"You have a dog?" Tanner asked.
"I got one for my mama," J.D. explained. "Her name's Blue, and she's a blue heeler, but I also had her trained to keep them safe."
One more time, I was biting my lips together to keep from grinning at how adorable this man was. "So, you got a farm dog for a guard dog?"
"Shit," J.D. mumbled. "Cody, those heelers like to work. She'll even herd Isabella if my mama needs her to. And it don't look weird at all for them to have a good farm dog. Not like they got a Rottweiler or something. Mama won't have a gun in the house, so I had to do something."
Tanner leaned toward me a bit, but he didn't lower his voice when he said, "He's cute."
"I know, right?" I asked just as the GPS announced I needed to exit soon.
That was when J.D. started talking a little more. "And they both know all about you two. I don't keep secrets from my family, Cody. It never worked out too well for me, and Isabella is smart as shit, so she always figures it out."
"He's nervous," I told Tanner as I eased the truck off the highway, checking to see which way I turned next.
"Right at the stop sign," J.D. told me, sitting up so he could lean between the seats.
I turned the way he pointed and started looking around at the land we were passing through. This wasn't the sort of farmland I was used to. No, this was flatter and much more lush. It also didn't have crops.
On my left was a field full of cows. On the right? Those were horses, and quite a few of them. Set well back off the road were things that only barely counted as houses. Mansions was probably a better term.
"I am getting the impression we just entered the wealthy part of Tennessee," Tanner said.
"Naw," J.D. assured us. "This ain't so bad. Upper middle class. The rich folks? That's the country music stars, and they'd never be out here."
"And this?" I said, checking my phone's screen one more time. "J.D., this is a lot nicer than a single-wide mobile home."
"Nicer than the two story no-lot line thing I grew up in," Tanner added.
"The black fence!" J.D. said, all but ignoring us. "That's the one. Right up there. Yep. And the code's my birthday, Cody."
I slowed down and turned into a gravel drive, but there was a gate across the front with the silhouette of a bull's skull welded into the middle. At the side was a box, so I rolled down the window and used the same code as his phone. Immediately, the gate started rolling to the side.
"Very fancy," Tanner breathed as I started easing the truck forward again, up the slight incline toward the house.
But in the back seat, J.D. had his phone out and was texting frantically. He was also smiling, so clearly I was at the right place, but damn. I knew he was rich, but it was different at the events. This? This was the sort of thing most of us would call a dream come true.
"Pull over to the left side," J.D. ordered.
I did, and had just turned the truck off when the garage door began to roll up. Inside was a Latina woman with the biggest smile on her face. That was enough to make J.D. throw open his door and start scrambling to get out.
"Mama!" he called.
I glanced over at Tanner, looking for a little reassurance. He lifted one shoulder in something like a shrug, proving he was bracing for this too. Not that I expected it to be bad, but I was still meeting my boyfriend's family - with my other boyfriend. I could think of so many ways this would go wrong.
J.D. had managed to limp his way closer to give his mom a hug when Tanner and I descended from the beast J.D. called a truck. From behind the house, the barking of a dog could beheard, but Maria, J.D.'s mom, turned with an even bigger grin - just as a girl burst through the door at the back of the garage.
"Cody!" she squealed, hurrying over toward me.
She was short, thin, curvaceous, and had long raven-dark hair to go with her tawny complexion. Where J.D.'s ethnicity was a little ambiguous, his sister clearly showed her Mexican ancestry. She was also stunning.
Only belatedly did I realize why her shirt looked familiar. It was black with a pink logo I knew very well. I figured that out just as she stopped before me, almost vibrating with excitement.
"I'm so glad you came!" she said breathlessly. "I've watched all your rides, and José's told me all about you. Can you maybe sign my poster?"
"Poster?" I asked.
Which made Maria chuckle. "José sent some home for us. Said he wanted to keep them for collectors' items."
