Page 75 of Objection to Love
April got the message and nodded, though her forehead didn’t relax.
Garrett came fully to a stand and walked to her, his eyes questioning her. She offered a tense smile. Thankfully, he didn’t say anything, only grabbed her hand, squeezing it, and led her back to the table. “Your mom said she made her world-famous lasagna.”
“Oh, yes,” Mom said, sitting down as well. “And he most definitely did not see me throwing away the Marie Callender’s box.”
Em managed a small smile. At least her mom wasn’t hurling insulting job offers at her.
“Did your father talk with you?” she asked with a little too much innocence. Em almost groaned. Maybe the insulting offer was just yet to come.
“Yes,” was all she said.
“Hmm. Good.” Mom seemed to be looking for more than that, but Em was saved from expounding by the appearance of her dad. “Oh, good, Dan, you’re just in time.”
Her father moved to his spot at the table. But just before sitting down, he saw Garrett and stopped.
“Dad, this is Garrett. My boyfriend.” The words still felt a little foreign. But good. Which was nice, since she’d had a bad taste in her mouth since talking with her dad.
Dad nodded. Then looked at Em. He seemed about to say something to her, but changed his mind and turned back to Garrett. “Nice to meet you; I’m Dan.”
“Good to meet you, sir.” Garrett offered a friendly smile. Dad’s wasn’t so warm.
Maybe bringing Garrett wasn’t such a good idea.
Dad sat down, then looked around. “Hey, I thought Allen was joining us?”
Em stiffened as her mom responded, with a pointed look at her and Garrett, “That would have left us unevenly numbered. I told him we’d reschedule, and I’d let him know what date we settled on.”
Okay, maybe she was feeling a little touchy, but the fact that her mom seemed to have only “rescheduled” her blind date instead of canceling it miffed Em. And, judging by Garrett’s tense jawline, he wasn’t too thrilled either.
“Jackson, did you get that email I sent you?” Dad speared some food with his fork as he spoke.
Jackson, used to the dynamics of the family, didn’t blink an eye at the sudden, direct attention. “About the case against a small business last month? Yes. I forwarded it to our in-house attorney. I don’t expect we will ever face a similar case though. For one, no one in our company is embezzling.”
“How much experience does this guy of yours really have though? Is he going to be able to protect your firm from an attack like that company in the email?”
“He’s more than qualified.”
“Hmm,” Dad said, taking a drink. “You should send me his information. I’ll vet him.”
“I offered to do that when he first hired him, Dan. You’ll remember,” Mom cut in.
Jackson’s smile was looking the tiniest bit strained, but he still held his own. “And I very much appreciated the offer then. I consulted my partners before we hired Mr. Swan, though, and we have all been more than happy with his work over the last year.”
“Hmm,” Dad said again, then turned to April. “Your mom tells me you have a baby shower coming up. Why aren’t you having it here?”
“She preferred to have her friend host it, Dan,” Mom said with a bit of an edge.
“Natalie offered,” April said, but with a tone of exhaustion.
“Mom, are those new flowers?” Em said at the same time Garrett remarked that the green beans were fantastic.
Mom smiled at them both. “Yes, September. Your father bought them for me to celebrate a big win at work last week.”
“Oh?” April said when Em couldn’t come up with a response that wouldn’t keep the topic on work. “How’s work?”
Well, crud.
Dad swallowed another bite. “It’s great. We have several big clients we just took on. We’ll need to hire a few new associates. Maybe even a new partner.”
