Page 92 of An Engagement for Erica

Nothing like shoving their wealth in people’s faces. That was his father.

“We didn’t have any kind of kid party,” she said. “My mother wouldn’t do that. We had very polite and pretty parties if we had one at all. To her, birthday parties were on the tacky side unless they were milestones.”

“Thirty is a milestone,” he said.

“It is, but Daisy’s style is nowhere near my mother’s.”

“I thought you said that your mother has gotten better with Daisy,” he said.

Erica had told him about how Marion James Ellsworth had done a background on Daisy and felt she wasn’t up to her son’s standards.

Since Erica told her mother last weekend about him, Tucker was expecting the same to come about at some point too.

On paper, he was pretty sure there was nothing for Erica’s mother to find fault with.

Until she got to the part about his father.

Not his problem.

And if Erica wanted to side with her mother, he’d rather know that going in.

Though he was positive based on the family dynamics that wasn’t going to happen.

“Theo put his foot down. He stopped communicating with my mother and that just about killed her. He was her favorite. She got to brag about him the most.”

He turned in the car and saw her laughing. He wasn’t sure if it was a joke until the laugh came out.

“There is a lot to brag about when it comes to you,” he said. “Even your sister.”

“That is such a nice thing to say about Harmony,” she said.

“What about you?” he asked. “It’s the truth.”

“I don’t lack any self-confidence when it comes to my work for the most part,” she said. “But my mother wasn’t thrilled when I left my big corporate job. When my business grows, then she’ll start spreading it around. I don’t need her doing that.”

“You just lack it in your personal relationships,” he said. “But it doesn’t seem it to me now.”

“I’m about as loose as I’m going to get,” she said. “If you turn the dial anymore, it’s going to fall right off.”

He burst out laughing. “It’s a good thing you added the part about the dial. I wasn’t sure where you were going with your comment.”

She playfully slapped his leg in the car. “Very funny.”

“I like how fun you look today,” he said. “I’m used to the professional side of you.”

She was wearing a pair of light blue high-waist baggy jeans but had a thin bright orange fitted sweater on that was tucked in with a floral belt. Since he’d seen a lot of floral pieces on her before, he was assuming this was part of the Blossoms line.

Her hair was pulled back from her face with a metal clip of some flower. He wasn’t good at those details.

She had a floral ring on her finger and earrings in her ears. Again, nothing he would have really picked up on before but now found himself looking for them.

He’d been told Daisy made most of the jewelry pieces and had given them as gifts.

“The stuffy side of me,” she said. “I like you better in jeans I think.”

“I like you just about any way that you’re comfortable and relaxed,” he said. “In the office, you fit right in. I’m willing to bet you will here too but at a different level.”

“You’ve seen me with Harmony, so I’ll be about the same. There will be a lot of people here you don’t know and some you do.”

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