“Yes, Dr. Ryan. Thank you.” She gives me a wide, lovely smile before slipping through the doors.
Declan Ryan gives me a friendly bob of his head before following her inside. I wander around and walk off the pancakes, taking in as much detail of the town as I can before getting into my car and returning to my little apartment.
Inside, Mr. Bingley greets me the second I open the door, a trilling little meow. His cheery greeting. I pull him into my arms and cradle him close. “Did you miss me?”
His purr is so aggressive, I can’t help but smile as I bury my face in his fur. I love this bag of bones and I’m deeplyrelieved he made the trip. Travel for cats is not easy, and he withstood it heroically.
Just as soon as I settle in to check online job listings, the doorbell rings. My pulse jumps as I slip on my shoes and finger-comb my hair before scowling at myself in the mirror, because why am I messing with my hair just to answer the door to my grumpy landlord?
But when I descend the stairs and swing open the outer garage door, it’s not a towering, broody, hot sheriff. Instead, it’s the man who bought my dinner at the market two nights ago and a woman who looks like his matched pair with graying red hair and kind, bright eyes.
Dang, they all have such blue eyes.
“Hi.” I’m awkward. Awkward is me.
“We’re so sorry to bother you, but we heard from our youngest that you just moved in!” The woman beams and the man’s eyes crinkle.
“I’m Connor Ryan,” he says, extending his hand to me.
“And I’m Mary Ryan.” She takes my hand directly from where I shook her husband’s and folds it into hers.
“I’m Sam. It’s nice to meet you both. And thank you for my dinner the other night.” I don’t want to wait another second before saying so.
“Of course. Now. How about dinner Friday?”
Connor’s smiling eyes are still charming the heck out of me while Mary reaches for a basket I didn’t initially notice and hands it to me not unlike the way someone would pass a small child over, supporting the head and rump.
“Friday?” I’m a little slow as my pancakes and eggs have surely faded from my bloodstream entirely by now.
“You’ll come to Friday dinner at the big house. And for now, here are some local products and other favorites from town. Just a little housewarming.”
Mary’s warm voice makes me feel like I’m an honored guest.
“Oh, I can’t?—”
“You can, dear. You shall!” She shoves her fist to the sky like she’s rallying troops.
I chuckle but try to hide it, unsure if she’s being spunky or just odd. Either way, she’s delightful, but I don’t want her to think I’m laughing at her. I’m simply taken by her. “Thank you so much.”
The familiar sheriff’s SUV trundles into the driveway and stops. My heart flutters with nerves and the sense that I’ve been thoroughly ambushed by these two, when Connor hollers out, “There’s m’ boy!”
A stern-looking Grant rounds the hood of his vehicle and spears his parents with a glare.
Well, good to know it’s not just me.
“What are you two doing here?”
“Excuse me for just a moment, but I think I hallucinated my son interrogating me before he’d even greeted me, and that can’t possibly have happened because I know he has better manners.” Mary’s tone is the classic mother who will suffer no fools.
I already liked her, but I think now, I love her.
Grant instantly repents. “Sorry, you’re right.” He flashes them a heart-stopping grin. “Hey Ma, Da. Glad to see you both. What are you doing here, hassling my new tenant?”
He smiled.
Does not compute.
I tuck my own smile between my teeth, thoroughly enjoying the show despite the utterly baffled current flowing through me. My gaze catches Grant’s and he?—
