Page 25 of Homebody
“Yes, Mother?” he said, entering the kitchen.
The sight of his mother transferring fresh baked cookies from a baking sheet to a rack to cool had him walking over to the kitchen island.
Being home with Mom wasn’t so bad after all—nosy questions aside.
His mom’s fresh, hot, home baked cookies were one huge benefit of his visits home. Cookies just weren’t the same after she boxed them up and shipped them to wherever he was stationed. They’d arrive a week—or a month—later. Mostly crushed.
That wouldn’t be the case now. The room was filled with the tantalizing aroma of the fresh-baked cookies he hadn’t noticed during his attempt to make it from the front door to the staircase while avoiding an inquisition.
He reached out to grab a cookie… and yanked his hand back when she swatted him with the potholder she held in one hand.
“Nope. Those are for the church bake sale.”
Quicker than she and her potholder were, he shot one hand out and successfully snatched a cookie. He leapt back, out of strike range, before she could swat him.
“I’ll pay you for it later.” Hiding a smile under the guise of chewing the hot, gooey cookie he enjoyed the narrow-eyed glare she sent him.
She shook a metal spatula at him menacingly. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
“Oh, I know you will. I also know you’ll probably rope me into helping you at this bake sale, at least for the set up and break down, so I’m not feeling too bad about taking one as payment in advance.”
“Fine. You can have the cookie.” She pulled her mouth to one side, before her demeanor changed and took on a casual air. “So, how did your errands go this morning in town? Anything eventful happen? See anyone special? Do anything interesting?”
“No. Nothing exciting,” he replied.
Damn. Just as he’d expected. Almost word-for-word she was needling him about where he’d been and who he’d met today. But the question remained, was this just her normal motherly curiosity? Or something more?
In fact, now that he studied her more closely, he saw something odd. Her demeanor had changed completely. She’d donned an air of nonchalance that didn’t quite ring true. As if she were pretending to be interested in his answers when the fact was she wasn’t very interested at all.
That led him to evaluate the meaning behind it all… He had one guess. She already knew something.
Dammit. Did she somehow find out he’d run into Tessa when he’d been out?
Knowing his mother and her network of eyes and ears around town, she’d already heard about everywhere he’d been and everyone he’d talked to. Including Tessa.
It was possible. In fact, it made a lot of sense. He knew his mother had friends in the library.
He remembered the one older woman he’d spoken with. She was within hearing distance of the whole conversation he and Tessa had.
Wasthatwhat this was about? His mom had heard he’d talked to Tessa? Maybe even that he’d asked her to hang out tonight. And she was just waiting for him to admit it to her. Or maybe even to confess in a good old mother-son heart-to-heart how much he liked Tessa.
His mother’s number one interest was his love life. She’d do whatever it took to ferret out information about it, even if it meant enlisting the help of her spies.
Why she was so obsessed with his romantic life, he couldn’t understand. She had plenty to occupy her time between his father, her book club and her volunteer work. Yet here he was, trying to dodge her meddling.
Or, maybe heshouldn’tdodge it. Instead, he could face it head-on. And today was the perfect time to do that.
A smile twitched his lips as he decided to throw her this one bone. Maybe feeding her a tidbit would get her off his case. Satisfy her to give him at least one day’s reprieve.
“I won’t be around for dinner tonight, if that’s okay. You haven’t planned anything special, I hope.”
Her eyes lit before she visibly tempered her reaction.
“No. Nothing special. Do you have plans?” she asked, with a tone so overly casual it rang false in his ears.
It was a Hail, Mary, but he did it anyway. Threw that ball toward the end zone and prayed for a goal. In this case thegoalwas his mother being satisfied enough with him going out with Tessa she’d leave him alone for the rest of this trip.
“Actually, yes. I do have plans. I’ve got a date.”
