Page 90 of Stone Rules

My mother’s smile lights up the room. She insisted Charlie call her ‘Mom’ the instant they met. I can see Charlie isn’t completely comfortable with it yet, but she’s indulging my mother. My mom is not an easy woman to turn down.

“With our hectic work schedules, and the few hours we get to see you each night, it feels like you just got here,” Mom says. She turns to my dad. “Marc, when are we going to retire so we can move back to New York and spoil our grandchild?”

He laughs. “Tomorrow,” he says with a wink to Charlie. My parents often joke about wanting to retire. But the truth is, nothing could pull them away from the jobs they love. My parentsaretheir jobs. When they can no longer hold a scalpel, they will no doubt teach. I’m pretty sure they will work until they drop dead like my grandfather, hopefully at ripe old ages.

“Am I doing this right, Mom?” Charlie asks her, looking down at some kind of butter sauce.

Dad knocks his shoulder against mine and whispers, “She’s a keeper, son. Well done.”

I smile at him. He hasn’t known her long, but I can tell he thinks she’sthe one. Just like my mom is for him and his mom was for my grandfather.

I hear the front door open and then footsteps echo through the grand parlor and get louder as they come closer to the kitchen. My brother appears in the doorway. “Smells good, I didn’t miss dinner, did I?”

Chad has stopped by several times this week while we’ve been here. Charlie even convinced me to go out with him one night for what she called ‘brother bonding.’ But truthfully, I think she just needed a night off from all the sex we’ve been having. Another bonus of being here and so far away from our problems.

“Hey, Chad,” Charlie greets him. “No, you didn’t miss dinner.”

He walks around the massive center island, kissing both Charlie and my mother on the cheek.

“So, how’s everything in the world of Thad Stone?” my father asks.

“Good,” he says. “We’re finishing up re-takes forDefcon Onethis week. I’ll be glad whenthat’sdone.” He rolls his eyes.

Defcon Oneis the movie he’s been shooting for the past several months. It was one of the reasons he was in New York back in March. He’s had some trouble with his co-star. Let’s just say she’s Gretchen-esque. I can relate.

“When will the movie be released?” Charlie asks.

“Probably not until early next year. The time it takes to produce a film from start to finish is about twelve months. Sometimes longer.”

“Well, I can’t wait to see it,” she says.

“You guys should come out for the premier,” Chad says.

Charlie looks down at her belly. “I don’t know, Chad. Depending on how early next year, we may have a newborn.”

“Nonsense,” Mom says. “You’ll come and I’ll babysit. I hate those premier things anyway.” She winks at Chad. “We won’t want the baby picking up any germs on a commercial airplane so Ethan will charter a jet.”

“Charter a jet?” Charlie stares at me suspiciously.

I shrug. She’s seen my penthouse. My cars. But she hasn’t seen my bank account yet. I may have downplayed my net worth just a tad.

“Let’s play it by ear, okay?” I say. “Who knows what will be going on then.” Charlie’s eyes turn sad. She and I both know that if things don’t go our way, our lives may be filled with restrictions where the baby is concerned.

Just as we’re sitting down to eat, my mother’s pager goes off. She looks at it and sighs. “Sorry, guys,” she says. “Nature of the business.” She gets up and takes her plate to the counter where she wraps it with tin foil.

My dad gets up and hands her his plate, too. “I’ll keep you company, sweetheart. There are some patients I’d like to check on myself.”

She smiles at him and wraps up his plate of food. I smile at Charlie. We lock eyes. I know we’re both thinking the same thing. That we hope after we’ve been married for thirty years, we won’t mind skipping meals just so we can be together.

“Don’t wait up!” Mom shouts on their way to the garage.

Halfway into our meal—that’s been prepared to perfection by Charlie under my mom’s tutelage—my phone pings with a text from Levi. There is a case he’s working on that needs my immediate attention.

“Charlie, I’m sorry, I have to make a couple of calls. Do you mind if I leave you in my brother’s capable hands for a little while? I promise to make it up to you later,” I say with a devious grin.

“Bro, I’m sitting right here,” Chad says. “Please stop giving me visuals.”

She laughs. “It’s fine. Go take care of your work thing.”

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