"Hush, you," his mother said, waving a hand behind Dylan's head without turning around. "You're very handsome, but this isn't about you."
Dylan laughed and let Sydney lead her into the kitchen. Another woman was pouring hot water into a teapot with a couple of teabags. When she was done, she put the kettle to the side and turned toward them.
"Hello. I'm Rona Burkhart," she said, coming forward and holding out a hand. "Clay's older but better-looking sister."
"I'm Dylan Hayes," she answered, shaking her hand. "I met Clay through the matchmaking service your mom signed him up for."
Rona's answering smile was broad. "Oh, that's great!" she said. "Mom's never going to let him hear the end of it now. Every time he doesn't want to take her advice, she's going to bring this up."
"Unless we break up," Clay retorted.
All three women turned and stared at him with hard eyes.
"You know what, why don't y'all just forget I'm here?" he said, lifting his hands in surrender. "I'm more likely to survive that way," he muttered.
As one, they ignored him again.
"At the risk of sounding like an interrogator," Sydney said. "I just have so many questions I want to ask you. What do you do for living?"
"I'm an assistant manager at a bookstore," Dylan answered.
"Is that a fun job?" Rona asked. "I love to read so I think I'd probably be useless working in a bookstore because I'd spend all my time reading books."
"It is a fun job," Dylan said. "I've been there about seven years. And it's hard to resist the books while I'm on the clock. But I also like being around the books. The way they look and smell."
She laughed a little. "I know that sounds weird, but it's true. If I'd enjoyed college more, I would have gone into library science and become a librarian, but I never did very well in school."
"It doesn't sound silly at all to me," Rona said. "I'm going to have Clay do some built-ins in my den to turn it into a library. We never use it anyway because we always end up in the family room next to the kitchen."
"That sounds amazing," Dylan said. "I'd love to have a house with a library someday."
"What do you like to do for fun?" Sydney asked Dylan.
Dylan laughed again. "I'm afraid I'm pretty boring. I read books, sometimes I crochet or knit, and I like to get together with my girlfriends and have a game night with card or board games."
"Mom forbade board games at the house years ago," Rona said.
"Because Clay cheats?" Dylan asked.
"How did you know?" Sydney seemed shocked.
"He admitted it."
Sydney turned to look at Clay with narrowed eyes. "You admitted it? You swore to me, looking dead in my eyes, that you never cheated."
The look Clay shot her made Dylan bite back a smirk. He was going to have some resentment saved up for her when they were alone again.
It sounded kind of fun to her.
"What about you?" Dylan asked Rona. "What do you do for a living?"
"I keep three children alive and occasionally I substitute teach."
"See, I'm not sure I could do that job either," Dylan said.
"You don't like children?" Sydney asked.
"Oh, I like them just fine, but they belong to someone else. I can give'em back when they start whining or complaining or making a mess. When they're yours, you have to keep them or it's called abandonment."
