Page 73 of His to Seduce
The hand he’d just licked with his mouth.
“Um…” I nodded, heat creeping up my neck. I didn’t want to be rude, butew.“Camden Reed. Nice to meet you.”
He winked and shoved his hand into his denim pocket. “That was pretty nasty, sorry.”
“Animals,” Lindsay muttered. Her gaze slid to David. “All of them.”
“Don’t bring me into this. I didn’t do anything except show up.”
His mom stepped in and clapped. “And it’s about time you did, young man. It’s been so long I was starting to forget what you looked like.”
“Mom—” It was a warning, but one that lacked heat. He sounded too happy.
My eyes continued jumping from one happy person to the next, not knowing where to settle and focus. Lindsay was beautiful, tall and thin, with curves that said she’d had a couple of kids but wasn’t trying to hide how that affected her body. Everyone besides Betty was casual in jeans, Lindsay wearing skinny jeans and a lightweight maroon sweater that set off her blond locks and light-blue eyes, which almost mirrored David’s in both look and mischief. Even the kids were wearing lightweight sweatpants and T-shirts with sugar sprinkled all over them, telling me they’d been helping someone make the frosting their dad had repeatedly pilfered.
Everyone except Betty and I was barefoot and comfortable, relaxed and trying to make me feel the same with their witty banter. It was working until I realized that, besides Betty, I was the only one in a dress. My navy wrap might have been simple and casual, but I was still overdressed, and clearly the odd one out with my dark auburn hair.
It was one of those “which of these things does not belong” pictures, and the arrow was pointed directly at me.
Perhaps noticing the way my shoulders tensed at the thought, or the heat on my cheeks that began spreading to the tips of my ears and down my throat, David hugged me to his side.
“Can we stop freaking Camden out?”
If I could have kicked him, I would have. The last thing I wanted was to be more of a spectacle.
“They’re not—”
“We are,” Lindsay said. She flashed me an apologetic smile and took her kids’ hands into hers. “And we’re sorry. We’re a lot to handle, but something tells me you’ll be fitting in just fine soon.”
“And in order to give you space,” Betty interrupted, hooking her arm through my free one and pulling me next to her, “let’s go to the kitchen, get the men some drinks, and get this food served before Lindsay yells at Grant anymore today. I don’t know who taught my daughter manners or politeness, but she didn’t get it from me, heaven forbid. I’ve been telling her her whole life that men don’t like a nag, but I gotta say, she can rip into that man like no one I’ve ever seen, and he must love her to the moon and back, because he puts up with all of it with a charming little grin.”
I was stunned as she rattled on, pulling me through a formal dining room that looked like a showcase in a museum with relics and vases and more silver than could possibly be found anywhere outside the Smithsonian. But the love and lightness in her voice calmed me and helped make me feel more comfortable.
This was her family, and it was clear that she loved them, even if they drove her crazy like she claimed.
Among all of it, what I wasn’t feeling at all was a lingering grief from her husband passing away much too soon. Even if it had been years ago, this family was tight knit. That much was clear.
They also had to be strong, with an inner strength I wasn’t ever quite so sure I had. But the more time I was with David, I longed to find it.
—
Lindsay hadn’t been kidding. They were a lot to handle, and the craziness that had greeted me in the entryway only increased through dinner. Somewhere along the way, through a glass of wine while I sat on a stool at the most enormous white-and-gray marble kitchen island I’d ever seen, I realized Lindsay had almost been right.
So had David.
His family welcomed me into their gigantic house with warm and strong arms and even bigger smiles, and didn’t seem to be in any hurry to let me go.
While sipping the wine, I’d told Betty about my job at the accounting firm, keeping it vague and trying not to think about everything that had happened earlier. Betty caught on quickly because she switched the questions and conversation to talk of Fireside Grill. She shared her obvious adoration for Declan and Trina, whom I wasn’t aware she’d met. It was easy to talk to her. Easy to feel at home in her vast, open white space that surprisingly felt warm and inviting rather than clinical and sterile.
During our conversation, the kids had been ushered into a playroom somewhere, the men had moved off to the living room to watch a hockey game, and Lindsay had stayed relatively quiet, helping her mom set the family table in the eating area of the kitchen, finish cooking the vegetables, and make a salad while they insisted I do nothing except relax.
When Lindsay asked about my parents, I hesitated and the room went quiet.
For some strange reason, honesty poured out of me. I stared at the glass of wine they’d given me and wondered for a moment if they’d dosed it with truth serum. I never talked about my family, but they’d been so open, so inviting, I couldn’t hold it back.
“My mom got pregnant with me when she was still a teenager. Her parents kicked her out, so she and the guy she was dating at the time moved into a trailer.” I shrugged it off at Lindsay’s quiet but surprised gasp. “He left before I ever came home from the hospital and it’s just been me and her ever since. We don’t…” I couldn’t help but stare around the large space. The doorways all led to even bigger rooms with fancier and more elegant decor. ThankGodwe weren’t eating in the formal dining room. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. “We never had a lot growing up.”
“That must have been tough on your mom,” Betty said, stopping what she was doing and walking over to me. “She must have worked really hard to take care of you.”
