“It’s my hometown and where my family lives. No big thing, but it’s my brother Gavin’s birthday. There’s a party. He has a home game Saturday afternoon, then there’s a party at my parents’ bar that night. Thought you both might like to come.”
As usual, Mick’s lifestyle made her head spin. “Um, wow. Let me think about this for a minute.”
“It’s okay if you can’t make it. I understand it’s last minute, but they like to throw these things together at the drop of a hat. So if you don’t want to come—”
“No, it’s not that at all. Let me call you back, okay?”
“Sure.”
She hung up, her pulse jacked up and her heart rate accelerating. Meeting his parents and his brother? With her son along? This was all moving so fast. And maybe it didn’t mean anything at all. Maybe he brought women to meet his family all the time, and it was no big deal to him, so she was blowing this out of proportion. And it was a Major League Baseball game. Nathan would enjoy the chance to fly out to Saint Louis and see the game and meet Gavin. Why deny him that opportunity just because she thought the whole deal had ramifications that it probably didn’t?
“Hey, Nathan? Can you come down here?”
He opened his door and leaned over the railing. “What?”
“Come down here. I need to ask you a question.”
“What did I do now?”
She sighed. Why did everything with teenagers have to be so difficult?
You know why. You were one once.
“You didn’t do anything.”
He came down the stairs and lingered there.
“Mick asked if we’d like to fly to Saint Louis for the weekend. It’s his brother’s birthday. His family is having a party for him after his game Saturday afternoon.”
Nathan’s eyes widened. “Are you shi—are you kidding me?”
“No, I’m not kidding you. Would you like to go? We’d go to Gavin’s game Saturday, too.”
“Oh, man. That is just so cool. You said yes, right?”
“No. I wanted to talk to you first to make sure you’d want to go.”
Nathan slumped his shoulders, then rolled his eyes. “Dude. Mom. Call him back. Say yes. Now, before he changes his mind.”
MICK WAS BRINGING A WOMAN HOME TO MEET HIS FAMILY. And not just a woman, but a woman and her son.
He’d never done it before, and he wasn’t sure why he was doing it now, other than when his sister Jenna called him about the party for Gavin, his first thought had been to bring Tara and Nathan with him. He’d never wanted to do that before. He’d always gone home alone, because his parents were always after him to settle down and find a woman to share his life with. If he brought a woman with him, there’d be constant questions about whether she was “the one.” He never wanted to deal with that.
Christ. What was he thinking? This was going to be pure hell.
And yet he liked the idea of having them with him.
He had to be out of his goddamned mind.
“So you grew up here?” Nathan asked as Mick headed south on the highway from the Saint Louis airport.
“Yes. Spent my entire life here until college.”
“Then you went to University of Texas, where San Francisco drafted you number six.”
Mick laughed. “You do follow your football players, don’t you?”
“I know a lot about the players I like in the sports I follow. Which means I know a lot about you and your brother.”
“I’m honored. Gavin will be, too.”
“Tell me about your brother,” Tara asked.
“Not much to tell. He’s two years younger than me, decided he liked baseball better than football. He’s a giant pain in my a—uh—butt.”
Nathan snorted. “She’ll make you put money in the cuss jar if you don’t watch your language.”
Mick skirted his gaze to Tara. “A cuss jar, huh?”
Tara looked over her shoulder at Nathan. “A quarter for every cuss word. The jar is getting very full.”
“You’ve put some quarters in there, too, haven’t you, Mom?”
She looked straight ahead instead of at Nathan or Mick. “I guess I have.”
Mick laughed. “Well, we’re going to have to have a quarter-free weekend, because my family is Irish, and you’re going to hear a lot of cussing at the family bar. Cover your ears, Nathan.”
“I’ll do my best not to hear anything I’m not supposed to.”
Tara snorted. “Yeah, right.”
“It’s pretty here. I like it. Everything’s green.”
“It’s supposed to be green in the summer.”
“Where we live the hills are all brown.”
Nathan was right, Tara thought. It was beautiful here. Lush and green and summery. And it was hot and humid here, but Tara loved it. She loved the feel of the city as they drove down the highway. It felt homey, like a small city within a large metropolis.
“This is really beautiful,” she said as Mick turned off the highway into a residential neighborhood of thick trees and brick homes, well-manicured lawns and wide picture windows—the kind of home she’d love to own someday. Mick pulled into the long driveway of a pale brick home, two stories, with one of those picture windows in the front that she loved so much.
“This is your parents’ house?”
“Yes. I grew up here.”
“How wonderful your parents still live in the same home you lived in as a child. It must give you an amazing sense of security.” She wanted to give that to Nathan, but they’d already moved three times because her economic status had changed. At least it had changed for the better, so she couldn’t complain about that.
She stood and looked at the huge home while Mick and Nathan pulled their suitcases out of the trunk of the rental car. Her heart lodged in her throat. What if they didn’t like her? How many women had he brought here before? She hoped Nathan didn’t burp—or something even worse—in front of his parents.
Mick slipped his arm around her waist. “What are you doing?”
“Girding my loins.”
He laughed and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “This isn’t an inquisition. My family is easy to know and very friendly. You’re going to love them, and they’re going to love you and Nathan. Quit worrying.”