“Are you two going to hover over there all night or join the rest of us?” Quinn called from his place across the room.
Adam and Teddy turned to face Quinn and the waiting table. Adam put his hand on her back and urged her toward the U-shaped table that had been laid out festively for an anniversary. Both the chairs and tables had been covered in white. Place settings were laid out for a six-course meal. Adam wasn’t sure he’d survive it.
The two took seats. “Sorry for holding things up,” Teddy apologized to Adam’s parents.
“Don’t worry about it.” His mother brushed her apology aside. She placed a hand on her husband’s and continued. “We remember how it was to be newly in love.”
Adam’s ears should have slid off his face at the amount of heat that flashed within him so fast the entire room had to see it. Glancing at Teddy, he was surprised to see her smiling.
“You think this is funny?” he whispered.
“Hilarious.” Then she gave her attention to his parents. “Adam didn’t tell me how long you’ve been married.”
“Tonight we celebrate thirty-eight years,” his father responded for the first time since their introduction. He smiled, one Adam had seen many times and knew was genuine.
“Happy years.” Quinn raised his glass and toasted them.
“Can you imagine being married that long, Teddy?” her mother asked.
“Mother, I can’t imagine being married for one year, let alone several decades. But…” She paused and took Adam’s hand. Hers was warm and calm, while his, despite the heat generating in his body, was ice-cold. He wondered where she was going with this. “…maybe one day we’ll all meet again for an anniversary and I’ll answer that question.”
Adam thought his mother was going to beam out of her chair. The smile on her face rivaled the size of her dinner plate. Quinn looked stunned. His brother Galen’s mouth dropped open and Teddy’s mother’s face mirrored that of her coconspirator.
“Wait a minute,” Galen said. “Are you telling me, you two are serious?” He pointed from one to the other with the index fingers of both hands.
Adam cleared his throat. “Well, we haven’t known each other that long, but…” he stopped for effect and the need to swallow the lump of lies he was about to tell “…things are progressing.”
“Progressing?” Galen repeated.
Teddy nodded. “I hope you have no objections.” She gazed directly at Galen, then turned to his parents.
Adam’s mom spread her hands. “We’re thrilled.” Then a moment later, she continued, “Of course, we want you two to be sure.”
Adam watched the bobbing heads. He knew the two mothers in this room had already decided that they were more than sure.
* * *
Teddy held her sides, hesitating on the steps to her porch, as she laughed for the hundredth time during their ninety-minute drive back to Princeton. She and Adam had reviewed the evening’s events since leaving the restaurant and climbing into his car. Adam drove and Teddy was glad she didn’t have to negotiate the dark roads as tears sometimes trickled down her cheeks over some comment or action one or both of their mothers had made.
She opened the door to her house and both entered the dimly lit foyer.
“If you don’t stop,” she informed Adam, “I’m going to have to go to the hospital so they can stitch up my sides.” She took short breaths, trying to control the pain in her sides, but she started to laugh again. Hiccupping, she stopped.
“I apologize for my parents,” she told him after a moment.
“It was just as much my mother’s fault as yours.”
“They ambushed us.”
“But we were ready. I’m sure both of them went home as happy souls.”
He smiled at Teddy and it was almost her undoing. Every time she saw him, her heart fluttered and her stomach felt as if butterflies were playing inside her.
“Do you want something to eat?”
“I’m starving,” he said. “I couldn’t eat anything during dinner.”
“I know.” Teddy headed for the kitchen. “Between your brothers and our parents, I was afraid I’d choke if I tried to swallow anything.”