Code Name Ghost (Jameson Force Security 5)

Well, part of his family. His mom and dad, as well as his sister and brother-in-law, flew in a day before the Cold Fury/Titans game. I’d be meeting his brothers tomorrow.

“Relax,” Malik soothes, reaching across the console of his car and taking my hand in his. He looks over his shoulder into the backseat behind me with a smile. “Avery’s a good baby. It will be fine.”

“Yeah, but it’s a fancy restaurant. It’s just not appropriate for me to be bringing a baby there, not to mention meeting your family for the first time with her, and well… it’s just a bit out of the norm.”

I twist in my seat to see Avery’s baby carrier, which is faced away from me for safety reasons. She’s not making a peep, which means she’s probably asleep. Riding in a car is like sleep magic for her, and she often drifts not long after the car sets in motion.

“And what if she gets hungry?” I almost whine with worry.

“You pumped,” he says way too calmly and rationally. “You’ll pull a bottle out to feed her. More likely, my mom will snatch her away and insist on doing it. She’s a sucker for babies.”

I nibble at one of my nails, fretting. This just seems… wrong, over-complicated, and—

“Anna,” Malik says as we turn into the parking lot.

I shift toward him.

“My parents, sister, brother-in-law—they’re all going to adore you. They’re going to adore Avery, too. They’re going to understand that as a single mother, Avery is sometimes going to be with you when babysitters fall through.”

This is the reason for my current upset. My mom was going to watch her tonight, but said she’s not feeling well and doesn’t want to expose Avery to anything. I do have to wonder if that has anything to do with the fact I sensed some slight disapproval from her over the fact I’m dating Malik.

I told her about him this past weekend when I asked her to babysit Avery so we could go out to the movies on Saturday night. She wasn’t shocked over who I was going out with, but merely that I was going out at all.

Her words to me had been, “Isn’t it a bit too soon?”

That was before she even asked who I was going on a date with.

When I told her about Malik—a man she hasn’t met personally but knows some things about because of him being on the same mission as Jimmy and she’s aware he’d been rescued—she got very quiet on me. It’s what she does when she has reservations, but she knows she can’t voice them because she lost sway with me long ago.

Regardless, I knew she was not overjoyed when I told her I was meeting his parents for dinner and asked if she could watch Avery. It didn’t quite soften her up when I told her I’d love to bring Malik home for dinner one weekend to meet her and my stepdad.

Whatever her reasons for being bent out of shape, it culminated with a call this afternoon saying she couldn’t watch Avery. My initial thought was to back out of dinner, to which I called Malik and told him of my regrets. He refused to accept them, merely insisted we bring Avery along.

There are many things the man does to make me fall a little bit more for him after each event, but this was one that truly endeared him to me. Despite me thinking it was a horrible idea, it charmed me to no end that he was just as happy to introduce Avery to the most important people in his life as he was to introduce me. Moreover, I’ve come to learn a lot about his family because we seem to talk and talk about everything and anything. Deep in my heart, I know they’re not going to be put out by me having a baby or by my bringing her to eat dinner with us.

“So why am I still so nervous?” I muse aloud, knowing there’s a source to my stress that I probably can’t blame on bringing Avery along.

Malik pulls into a parking spot, puts the car in park, and shuts the ignition. He turns to face me, leaning in close. “Because you like me a lot. And when that happens, meeting the family is an important step. Or so I’ve heard.”

I smirk. “Have you done this a lot?”

“Never,” he assures me. “Unless you count Melanie Farris in secondary school. I invited her to the winter dance, and I thought she was the love of my life.”

I give an empathetic smile. “Sorry that didn’t work out for you.”

“Not me,” he says with a laugh, leaning in just the right amount to kiss me. “This is working out well for me.”

And just like that… most of the nerves dissipate.