“Are you sure you want me to go with you? Because you can go get Mo by yourself if you want, since you’ve got your own car and everything now.”
If I was surprised by how easily the offer popped into my head, then Jonah was just as surprised to hear it. Those light-colored eyes just bore right into me before bouncing from one of mine to the other and back again. And even with his pink cheeks and the lies in his eyes about not being worried about his mom, he was still too cute. Handsome. Just fucking handsome.
“I want you to come,” he said, looking right into my eyes.
He wanted me to really meet his mom? AKA spend time with her?
I made myself not glance at her because that would have been weak as hell, and instead did the same thing to his eyes that he’d done to me: like I was searching for something in them that said bullshit, bitch.
But there was nothing there even close to that. Not a single thing.
He wanted me to meet his mom. And sister. Wanted us to spend time together.
Fuck it.
“Okay,” I agreed. “I want you to tell me the whole story later.” Because I had questions. A few of them.
“I will,” he agreed easily.
I hated how much I liked him. “Okay, I’ll go with you.”
He gave me that tiny little smile.
I smirked back at him. “Why do you look so relieved?”
“I’m just glad you’re coming,” he replied. “Let me introduce you, eh. I’ve got my ute—”
I tried to process that.
He caught it. “My car.” He flashed me that trademark smile. “I told you I was hiring a car. We can go together to get Mo, or if you’d like, we can meet somewhere instead.”
I felt like a pussy considering option B, but I took it. “We can meet somewhere. That’ll give you some one-on-one time with your mom and sister.” Poor sucker.
The smile he gave me didn’t make it clear whether he knew why I’d chosen that option or not, but he didn’t tease me over it. Jonah tugged me forward, and I went along willingly, noticing that his palm slid down my arm as we turned, and he gave my wrist a light hold for a second before dropping away.
He really was a good guy.
And as we headed toward his mom, and I took in the look on her face, I could tell that I wasn’t going to be saying the same thing about her cranky ass.
In three seconds we were in front of the two women, and Jonah’s hand was at the base of my spine, his palm halfway on my jeans and halfway over my shirt, which I knew was crazy sweaty, and he was saying, “Mum, Natia, I’d like you to meet Lenny, my girl’s mum.”
Somewhere inside, I flinched. Not his friend. Not… anything else. His girl’s mom.
That’s what I was, I guessed. My most important title. It wasn’t like that should be a surprise.
And I had no reason to feel disappointed.
“Lenny, this is my mum, Sarah, and my middle sister, Natia.”
Yeah. From the look his mom was giving me, she wasn’t exactly going to be joining the Lenny DeMaio Fan Club anytime soon. That was for sure. And ask me how many fucks I gave? Zero, that was how many.
But one glance at the younger woman had me pausing.
She was grinning wide, and her hands were laced together under her chin.
Okay then. I thrust my hand out toward his mom first, keeping any excuses or lies to myself. I wasn’t that glad to meet her. I wasn’t sorry for how I’d spoken to her either. So I went with the most basic shit: “Hi.”
Those eyes that she had given her son, who had then given them to my daughter, flicked from my hand to my face to Jonah’s and then back to my hand.
Yep. Kind of a bitch. She wanted to make it awkward, we could play.
I wiggled my fingers just as the man beside me started to grumble, “Mum.”
I wasn’t dumb or blind, and I watched her force herself to take my hand, giving it a shake that wasn’t anything close to a limp fish. I could respect that. I could at least respect that a whole hell of a lot more than her making it seem like I had cooties.
No part of me was surprised when she said in that cultured—and pained—voice “Hello” like she couldn’t bear to have a conversation with me.
I could respect that too. A lot more than her forcing out a “pleasure to meet you” or some fake shit like that. We both knew neither one of us was all that pleased right then.
Fine by me.
Jonah let out a sigh that wasn’t one that belonged to a man who was all that relieved. I’d think about what that meant later. In the meantime, I stuck my hand out toward his smiling sister, and fortunately, she didn’t make me wait at all to take mine.
Or to pull me into her with surprising strength and throw her arms around me with a “It’s awesome to meet you!”
All right, I hadn’t been expecting that.
I snorted and hugged her right back. “It’s nice to meet you too.” She squeezed me even closer, and I thought okay and returned it.
I must have not been the only one thinking the same thing, because when I pulled back, Jonah’s big smile had taken over his face while I’d been hugging his sister.
His sister.
I still didn’t want to think too much about how much of a relief that knowledge had been. Later on, when no one could catch me, maybe I’d creep on her Picturegram account and see why I hadn’t recognized her. It was bugging me. I was usually good with faces and names.
“Off to lunch then?” he asked, still cautiously, and I was pretty sure I wasn’t imagining his wary expression as he kept an eye on the space between his mom and me like we were going to fight each other.
“Ooh, I’d love some lunch. Mum made us come straight here,” Natia complained with a roll of her eyes.
“I’ll go get Mo and meet up with you then?” I asked him.
“My granddaughter’s name is Mo?” Sarah, Mrs. Collins, asked with dismay. She didn’t look all that excited about it. Like I had chosen that name because it was short and I didn’t know how to spell anything longer? Uh-huh.
I took a breath in through my nose and reminded myself that my own grandpa was a pain in the fucking ass. That thought made me feel a lot better. It gave me hope. This lady didn’t know me. She didn’t know, more than likely, what had happened between her son and me. “It’s her nickname,” I answered, specifically leaving out what her real name was to be a shit.
The look Jonah gave his mom was one Grandpa Gus and I had given each other a lot over the years. You need to calm down face. Because crazy knew crazy.
“Can we meet at the café we’ve gone to before?” the Tiny Bit of an Asshole said at the tail end of the look he gave the other woman.
Panera. He was talking about Panera. I nodded.
One corner of Jonah’s mouth went up, like he was trying to hold on to what he could so that he wouldn’t get mad or upset or whatever it was that was stewing there between him and his mom. “How long do you suppose it’ll take? Thirty minutes?”
“Give or take,” I agreed. Looking at Sarah again, seeing her gripping the strap of her purse like she was trying to choke the life out of it from how white her fingers were getting. His sister just stood there with a smirk on her face, looking back and forth between the two of them.