Page 44 of Chasing Storm
“Neither you nor Thatch has asked about my dad.”
I look up, eyes narrowed. “You told us.”
“But you didn’t ask what his plan was.”
“Figured it doesn’t matter if you satisfied his requirement.”
“Christ,” he mutters and rubs his face.
“Okay, tell me. What did he want you to do?”
“He wants me married and with either a baby born or one on the way with my wife before my thirtieth birthday.”
I try not to gape because that would ruin the broody persona I’ve got going on. “What?” I ask, instead appearing puzzled. Man, his dad is a knob.
“Yeah.”
“And you told him what exactly that made him happy?”
“I told him we were serious about Storm, and there was a real future there.”
I groan loudly. “Why did you do that? We are about as far away from that as we were two weeks ago!”
“I know, but Dick-dad was so fucking smug, like he knew it wouldn’t happen and he could delay it for another five years. I wanted to show him he was wrong.”
“This is not good, JP. What if we get her and she finds out about this? It will look seriously bad.”
“I know,” he says. “Which is why I have to figure out a way to tell her without it sounding like we’re only doing this for that reason.”
“Like we don’t have enough against us, and now this. Dammit, JP. You should’ve mentioned this before now.”
“Mentioned what?” Thatcher asks, leaning in the doorway, dishevelled and nowhere close to sleep. I don’t blame him after the Emma thing. Fuck. This is all such a mess.
JP fills him in while I glower at him.
“Between you two, your outside factors are fucking this up. I’m the only one making headway with her. Maybe it’s time you two backed off and let me take the lead on this. I can get her to come to me without all your shit getting in the way.”
Two furious idiots glare at me, but I know I’m right.
And so do they.
Gloria has given me a wealth of information to be cracking on with, I just don’t seem to be able to get anywhere near her to try. And it’s not like I’mkeepingit from JP and Thatch, but this is stuff that is tailor-made for me by her mother, who knows me. She doesn’t know them.
Inspiration then hits me. “You need to meet her parents. It’s the only way.”
“How so?” JP asks, ignoring my previous statement in favour of the one he prefers.
I sigh and come clean as well. “I saw Gloria the other day in the coffee shop. We chatted about stuff. Storm mostly.”
“And?”
“And her mum likes me. She told me a few things to try.”
“Like the song?” Thatcher asks.
“Yeah, it’s her favourite song. She is a big fan of Madonna's earlier works.”
“Does she like 80s music in general?” JP asks curiously.
