Page 91 of Reckless

A gurgle bubbles up in mygut.

What is it they say? When it rains, it pours? Here comes the deluge. I brace myself for my parents to lose their shit. At least our brunch will be memorable despite the hole in my stomachlining.

When my sister called this morning and asked if I could join her for an hour, Ethan said he and Logan could watch the kids, that I’d earned a reprieve from the ranch. I hadn’t known my parents were lurking to ambush me, just that Kat wanted to grab something toeat.

Had Iknown, I might’ve mentionedsomethingto prepare him in case he randomly decided he needed to come to the Lone Star diner in the middle of a workday.

He’s holding Mila’s hand as she skips toward us. They’re so freaking cute together. Pretty sure the people next to us hear my ovaries explode and splat on thefloor.

“Hey, babe.” The smile on his face makes my insides somersault. I smile back, likely looking dumb and in love, but he gives me all the damn feels. What am I supposed to do? Be arobot?

My parents look slowly between us, like they’re trying to gauge, one, if Ethan is a serial killer; two, if he really pays his taxes; and three, if we’re sleepingtogether.

No, yes, anddefinitely.

When my father’s searching gaze reaches mine, my smile fades, and I cough. “Mom, Dad, this is Ethan Carter. My, um… my, uh,boss.”

God, that doesn’t sound right, though technically it is. But I can’t exactly put an asterisk by that statement and add he makes me want to spawn and have his babies. That’s not brunch-appropriate.

I’ve never brought a guy home to meet my parents.Never ever. I saw how they gave Brady the nth degree when he was trying to get Kat on the love lockdown. I didn’t want any part of thatdrama.

Ethan glances down at his shoes, a brief but shy smile on his face like he knows I have no clue how to do this, and then he reaches over and gives each of my parents a friendlyhandshake.

In my head, I’m yelling for him to ignore everything we say at this table.Every. Thing. We. Say.And that he should run far, far away before this conversation goes to shit. Because itwill.

My father is in the middle of taking a drink of his coffee when Mila leans up on the table, gives us a wide grin, and declares, “Tori is Daddy’s girlfriend. They havesex.”

Oh, holyfuckadoodle.

Well, that wasfast.

40

Ethan

There comesa time in every man’s life where you think you can’t be easily embarrassed anymore. That you’re grown up enough to withstand whatever trivial things life might throw yourway.

Your baby puking on you? Nobiggie.

Your son peeing in your face during a diaper change? Gross, but not the end of theworld.

Your child pooping straight through his diaper and your jeans too?Survivable.

But your kid saying whatever crazy thing enters her brain at any given moment? That I had not taken intoaccount.

For instance, take my child, the cute one with the delighted smile on her face. My tiny intercontinental ballistic missile dressed in pink is one hundred percent clueless that she just detonated the fuck outta any chance I had to get Tori’s parents to likeme.

I didn’t realize that was who she was meeting up with this morning when her sister picked her up. Wasn’t even thinking this was where they went for breakfast or brunch or whatever this is. But Mila heard that Tori was going out to eat and asked if we could too. She looked up at me with those sad, puppy-dog eyes, and I couldn’t sayno.

With how much I’ve been working lately, I thought some father-daughter time might be good. I wanted to make sure Mila was still feeling okay about what we’d talked about last night when I explained that Tori and I weredating.

Pretty sure this new topic takesprecedence.

I wait until Mr. Duran’s done choking on his coffee to address mydaughter.

Squatting down next to her so that we’re eye to eye, I lower my voice. “Honey, where did you learn that word?” Her blank expression tells me she has no clue what I’m talkingabout.

Mr. and Mrs. Duran’s laser-point stares burn holes through my body.Christ. Was I ever this nervous with Allison’s parents?They weren’t my biggest fans either, but I can safely say I never cared thismuch.

---