“It’s not sex mania.” I turned to watch her pass. “Sex is a perfectly—Grandma Elodie! Grandpa Clark!” I gaped at the two people sitting on the sofa situated against the back wall of the room. The two people we had not noticed upon entry.
Callan spun around so fast, he stumbled into me.
Elle smirked devilishly at me. “Oh, Grandma Elodie and Grandpa Clark are back.”
My expression promised retribution. Whether it was two days or two years or twenty, I’d pay my wee sister back for this moment.
Grandpa Clark was visibly struggling to restrain his laughter while Grandma Elodie stood from the sofa and primly said, “Elle, fetch clean sheets from the second-floor laundry cupboard, will you?” Then the grandmother who flinched at discussions about farting held out her hand to my boyfriend and said, “Elodie Nichols, Beth’s grandmother. How should I address the man who just had sex with my granddaughter in her childhood bedroom?”
Elle broke out into peals of laughter in the hallway as Clark covered his with a few coughs.
Sometimes, I really hated this family.
But Callan, unperturbed, took Grandma Elodie’s hand and shook it congenially. “I’m Callan Keen. If it’s any consolation, the sheets are clean.”
My eyes practically bugged out of my head.
But Grandma Elodie nodded. “Good. You don’t scare easy. Maybe this one won’t pee his pants when he meets your father.”
Thankfully, Callan laughed while I wished the floor would swallow me whole. “Okay, very funny. No more sex talk in front of the grandparents.”
“Yes, I’d prefer that too. But you’re not running away. Come join us for a cup of tea.”
I looked at Callan and he nodded, his countenance telling me he was cool with that.
And that’s how we spent the rest of our evening, with my grandparents, over tea and biscuits. To my delighted surprise, Callan was totally at ease with them, and as we walked home to Loverose Lane, I felt a lightness I hadn’t experienced in a long time.
Grandma Elodie and Grandpa Clark liked Callan. I could tell. And Elle did too.
That was good … because I more than liked him.
I was so head over heels in love with this man, and the only thing better than that was the possibility of my family falling in love with him too.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
CALLAN
Ihad to compartmentalize.
With the tabloids running that story about Beth and Erstwhile, my gaffer was concerned my head wasn’t in the game. I had to prove to him and myself that when I walked onto that pitch, everything else but the match fell away.
There were two weeks between our last and next game. In that time, we trained hard. And when I wasn’t with the team, I was with Beth. Although we’d hung out with Baird and John a few times, most of my downtime was spent with only her. That’s why I needed to compartmentalize … because being with Beth was all-consuming. The sex was somehow even better now. I hadn’t thought there were any walls between us in that department, but Beth opened the floodgates, and it was wild, adventurous, and addictive. I couldn’t get enough of the woman. She was willing to try anything with me, and I was high on her.
A sore spot in the last two weeks was her dad moving our meeting again, much to Beth’s frustration. I was also disgruntled but didn’t let her see. There was no way I’d let business come between me and her. Or her parents. Not again. She reckoned he moved the meeting because he wanted to meet me as her fatherfirst and not in a business situation. I think I understood, even though it pushed back our plans by weeks.
Another annoyance was Beth taking a video call with Erstwhile. I knew she wanted the bloke as a client, but I’d seen the way he was with her that night at the limo, and I knew when a guy wanted to fuck someone. This guy needed to know that wasn’t on the table with my woman.
Jealousy was something I was still getting a handle on. Especially because Beth was having none of it.
I had to trust her.
And I did.
I didn’t trust Erstwhile and his fucking limo lifestyle.
For the sake of not acting like a possessive wanker, I kept my mouth shut and kept the peace.
“What are you doing?” I asked Beth as we settled into my Defender. Today she was coming to her first Caley United game. That didn’t explain her fiddling about with the computer in my car.
