Page 49 of An Unexpected Home

“Two weeks. Two very long weeks.”

“Yeah, I feel really sorry for you, bro.” He joked. “Two weeks surrounded by hot models.”

“It’s not as fun as you’d think,” he said and pushed off the wall, walking away.

Shaking his head, Brandon quickly searched for Leah in the now very large crowd. She was talking to a woman and two children, showing them the brochure that held all the pricing and classes.

Strolling through the studio, he saw that there were at least a hundred people milling around. He was just about to head outside to take a look around when Melanie came up to him.

“If Carly or Leah asks, tell them I had to run home for a second. I forgot the DVD that has the slideshow on it.”

“Absolutely,” he said and continued to make his way outside where he found his mom.

“Hey, Mom,” he said, moving to stand next to her. “What brings you here?”

“That’s a silly question. I’m here to support Carly and Mel.”

His mom had yet to meet Leah and as far as he knew she had no idea that he was dating her.

“Are you working today?” she asked.

“No, I thought I’d be here in case they needed me.”

“Does ‘they’ include the new girl?”

She said it in a way that told him she knew all about him and Leah. He should have been shocked – would have been if it were any other person. But, of course, his mom knew. She knew everything.

“Her name is Leah,” he said, not confirming or denying.

“I know her name,” she said, “and she’s a very nice girl.”

Whoa that was news to him. “When did you meet Leah?”

“Why does it matter when or even that I met her?” She raised her eyebrows in the way she always had when he had been a teenager and she had questioned him.

“It doesn’t,” he said, refusing to look her in the eyes for fear that she would know he was lying.

She was quiet and when he looked back at her he saw she was smirking. “You are so obstinate. More so now than as a child. To answer your question, I met her in the market. I didn’t know her and I accidentally knocked over a whole display of paper towels. She was in my line of fire but instead of being mad, she took the time to help me re-stack them.”

That sounded like Leah. “Did she know who you were?”

“You mean, did I tell her the big lug she was dating was my son?” No. I introduced myself as Alice and left it at that.”

Hanging his head he asked, “How long have you known?”

She slapped his arm. “Since last week when I was told by my friend Gayle that you were at the bar looking all cozy.”

Fuck, how had he forgotten that his mom and Gayle from Gayle's bar were friends? “I wasn’t keeping it from you, per se,” he told her.

She pursed her lips like she had something to say but then sighed. “I figured that out on my own, you know, being an adult and all. Plus, I talked to Katie at the station and she filled me in on the strange man who might be following Leah.”

Was nothing a secret in this town?

“Do you like her?”

He looked into his mom’s excited face. He kinda wanted to lie just to keep her off his back. But the truth was, this was too big to lie about.

“I more than like her, mom.” At her small clap he held out a hand to stop her. “But you have to let me do this at my own pace. You will scare her off if you come barreling full force at her.”

---