He froze and shot backward. I grabbed him because I knew by where we were located, we weren’t far from the edge, and I didn’t want him to fall off. “Yourparents?Why are we going there?”
“For you to meet them.” Tucking my cane under my arm, I grinned and hugged him against me to prevent his obvious plan to retreat. “Come on, sweet prince. They don’t bite.”
“But I don’t think….” He sighed, like he knew he wasn’t going to win against me. I let him take the lead, and between him and Lemonade, we got to my parents’ house in a matter of minutes. Darcy’s muscles were stiff with nervousness, his breathing heavier than it’d been before.
“They know about you, and they’ll love you,” I whispered into his ear, kissing his cheek.
“If you say so.” Though he didn’t sound entirely convinced, he knocked on the back door, and we waited. The sounds of a dog barking filled the inside of the house. My mom’s familiar flip-flops smacking against the tiled floor met my ears. I grinned when the glass door slid open.
“Brooksy!” Mom dragged me into a hug, and I had to let go of Darcy to allow her to fully immerse me in her arms. She kissed my forehead and patted my cheek, the familiarity of her perfume filling my nose. Rose-scented, just like she always loved. “What are you doing here?” Then, as if she’d noticed Darcy for the first time, her breath hitched. “Oh, hello.”
“I’m D-Darcy,” he said quickly. “Darcy Winters.”
For a man so eloquent at the Courtesan Hotel, he was a nervous mess right now. It was damned adorable.
“Well it’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Darcy. I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Pru Sutherland.” She released me, and Darcy grunted in surprise, which told me she’d dragged him into a hug. The sound of kisses being plopped onto his cheeks had me laughing.
“Mom, you’re scaring him.” I tapped the tip of my cane on the ground in front of me.
“Oh shush. He’s a cutie.” Mom giggled and slid the door open wider. “Come inside. Both of you. Brooks, remember the step up into the house.”
I rolled my eyes and smiled. “Yes, Mother dearest.”
“Don’t get smart with me, kid.” Amusement filled her voice as she led us inside her sparsely decorated home. She’d grown so used to having barely any furniture in the house when I was a kid that it’d bled into her life even after I no longer lived with her. She told me once that she’d always been afraid of me hitting my head, and it ended up happening when she couldn’t protect me any longer. In a weird way she’d blamed herself for my blindness. Making her see that it wasn’t her fault took years of her getting used to me being without my vision.
We sat down on the couch in the living room, and Lemonade lay at my feet, sighing as Mom’s Great Dane, Greta, came loping into the room to lie beside her. Greta was used to Lemonade being in work mode now, and knew that no matter what she did, she wouldn’t get Lemonade’s attention, so she always chose to be near Lemonade until the harness came off. Which was now. I unbuckled her, and she gave me a whuff, jumping to her feet and running out of the room with Greta at her heels.
I laughed.
“Those two.” Mom huffed from where she sat in her favorite chair. It wasn’t hard to pinpoint where she was. “Would anyone like something to drink?”
“I’m fine, thank you, ma’am,” Darcy said politely, and I snorted. Even when he was polite at the hotel, he had disdain in his voice, telling me it was forced, but this time he had nothing but respect in his tone.
“Tell me, Darcy, how did you get mixed up with my boy?” There was a teasing lilt in her words, and I rolled my eyes.
“Mom, I told you. We met at the hotel. Darcy is the manager there.” She didn’t know what the Courtesan really was, and I didn’t want her to find out. Mom wasn’t religious, but she had an air of modesty about her.
The smell of one of Mom’s candles filtered through the room and I inhaled. She’d never had candles when I was a kid, but since she and Dad had a home to themselves now, she’d started buying them. This one was vanilla and sage, one of her favorite scents.
“Yes, yes, you said. But you also said he didn’t know who you were. Hm?” This was quickly turning into an interrogation, and Darcy had no idea. Mom might be sweet, but she was also talented at drilling people for answers without them realizing.
“I asked him out, and he agreed,” I lied easily. “You remember Ms. Winters. She’s Darcy’s mother. She helped me get his attention.”
“Yes, exactly that.” Darcy laid his hand on my knee and squeezed, as though trying to prove a point. “I don’t know how I didn’t see him before. He’s the most handsome man I’ve ever met.”
“Aw, that’s cute.” She chuckled and seemed satisfied with the answer. “Darcy, would you like to see photos of Brooks as a child?”
I groaned, and she laughed harder. Nothing could stop Mom from bringing out the family photos, not even if I begged her. She had this idea that I was the cutest kid who ever existed, and she always wanted to share the pictures.
“Of course.” The lightness in Darcy’s tone made me smile. At least he’d loosened up a bit, even though we were in my parents’ house.
Mom dragged out one photo album after another, showing Darcy pictures starting from when I was born to every year that passed. She explained what was happening in each photo, but I knew all her talking was for me rather than Darcy. She wanted me to feel included and know what Darcy was looking at, and I appreciated it. Mom was the best mother a man could have, and I was lucky I had her.
“You used to play baseball?” Darcy asked in surprise, and I chuckled.
“I was pretty good at it, too.” I shrugged, leaning back into the couch. “I had a mean swing.”
“He did,” Mom agreed, reaching around Darcy to pat me on the knee. At some point she’d taken the seat next to him. “He could have made it professional if he wanted to. Colleges offered him scholarships.”
