Page 44 of Burning with Desire (Forbidden Heat 1)

I was more worried about what my folks would say about us and the age difference. Ricky wasn’t at all concerned, and everything he said had stuck with me. I knew he was right. But when it came to actually putting that into practice, that was another matter. I had a feeling I would cave when I needed to be strong, but then again Ricky would be right there with me.

I wished I had even one tenth of his strength. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. Ricky was out soon, his light snoring providing the company to my restless insomnia. With all the wonderful changes happening lately, they carried with them their own fair amount of stress.

Things would play out the way that they would play out, I guessed. There wasn’t that much I could do to control the outcome of everything.

But it all still made me very nervous.

Chapter Seventeen

Ricky

One Month Later…

This was the moment of truth. It was the thing that I had been waiting for since Julie first introduced the idea of me coming to meet her parents. I’d played it off at the time as being something that would be easy, or if it did turn out badly then that was not our problem. All we could do was be together and love each other. If anyone else had a problem with it then that would be their problem. That was it as far as I was concerned.

And Julie seemed happy with that answer. To her credit she’d barely mentioned feeling any jitters about it at all the past several weeks. I’d for the most part put it in the back of my mind and tucked it away, but then when she let me know out of the blue last week that she wanted us to drive out to the suburbs to meet them, I was not sure that this was the best idea.

Things had been great between us and I couldn’t have foreseen them going any better. We were madly in love at this point and had been actually since we met, but I was too stubborn to admit it for a while. That was on me, actually. I was hurting and grieving, and Julie had been patient and had been there for me as I tried to work through things that I had within me that still needed healing. She was amazing and I wasn’t sure that I ever would have been doing so well without her. I knew I wasn’t.

And it had all worked out so well for Zoe too. She was so happy when we finally sat her down and told her that we were dating. Her first question was when we were getting married. It was cute. We told her we had no answer for that. In fact, that was not something we’d ever discussed, but I knew in my heart that it was going to happen one day. I didn’t see a scenario playing out where such a thing would not be happening for us. I loved Julie with all my heart and soul and I felt that the feeling was probably fairly mutual.

And now it was time to meet her family. I tried to put on my best face and act like everything was happy as could be, but Julie had learned to read me too well and knew instantly that I was nervous about the meeting.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Julie asked.

I shrugged. “We have to get it over with, sooner or later.”

“Wow, I guess someone has changed their mind about how easy this is going to be.”

“No, it won’t be easy, but it will be simple. That is the most important thing to remember. So many things in life are simple, but they are not easy because they involve doing a lot of things that most people are not willing to do. That’s how people become the victims of scams, for instance. Someone promises to show them how to do something easily. People already know how to do things simply. It just isn’t any fun. So, yeah this will be simple, but not easy. I’m ready baby.”

Julie laughed and reached over to squeeze my hand. “It will be ok.”

> I smiled. “I’m sure it will be. How much did you tell them about me?”

“The basics for the most part.”

“But you didn’t mention the age issue?”

“No,” she said. “I didn’t see any reason to. I think it will be better to see their faces in person.”

“What the hell? It’s not like I’m old enough to be your grandfather or something. Besides, I look young for my age. Maybe they won’t even notice.”

Julie laughed. “Knowing my father, he will grill you pretty good, so don’t lie to him. He will find out everything anyway.”

I shook my head. “Are you trying to make me nervous?”

“No, but I’m doing a good job anyway,” Julie said. “It’s fun.”

The past month or so, I’d witnessed a strength in Julie emerging. She’d been strong and very independent since I’d met her. It was one of the most attractive things about her, but she’d still had a lot of self-doubt inside as well. I didn’t want her to feel that way, and as far as I could see there was no reason that she ever should have doubted her abilities in any way.

And it seemed week by week those doubts inside of her had started to disappear. I was glad to hear that. I really wanted her to shed that old weight of doubt and fear and emerge as the strong woman I knew that she was really supposed to be. And it had worked. She’d worked hard on this, even though she hadn’t actually spoken to me about it.

We arrived at her parents’ house in Wilmette. It was a nice little drive. I didn’t get to the suburbs that often, but I’d always thought about escaping the bustle of being right in the heart of the big city and escaping out a ways to live a more boring life. Sometimes the city did worry me, especially when it came to Zoe. I wanted her to grow up in a quieter place like I did. I thought maybe one day I would change, and pack it up for that big move, but right now I had to stay close to where my job was. There was not as much work in the suburbs and it was too far of a drive for me to see making it worth the while right now.

Julie’s parents answered the door and I was surprised to see a middle aged couple who did not appear to be over forty-five standing there. They both wore warm smiles and greeted their daughter with a big hug as they accepted us into the house. Julie quickly made the introductions. Her father, Steve was a large man who gave off a tough, military vibe even though Julie had never mentioned anything about him ever being in the military. Her mother Nancy, was a petite woman with a sweet face, and angelic smile. She and Julie looked a lot alike, but Nancy’s demeanor seemed to be a bit less feisty, timid even.

They led us inside their house which was a single story ranch style brick house. The neighborhood seemed to be a quiet, peaceful area, even if all the homes did look alike. We entered the kitchen where we all sat down around the table to get to know each other a bit better. “Fancy a beer?” Steve asked me.

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