Seven
Jaime
She’d given him quiet but clear directions to her parents’ house, and even with their slight delay in the hall, at the car, and the Friday evening traffic, they still arrived only just after six-thirty.
An old ranch-style house set into the side of rolling hills, green this time of year after the early winter rains, but not yet dried to brown by the dryness of late spring and the summer’s heat, it was a beautiful piece of architecture with a wrap-around porch surrounded by lush flowerbeds. The double front doors were stained a rich brown, and a festive Christmas wreath hung centered over each wooden panel.
“You grew up here?” he asked, the gorgeous home so different, so much grander than his own upbringing had provided.
“No,” she said. “We grew up in a much smaller house. We moved because—” A shrug. “My mom invented a product that got patented when I was in high school.”
That was unusual enough that he managed to tear his gaze from the perfectly straight Christmas lights framing each window, from the family of light-up deer “grazing” on the perfect green lawn. Then again, everything about this woman was interesting, including this house and what it said about her. “What did your mom invent?”
“She’s a scientist,” Kate said. “Or was. She invented an anti-aging compound, sold it off to the highest bidder, and that became my parents’ retirement.” She smiled. “Good thing, too. Since my younger siblings seemed determined to eat them out of house and home.”
“Excuse me!” a female voice exclaimed. “I’m not the only one who ate.” She held up an infant. “Did you hear that, Lacy? Your aunt called me fat.”
Kate grinned. “You look beautiful, and you know it.” She slipped past Jaime to hug the woman he presumed was her sister, Ann. “In fact, I should hate you, considering you’re one of those formerly pregnant females who bounce right back into shape.”
A rueful smile. “Believe me,” she said. “All sorts of things are bouncing that shouldn’t be bouncing.”
“Well,” Kate said, scooping the baby out of her arms. “I stand by my statement”—she kissed each of the little girl’s tiny, plump cheeks—“your mommy is absolutely beautiful. Are you letting her get any sleep yet?”
“Nope.” A twinkling laugh. “So, you going to introduce me to the man who you managed to keep a secret for all these months?”
“Not tough with everything that has been going on.”
“True enough.” She turned to Jaime, stuck her hand out. “Since this one”—she poked her sister in the shoulder—“isn’t going to be polite, I’ve got to take matters into my own hands. I’m Ann.”
“I know,” he said, smiling and shaking her hand. “I’m Jaime. Kate has told me a lot about you, including the fact that you’re her favorite sister.”
“Her only sister is more like it,” Ann said with a laugh. “But one she’s stuck with.” She leaned over and grinned at Kate. “I see you’ve got yourself a charmer.”
Kate grinned back.
“Here.” Jaime snagged the diaper bag from her shoulder. “Let me carry that for you.”
A raised eyebrow before she laced her arm through his. “Thank you,” she said then smiled up at him. “Though I have to say that Kate has been surprisingly tight-lipped about you.”
He shrugged. “Sometimes it’s nice to have something that just belongs to you for a bit.”
Ann’s smile didn’t dim. In fact, it seemed to grow larger, or at least more approving. “Well, I hope you enjoyed that time while it lasted because you’d better believe that an interrogation is coming tonight.”
Just as she finished the sentence, the front door opened and an older female waved excitedly, calling, “Come in already!”
Kate groaned.
And it turned out that Ann was right about the interrogation.
A hockey game was on TV, the Gold decimating their opponent, thanks to the outstanding play of Liam Williamson, but Jaime couldn’t concentrate on the screen, not when he had four eyes boring holes in his profile.
An unexpected consequence of him being “engaged” to Kate was the fact that he hadn’t considered that this engagement had happened without meeting her family.
Or more specifically, without meeting her father, who had ice in his brown eyes identical to Kate’s, or her brother, who had the red hair but a pair of piercing blue irises that were sharp enough to cut.
His “fiancé” had been swept into the kitchen approximately thirty seconds after her mother, a thin brunette with pale blue eyes, had barreled down the front walk, introduced herself as Marabelle McLeod. She’d bustled them into the house then waved him in the direction of the family room, telling him to make himself “at home.”
He’d hesitated in the entrance, glanced toward the two men seated on the couch, and then had said, “Hi. I’m Jaime.”
Grunts in response.
Which was the moment that he’d realized this was going to be slightly more complicated than he’d anticipated.
Considering his options, he’d sat in an armchair, had trained his focus on the television, and tried to put himself in their place. A man they’d never met, a stranger had asked their daughter/sister to marry him without ever meeting her family. Wincing, he knew that wasn’t exactly the first impression he’d wanted to make, especially because he really liked Kate, had felt that instant connection click into place over dinner, had been drawn in further by the walk, by the text conversations, even just chatting on the car ride over. It felt . . . right.
As though he’d been doing his whole life wrong until Kate had messaged him.
“We’re having a long engagement,” he blurted, turning to look at the two men who’d been staring him down for the last ten minutes. Jaime saw the blip of surprise on their faces, kept talking. “Things have moved fast with us,” he said. “We both know it. So, we decided to slow down, take our time from here on out.”
“And yet my daughter has a ring on her finger,” her father, Harry, said. He hadn’t introduced himself, but Kate had given Jaime a rundown on all the important details—like names, like her being the oldest, like her dad recently retiring and taking up woodworking and having been given a workshop in the back yard by her mom for his birthday, complete with every tool under the sun.
Which meant there were plenty of sharp instruments in the vicinity.
Jaime held back a shudder and answered truthfully. “When you find someone worth holding on to, you don’t let them go.”
Silence, but he got the feeling that Kate’s father approved.
Of that one thing he said, at least.
“And you didn’t think you should meet us first? Didn’t think you should ask permission before proposing?”
This question, or rather questions, came from Kate’s brother, Jake.
He met the hostile blue eyes. “I think Kate is smart and capable enough to make the decision of who she wants to marry,” he said, and it wasn’t a line. Jaime believed it. He wouldn’t have asked for permission from her dad to marry Kate. She was a strong, adult woman who could decide for herself. And if something like that was important to her—which he highly doubted based on the whole fake engagement thing—maybe then he would have given Harry a heads up that the proposal was coming. But he still wouldn’t have asked permission. “As for meeting you guys, I did want to and am happy we finally got here. Between our work schedules—Kate’s been working extremely hard, and I recently took over full time at my vet practice—along with wanting to keep this one thing for ourselves for just a little while—I come from a large family, too—time just got away from us.”