He interpreted that to mean that she wanted to be the first to meet—and interrogate—Darcy.Charma supposed that was her prerogative, seeing she was the mom.
“Okay.Breakfast at yours on Saturday morning.Then the festival.”
“You promise?”
“Unless we have something else going on that I don’t know about,” he reminded her.“Other than that, yes, I promise we’ll come see you for breakfast.”
“Good.I love you, son.”
“Love you too.”
Darcy came in as he was disconnecting the call.
“Who do you love too?”Darcy asked.It sounded more curious than jealous or accusatory, which Charma liked.
“My mom.”
“Oooo.How did that call go?”Darcy took off his messenger bag and set it on his desk before coming to sit with him on the couch.
“We’re invited for breakfast on Saturday followed by the big summer festival at the compound.”
“That sounds like it could be fun,” Darcy said cautiously.“Do we want to go?”
Charma laughed.“It could be—the festival especially, and my mom’s a fantastic cook.However, the whole thing comes with strings attached.”
“What kind of strings?”
“Everyone is going to want to meet you, and you’ll get asked a million questions, some of which will—not might,will—be inappropriate.”
“Are you going to get hassled for me being a guy?”
“No.Apparently once I have someone special, the need to throw my genes into the pool is negated.”Charma shrugged.“I don’t know why that’s the reasoning, but I’ll take it.”
“You miss your family, eh?”Darcy stroked his thigh, fingers gentle.
“Yeah, I do.We’ve always been pretty close-knit.”
Darcy nodded.“I know you hated having to move out just to get away from being harassed about making babies.But if that’s not an issue anymore, it would be nice if you could see everyone again, wouldn’t it?”
He hugged Darcy hard.“Thank you.”
“What for?”
“You’re the one who’s going to get grilled like the main suspect in a series of grisly murders, but you’re more concerned with my feelings.Do you know how special that is?”
Darcy’s cheeks went pink.“I just care about you, so of course I want you to be happy.”
“Youmake me happy.”
“Good.And I think I can put up with some hard questions for one day.In fact, it’ll be nice to meet a family who doesn’t mind that we’re gay.”
Charma squeezed Darcy.“Well, I certainly have enough family to share.”
“Cool.I’m going to focus on that and notthe grilling.”
“Sounds perfect.”He could worry about the grilling for the both of them.
Darcy wasn’t sure what to expect, so he was a little worried as he and Charma climbed out of their lift in front of Charma’s mom’s house.His expectations were already proven wrong, given that ‘the compound’ had turned out to be a gated community rather than something more… walled, he supposed, was what he’d been picturing in his mind.
