. You’re slightly older boyfriend, and I have respect for the people who raised you. I don’t want this to be adversarial.” I spared her a glance as a I passed a minivan and taxi taking up the right lane. At this rate, we’d never get to Brooklyn which I was closely becoming fine with as this drive continued.

Lia huffed reaching for the radio. I stalled her from turning the music up to avoid the conversation. Avoiding things was juvenile and I refused to let her slink into that habit because she didn’t like what we were discussing.

“Men.” She grunted and I ignored the frustration in her voice. I was equally frustrated but for different reasons.

I couldn’t express adequately in words how much I needed to do this. I was all alone since my grandfather’s death and while I’m sure I would have been fine not meeting her parents in their home on a Saturday there was something here. The only other option would have been to wait until they came up to visit her during a school break. Meeting them on our turf didn’t seem right either. I had to be the one to make the effort. I was the one coming into her family dynamic, not the other way around. I needed her parents to see that their daughter wasn’t a novelty for me or a notch in my oaken bedpost.

“Alright, we’ve got an hour. Tell me about them so I’ve got something to work with.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

I patted my chest. “Lay it on me baby.”

“My mother owns her own medical billing firm and outsources everything so she can spends her days arranging her social calendar. My dad works for a medical practice as a physician’s assistant in midtown. It’s nothing crazy, but it’s enough that my sister, who is supposed to get married to her college boyfriend of five years, stays at home and visits every bridal trunk show she can on Sundays.”

I found myself muttering, “Thank god it’s a Saturday then.”

“Don’t encourage this. The last thing I want to do is get dragged to a trunk show and then eat some overpriced brunch with mimosas discussing how Ruby Lin’s daughter is studying art history and engaged to a med student attending Harvard.”

“Baby you wound me with your elitism.” I mocked a gasp and clutched my imaginary pearls.

“Suck it, Ranger Rick.” She stuck out her tongue in a sexy pout.