Pulling out some money from her purse, she stuffed it down her bra to her mother’s chuckle. “I did teach you well.”
She smiled and quickly rushed downstairs to make sure her father wasn’t embarrassing her. Not that she should have worried. Rusty and Rome seemed to be getting on really well, and it sounded like they were talking about a football game.
She hated football.
Abby cleared her throat, and finally the two men looked toward her.
“Hey,” she said.
Rusty turned his attention toward her. “Hey,” he said.
Did he like the outfit? She couldn’t tell.
“Do you like?”
“You look beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
“I mean it.”
“Good. My daughter will always look beautiful,” Rome said, coming to her. He pulled her in for another hug, and she chuckled.
“I’m going to be right back. We’re having dinner, and then I’ll be home. I promise,” she said.
“I’ll keep her safe,” Rusty said. “I’ll have her home by a reasonable hour.”
“Or not,” Abby said.
“Mom.” Casey felt her cheeks starting to heat.
“You’re both adults, and let’s face it, you both look cute together.”
“We better go,” Casey said. She didn’t know how much she could take of her parents embarrassing her. Not right now. This was her first real date in a really long time, and well, she didn’t want to think about what her parents were even implying.
Grabbing Rusty’s arm, she urged him out the door. She hated to seem so eager, but she had no choice. Her parents would start talking about sex, and well, she’d lived through that talk all those years ago, and wasn’t going to put another person through that.
“Have fun,” Abby said.
The door closed as Rusty helped her into his truck. Her hands felt a little clammy as he rounded the car and finally climbed in beside her.
“So, where are we heading?” she said.
“Cole’s place. He’s done it up real nice. Buster and I helped, and I figured it’ll be the one place you haven’t been since you got back here.”
“You’re right. I haven’t. You want me to fall back in with the crowd?” she asked.
“From what I saw today, you never really left.” He turned over the ignition, and she couldn’t help but think of her own car. She missed her car.
“Did you get a chance to look at my baby today?”
“Not today but I’m hoping to have a look over it tomorrow if you can hold on a little longer.”
“Yeah, there’s no rush. I like walking around everywhere.”
“You have no plans to run back to the big city?”
“None at all.”
“That’s nice.”
“Yeah, it is.” She pushed some hair off her face. “So, erm, how is everything with you? I take it you don’t have an ex or anything that I should be worried about.”
“No exes to speak of. I wouldn’t ask you on a date if there was someone else. I’m not a cad.”
“I didn’t think you were.” She smiled. This was fun. She liked this. The silence, though, did feel a little awkward. She didn’t know what to say to him, and she couldn’t help but keep looking at him.
“You know it has felt too long since we’d been in the same room together,” Rusty said. “Your parents screamed from the rooftops when you told them you were coming home.”
“Yeah, they told me they kept it low-key.”
Rusty laughed.
“Nope. Everywhere they went Rome would stand up and gain everyone’s attention as if he was making a toast. You remember how he was growing up? He did the same.”
She groaned. “And they all listened?”
“Every single person. It was really cute.”
She laughed.
“They missed you,” he said.
“I missed them as well. I don’t know. On the one hand I think I did the right thing going to the city, attempting to live my dream, and on the other…” She paused. What was on the other?
“On the other?”
“I never got to pursue my dream. I found every single excuse I could to not do something. It was … crazy really now that I think about it.”
“You wanted to write, right?”
“Yes. I wanted to be this big-time author, and in the end, I was only an editor. I was supposed to be experiencing life, so I could write about it, and it could fuel my creativity.”
“You didn’t get to do that?”
“I worked a lot. And if I wasn’t working, I was exploring the city, and then life, and it was not as good as I thought it would be.”
“In most instances, life isn’t. You have to kind of go looking for the good, but you also have to know what is good for you and what is not.”
“Is that why you’ve never left town?” she asked.
“One of the reasons. I’m not a city boy, not that it takes a genius to figure that one out. I like being in a small town, and I know everyone hates it when others know your business, but there’s a community here.”