Page 17 of Kentucky on the Rocks

We approached a long table where a group of caterers was setting out food and a woman was directing the staff around with her back to us. Aidan quickly stepped past us and grabbed the woman’s waist and squeezed her in a playful, tickling kind of way. The woman yelped as she turned around.

“Aidan!” she gasped, pushing him back feigning outrage, and then yanked him back into a big hug. Both were laughing as her gaze settled on mine, and I smiled while nodding politely at her.

“Hello,” she said sweetly. Her face seemed very familiar to me, and just as I was wondering where I’d seen her before, Aidan spoke with one arm still around the woman’s waist.

“Mama, this is Josette. Josette, this is my mom, Sophie.” I did my best not to show my surprise. Sophie was stunningly gorgeous and didn’t look old enough to be Aidan’s mother. Not only was she very tall but she was also very beautiful with flawless skin, high cheekbones, perfectly sculpted eyebrows, and a set of warm brown eyes. Her cream-colored strapless dress hugged her trim waist and accentuated her long and shapely legs. Her hair was pulled away from her face and into a bun at the nape of her neck. She was elegant in every sense of the word. She lifted a graceful hand toward me and smiled kindly.

“Josette, I’m so happy to meet you.” I stepped forward and shook her hand.

“V-very nice to meet you, t-too,” I stuttered, my ankle shooting out from under me slightly as I stepped back again. I suddenly felt clumsy and slightly overwhelmed by her presence. Ignoring my obvious embarrassment, Sophie gave me a warm smile and continued to speak.

“I was wondering when Aidan was going to finally let us meet you,” she teased and nudged him with her hip. “Welcome to our home. Maddie is over with her friends and she has made Aidan promise to stay away. We’ll see how that goes.” We laughed together at how unlikely that would be. Aidan’s eyes were already roaming the lawn, sizing up all of the offending male population in attendance.

“Wait, wait, wait. Let’s put those over there.” Sophie turned to us apologetically before she quickly excused herself to continue with the party arrangements.

Maddie was a lovely girl. Beautiful, tall, and slender just like her mother. She was polite and shy, not at all what I had expected. She gave me a warm hug and introduced me to some of her friends before the group of giggling girls scurried to the dance floor under the gazebo after catching the beginning of a song that I had never heard before, but apparently was a big hit to everyone else.

Just as Aidan and I were making our way to a table, a little blur of flying curls and squeals whizzed by.

“Isa? Isa, stop right there,” Aidan commanded, and to my surprise the girl stopped, ran to hide behind Aidan and grinned mischievously. The little girl of about six let out another squeak as she huddled closer to Aidan’s back as Scott st

ormed by frowning, obviously searching for her.

“Hide me, Uncle Aidan!”

“What are you up to, Isabella?” Aidan turned and fixed a stern glare down to her.

“Mustard makes me mad!” she shouted.

“What?” Aidan asked, exasperated.

“Mustard makes me mad and Papa put it on my hot dog.”

“Isa, just say that you don’t like mustard.”

“I did, Uncle Aidan, like a million times but he never listens. I made sure he wouldn’t forget it this time because I poured mustard in his drink. Now he knows how it feels to have disgusting mustard ruin something he likes.”

I smiled at the absurd conversation between Aidan and his niece, who looked a lot like Maddie except Isabella’s long lashes fanned startling-beautiful gray eyes. Her dark hair was waist long and curled wildly down her back with several stray curls framing her face. Finally, Aidan gave up and turned back to me.

“Josette, this is my brother’s daughter, Isabella.” He poked the girl in her side and she jumped back and giggled. “Isa, this is Josette.” Isabella stared up at me bashfully, yet knowingly.

“Ooooh, is this your girrrrrlfriend?” she singsonged.

“Hey!” Aidan shouted down at her and proceeded to tickle Isabella until her legs gave out and she slumped onto the floor, laughing and gasping for air. “Uh-oh! I think I see Papa coming,” Aidan warned. Isabella’s face immediately straightened as she bolted off into the direction of the house. We both watched in amusement as Scott followed behind the girl, grinning while in hot pursuit.

We also stopped and spoke to Sean and his wife, Nicole. I noticed the similarities between the brothers. Sean had the same dark hair and chiseled features as the other Ross men, but he had brown eyes just like Sophie and Maddie. He was dressed in a pair of comfortable jeans and a polo-style shirt. Nicole was a pretty blonde who probably stood no taller than five feet with a big round belly, and it was clear that her due date was soon. I realized right away that she was a spitfire even though it took her a while to waddle up to us. She wasted no time teasing Aidan about nearly forgetting about the party before she zeroed in on me with a lot of questions. She wasn’t being mean, just merely curious. I almost felt like I was interviewing for a job, and I found it amusing. It made sense that Isabella was so mischievous.

Once Nicole was satisfied with her interrogation of me, well actually Sean put an end to it by pulling her away, Aidan guided us until we were sitting at a little table.

“Why does your mom look so familiar?” I asked as I took a sip from the wine glass Aidan handed me.

“That’s probably because you’ve heard of her. She’s Sophie Hayden.”

Sophie Hayden was a famous cover model in the eighties. Her pictures were in magazines everywhere, but where I remember her was during the time she was a celebrity judge on a modeling competition show I used to watch when I was a teenager. Sophie was a model and Scott was a photographer so it made sense that the two of them ended up together.

“Did he meet Sophie on a photo shoot?” I asked

“No, she had stopped modeling for a while and opened a little café. She was catering an industry event that my dad was attending. He said that he loved her food so much that he tried to convince her to make him dinner one night.”

---