David pulled up in front of Mati’s parents’ house and put the car in park.
No one said anything. David suppressed the urge to fidget, which wasn’t like him at all. He hadn’t really felt like himself all day. Not in a bad way. Just…different.
He wasn’t going to go back to Boston and pretend it wouldn’t crush him.
He wasn’t going to go back to Boston at all, if there was a way for him to stay. If they wanted him to. He just didn’t know how to ask. How to even approach it.
“Are you ready for this?” Reese asked.
David almost answeredGod, yes, please,before Mati said, “Yes.”
She sounded confident. David couldn’t help but smile as she climbed from the car with a large blue binder in her arms. She was back in one of her suits, which he supposed was meant to be conservative, but all David saw were her curves and her sexy glasses and the crazy-high heels he wanted to pluck off so he could massage her calves and suck on her toes.
Which was maybe not the best train of thought to be having while they walked up her parents’ front steps.
“How the hell did you look at her like this every day and not lose your damn mind?” David muttered to Reese.
Reese was laughing, Mati giving them both the stink eye, when the door opened.
“What the hell, Tilly? What’s with all the drama?”
David had no idea which member of Mati’s family this asshole was, but it took an effort not to punch him in the face.
“Good morning, Stephen,” Mati said with steel in her voice. “Please stop being rude and let us in.”
“What’s with calling us all together like this at the last minute? Some of us have a company to run. And who are these guys?” He gestured at Reese and David. “I thought this was afamilymeeting.”
Mati brushed past her brother. “It is. Come into the living room and I’ll do introductions.”
David tried not to read too much into that.
He and Reese followed Mati into the small living room at the front of the house and flanked her. Neither spoke until she finished introducing them to her family. They all looked astonished to be meeting Reese.
“It’s nice to meet you,” David murmured as he shook everyone’s hands. Reese, likewise, made his way around the room, pausing when Mati’s father wouldn’t let go of his hand.
“Thank you for taking such good care of our Tilly.”
Reese blinked in surprise. “I—it’s the quite opposite, actually, she—”
“She’s always been strong-minded, and we worried when she insisted on getting that job, but—”
Reese tugged his hand from Mati’s father’s grasp. “I assure you, sir, the fortune has been entirely mine.” He returned to Mati, smiling until the look of horror melted away and she rolled her eyes.
It wasn’t as if she hadn’t warned them. David resigned himself to suppressing the urge to punch someone for the length of their visit.
Reese took Mati’s coat, like a squire preparing his knight for battle. “You’ve got this,” he whispered.
Mati nodded.
Reese touched David’s elbow and led him to the loveseat on the far side of the room.
Mati’s mother began to rise. “No, Mr. Lamont, you should—”
“Sit, Ma,” Mati said firmly. Her mother did. Mati looked at her brothers. “You, too.”
Stephen frowned. “Matilda, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but—”
“Sit.”
