All right, asshole, he told himself. Time to man up and say what you should have said a long time ago.
“Hi,” he said when the room went silent. His attention fell on the older woman wearing a cool expression sitting beside Roxy with one arm around her shoulders. “Mrs. Wagner, I’m Callan Murphy, the man who’s in love with your daughter.”
A couple of the women drew in audible breaths. He met Roxy’s shadowed gaze and read her disbelief. It tore at him.
His focus remained on her as he said to her mother, “I made a mess of things with Roxy earlier. You see, I’ve been in love with her for a while now, but I thought if I let her know how I felt, she’d hightail it and run. She’s a wild-spirited and independent woman, two of the things I love most about her. It took the longest time for me to convince her to commit to a relationship with me. I wasn’t about to push her for more than she was ready to accept, so I tried to minimize big moments that I thought would scare her off. What I didn’t realize until tonight was that she loves me, too.”
Roxy’s eyes filled with tears and shifted down to the tissue balled up in her hands. Callan looked again at her mother, whose expression had visibly softened.
“I want to apologize to all of you. Especially to Roxy.” He approached the couch and reached for one of Roxy’s hands. She allowed him to guide her to her feet. “I’m so sorry for hurting you. I was caught off-guard when my parents showed up and I really screwed things up. I should have considered that while you do have that remarkable spirit, you’re also passionate, determined, and fearless. I should have let go of my fear of losing you and realized that once you committed to me, you were fully committed, heart and all. If you can ever forgive me for being such an ass, I promise I’ll do whatever it takes to show you how much I love you.”
She let out a cross between a laugh and a sob. “You were an ass.”
“I was.”
“You embarrassed me in front of your teammates and your parents.”
“I did.”
“You love me?”
“More than anything.”
Finally, she gifted him with a smile. “I guess since I love you, too, I’ll forgive you.”
A cheer went up. Callan leaned down to brush his lips over Roxy’s. Somewhere in the house, several wails ensued.
“I’m on it,” one of the women said, hurrying from the room.
“My nieces and nephews are all sleeping in the bedrooms,” Roxy explained.
He winced. “Sorry.”
“They’ll be fine.” She looked towards the front door. “Did you bring anyone with you?”
He knew she meant his parents. “No. I took the boys home so I could focus on you. And my parents, well…it’s complicated.”
Roxy’s mother rose from the couch and crossed her arms over her chest. “Do your parents have an issue with my Roxanne?”
“My parents have lots of issues about lots of things, Mrs. Wagner,” he explained to the entire room since everyone was listening. “My father isn’t happy about anything that might take my attention off my game. I even expect him to take issue over me donating my time to local organizations this coming season. Nothing I have ever done has been enough to please him. So, yes, he has an issue with Roxy. But, forgive my language, I don’t give a shit.”
Mrs. Wagner’s eyes widened slightly, but she lowered her arms and murmured, “I see. And your mother?”
Callan looked back at Roxy. “She’d like to meet you when you’re ready.”
“I’d like that,” she said, giving his hand a squeeze.
Nodding, he said, “Thanks so much for doing all of this, Mrs. Wagner. I’ve never had a family party thrown in my honor like this before. It means a lot that you’ve gone to all of this effort. I’m sorry if I put a damper on things.”
“You can call me Mama,” she said. “And you’re welcome. Come here and let me give you a proper hug. Then you can meet everyone.”
After receiving the promised hug, he entered a round of introductions that took more than twenty minutes to complete. By the time he got around to meeting everyone, he had a beer in one hand and a plate of food in the other, though he didn’t quite remember getting either.
“Why don’t you take a load off for a few?” Roxy said.
Everyone else was still collected in the family room, but she directed him over to the dining room. He looked at the long, empty table and then back at her. Her lips pressed together in amusement as she moved the highchair sitting at one end of the table and dragged over the chair that had been set in a corner of the room to replace it.
“Couldn’t I have just sat in one of the…” He trailed off to count. “Twenty-three other chairs?”
She held the chair out for him until he sat in it. “This will be your seat at future family meals,” she said as she leaned over the back of the chair and brushed her lips over his sensitive earlobe. “You might as well break it in.”
He liked the sound of that too much to protest.
“I’m going to do a quick check on the kids and I’ll be right back,” she said. “Save a bite of that spring roll for me, would you?”
He nodded and accepted her kiss, then enjoyed the sight of her swaying hips as she walked away.
Not even thirty seconds later, her grandmother joined him at the table, sitting in the chair adjacent to his. Somehow, she had eluded him during the round of introductions. As he met her sharp blue gaze now, he suspected that had been a deliberate choice on her part.
The corners of her mouth lifted in a way that reminded him very much of Roxy. “You’re a perceptive one,” she said in a throaty voice. “I’m Roxy’s grandmother, Gisella, but you can call me Daj. Do you prefer to be called Callan or Murph?”
“You can call me anything you want.”
She issued a deep and robust laugh. “Oh, my. Such charm, too. It’s easy to see why you and my Roxy are so well matched.”
“I’m glad you think so. With all due respect to Mama, it’s your approval that I think Roxy seeks most.”
“Well, we’re twin souls, you see.”
He nodded. “It was the same for me and my grandfather.”
“Roxy has mentioned him, your G-Man. She said that much of what you’ve done since you met her has been to honor him. It doesn’t take heightened perception to know he would have been proud of you.”
Oddly, the words didn’t cause him pain. Only pride.
“Thanks,” he said. “He would have enjoyed meeting all of you. I wish he’d had the chance to meet Roxy.”
“We would have liked that, too, of course,” she said, briefly laying her hand on top of his. “But if your grandfather hadn’t moved on from this world when he did, it’s entirely possible you and Roxy wouldn’t be where you are today. The universe is mysterious that way.”
He’d never thought about it like that. She was right, he realized. If he hadn’t been mourning his grandfather, he might not have sought Roxy out when he did. He most certainly wouldn’t be on the way to achieving so many great things in his career.
Seeing his understanding, Roxy’s grandmother patted his hand and said, “You’ll have your hands full with my Roxy, chavi. She’ll likely drive you crazy with some of the impetuous and reckless things she’ll do. But if you have patience with her, accept that ‘wild’ part of her, as you called it, you’ll receive more love and devotion than you could ever imagine.”