Legend (Arizona Vengeance 3)

My mom has been beside herself since I told her about Charlie and I wouldn’t be surprised if she just refuses to return home to Boston with my dad.

Pepper studies me and seems satisfied with my answer. She reaches over and gives me a pat on my ass. “Just so you know, I’m incredibly nervous to be meeting your parents.”

“Don’t be,” I tell her out of the side of my mouth but my parents are walking up the porch steps and I open the door with my free hand. My other arm is occupied with an awake, curious baby.

My mom doesn’t even look at me but her eyes go straight to Charlie as she hits the top step of the porch. My dad does spare me a glance, but then he looks to Charlie too.

And fuck…his eyes are a little shiny as he stares in wonder at his granddaughter.

“Oh my word, Nathan. Look at her,” my mom whispers and her arms stretch outward. I grin and step across the threshold, putting Charlie in my mom’s care. She still hasn’t looked at me once, and that’s quite all right.

My dad crowds in at my mom’s back and stares at Charlie over her shoulder. He reaches an arm around, and touches my daughter’s face with the tip of his finger.

“She’s got Legend’s eyes,” he says to my mom with surety and I’m amazed he can see that.

Outside of her hair and eye color, I can’t see anything that resembles one of my features when I look at her but then again, I don’t see anything of Lida either.

We just stand there on the porch with Pepper waiting just inside the doorway watching us. I shoot her a glance and she grins back at me, enjoying as much as I am that my parents seem to be hypnotized.

“Let me hold her, Wendy,” my dad demands and I blink in surprise. I never took him as the sort that would want to hold a baby. I can’t even imagine him holding and cuddling me as an infant, although maybe he did. He was just always so stern and strict growing up, that I figured all of the tenderness I have within me came from my mom.

My jaw drops as he crowds in on my mom, and gives her no choice but to turn Charlie over. Like a damn pro, he puts a hand under her head and settles her easily into his cocooning embrace.

Damn…learning something new about the old man here.

“Mom…dad,” I say to get their attention and it takes them a few seconds to tear their gazes away from Charlie—which I find to be really cute. I hold my hand out, palm up to Pepper and she takes it. I tug her out onto the porch. “I’d like you to meet my girlfriend, Pepper Nantais.”

Because my parents aren’t rude by any measure, they both give her genuine smiles. I haven’t told my dad about Pepper but I have texted details here and there to my mom as she pried. I’m sure she relayed everything to him.

“We are so pleased to meet you,” my mom tells her. “Legend has told us how very supportive you’ve been to him during his transition into fatherhood.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Bay,” Pepper says. “And it’s great to meet you.”

My dad makes a grunting sound and shakes his head, leveling a stern look at Pepper. “None of that Mr. and Mrs. Stuff. She’s Wendy and I’m Nathan, or Nate, actually. Wendy’s the only one that uses my full name.”

Pepper inclines her head as she squeezes my hand, which means she’s amused. “Well, then…it’s lovely to meet you, Nate and Wendy. What do you think of your granddaughter there?”

My mom looks away from Charlie and her expression looks pained to do so. She gives Pepper just the briefest of looks and turns back to her granddaughter as she says, “You just don’t know how thrilled we are to have her in our lives. Legend will be a terrific father.”

“Is a terrific father,” Pepper whispers so low, only I hear her. I give her hand a squeeze.

“Let me have her back,” my mom orders my dad, and makes a grabby hands motion.

With great reluctance, my dad does as requested and my mom is once again oohing and aahing over Charlie, who stares back at her grandma with fascination.

“Let’s go inside,” I suggest, thinking they’d happily just stand out here for hours passing my kid back and forth.

When inside with the door closed—I also turn the lock which I never bothered with before Lida showed back up—Pepper offers to get coffee for everyone. My mom hands Charlie off to my dad and follows her into the kitchen. I lead my dad into the living room. He deftly takes a seat in the recliner and starts to rock back and forth while staring down at Charlie.