Page 62 of Who's Your Daddy

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Daddy seemed to be ready to let bygones be bygones but I wasn’t as easy as he was.

“Oh, if you saw her, then I’m sure you saw what was scratching at the back door.” Giving him wide eyes that I hoped didn’t look too innocent, I smiled. “I’m Terrence. We thought it might be a cat? Did you see anything?”

Like his manners?

His common sense?

His ability to tell women no?

“Um.” Blinking, he panicked. “I hear my dad calling.”

We made it to the fence as he ducked down and ran off, leaving the women rolling their eyes. I wasn’t sure what they’d do, but they smiled and tried to play it off with one of them taking the lead. “Good evening. We’ve been waiting to meet your new friend.”

Friend?

I wasn’t sure if it was anold people mannersthing or her being catty, but Daddy stepped in and smiled. “Aunt Gabby, this is my boyfriend, Terrence.”

Ha.

Boyfriend.

She blinked but nodded. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Probably not, but that was okay.

“It’s wonderful to meet everyone. Enzo has been telling me so many wonderful stories.” And she was the one with the dirty book habit everyone was pretending not to know about.

She was also Sergio’s mother.

Charts were so much nicer than random stories.

She was smart, though, and I could see her wondering what he’d told me. She didn’t seem to know what to say, but Enzo saved her by opening the gate that went between the two properties and smiling at her. “We need to go make the rounds, but thank you for making Terrence feel welcome.”

Oh, a dash of guilt.

He’d done that perfectly, so I was going to remember how well he did it. I didn’t want him to be able to use it against me.

Aunt Gabby muttered something that sounded vaguely polite as she glanced around, probably looking for the other lady who’d run off. She was better at being sneaky, so I knew I’d have to worry about her.

It was generally the quiet ones that were the most dangerous, and I was smart enough not to forget that as I smiled and looked happy to see everyone.

Everyone.

Half the town seemed to be in his parents’ backyard.

Most of them looked familiar from the board, but after a few random introductions, I realized that several neighbors had snuck in for either the food or because they were nosy too.

Maybe both?

Everyone kept going over to the big grill that looked almost professional before they wandered away, so it made me think I wasn’t the only one who was excited for a cheeseburger.

So far. So good.

But we hadn’t won the war yet.

Chapter 18

Enzo

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