This girl is prone to accidents. I have never met anyone as loopy as she is, but it’s a good loopy. Amusing.
My lips twitch at the image of her stuck in the bush trying to get to a cat. “Is the cat okay?”
Her shoulders deflate. “I don’t know. It was gone by the time I got myself untangled from the bush. I’m so sorry it took me so long. So, so sorry.”
“Hey,” I call out, waiting for her to take a deep breath. “It’s fine. It gave me time to prepare myself,” I assure her, my tone teasing as I fire up the engine.
She lets out a breath, relaxing back into her seat. “Prepare?”
“To meet the parents,” I reply.
“Ah,” she muses.
“So, they want to meet me, huh?”
“They know we aren’t really dating,” she rushes out. “They’re just worried.”
I chuckle at her nervousness. “I’m okay with it. I guessed something like this might happen. After knowing Landon so long, I get your family are protective.”
“They really are. And you’ve got nothing to worry about. My dad is, like, the calmest and—”
I reach over, placing my hand on her thigh. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll be okay.”
Her intake of breath makes me realise where my hand is and I quickly pull it away and grip the steering wheel. “He really is the calmest. He was okay that I have stripper friends and everything.”
I choke before taking a moment to gather my bearings.
She needs to stop doing this to me. “Um, speaking of, you can set up a meeting to rent out the room. Landon is okay with it.”
“He is?” She squeals. “I’m as happy as a pig in mud right now.”
I chuckle at her enthusiasm. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed around a person this much since Hayden kicked Landon’s arse in front of the entire gym.
“Just message me a time they are free. The only days I can’t do are Monday mornings and Thursday nights, unless they come late on Thursday.”
“They are going to be so happy,” she tells me, already firing off a message. It pings with a reply and she looks up, biting her lip.
“What?” I ask, when I find her staring at me.
“Um, nothing. She said she’s going to speak to the rest of the girls.”
My lips twitch. “What did they say?”
She lets out the most adorable sigh ever. “Gabby offered sexual favours as a thank you.”
I bang on my chest, my eyes widening as I try to gather myself. “W-what?”
“Don’t worry, I’ve already told her I think women are attractive, but I’m just not sexually attracted to them.”
She offered sexual favours to her?
“W-what?”
Jesus Christ.
“You really should get that cough seen to,” she tells me, as I pull up outside her parents.
“Um, yeah, I’ll get on that.”
She beams. “Good.”
She unclips her belt as I switch the engine off. “Are you sure it’s just us?”
Charlotte bites her lip as she sees Landon and Paisley on the doorstep speaking to another chick. “I thought it was,” she murmurs before pushing the door open.
“Charlotte,” Landon greets, before turning to me. “Drew.”
I lift my chin and lock up the car. “Hey, man.”
“Holy crap!” the other chick whispers. “You really are giant.”
“A friendly giant,” Charlotte rushes out, blushing when she glances at me.
I chuckle and shake my head. “Hey.”
She blinks and quickly reaches her hand out. “I’m Hope. Charlotte’s cousin.”
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Drew.”
“Don’t you dare,” is yelled from inside the house, and instinctively, I move closer to Charlotte, ready to protect her. Landon notices and narrows his gaze.
No one else seems to care about what’s going on inside the house, so I begin to relax.
“I swear to God, if you don’t move away from the garlic bread I am going to wring your neck,” Kayla, Charlotte’s mum, yells.
“Oh no,” Charlotte whispers.
“Don’t you dare go out there,” another woman yells.
“I want to know what is taking so long.”
“Max, you weren’t even invited. You don’t get to butt into their conversation and try to intimidate him.”
“Intimidate him? Have you seen him?”
“Myles, we’re Carter’s, we can come up with something,” the guy snaps. “I should have kept that step ladder on order.”
“Max,” Kayla yells. “Why are you moving my furniture?”
“Because we will need something to climb on if it comes down to a fight.”
“No one is fighting.”
“Oh God,” Charlotte whimpers. “I’m so sorry.”
Landon grins. “Still want to meet the family?”
I shrug. “I’ve already met most of you, so why not.”
Paisley’s jaw drops. “You are so going to fit into this family.”
The door flies open and a bulkier version of Charlotte’s dad comes barrelling outside, his sole focus on me.
My lips twitch. Yeah, he’s tall, but I’m taller.
He comes to a stop in front of me, his eyes narrowed into slits. “You make one wrong move and I’ll slice that fucking man bun off your scalp.”
“Max, that is highly inappropriate and really hard to do,” Charlotte announces. “I watched this documentary—”
Landon clears his throat. “Maybe not right now, Charlie.”
She ducks her head, her cheeks reddening. “Oh.”
I turn back to her uncle. “No offence, but your daughter scares me more. I’ve seen her fight Landon.”
“Who do you think taught her?”
“Me,” Landon mutters.
Max points to his chest. “No. I did. And if you don’t behave, I’ll call her.”
“She’s not talking to you,” Charlotte reminds him.
His jaw clenches. “I’ll get her to come.”
“She said she was never listening to anything you said again and unless it was a dying emergency, she wasn’t coming to your beck and call.”
“Are we going to eat or what?” he snaps.
“We are. You aren’t invited,” Kayla tells him, before she aims her blinding smile at me. “Hello again.”
“Hello, Mrs Carter.”
She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Manners. I like it.”
“I have manners,” Myles grits out before he turns to me. “Just so you know, I can change my opinion quicker than you can blink.”
“So threatening,” Max mutters.
Myles glowers at his brother. “Because threatening to give his hair a trim was frightening.”
Max pales. “I was thinking with wax.”
Myles shudders. “Wax,” he whispers.
Um, okay…
“You are so freaking big,” the woman standing next to Max murmurs, staring up at me with round eyes. “I’m Lake.”
“My wife,” Max bites out.