Down and Dirty(34)

“Thanks, I’m sure I’ll be thrilled to have it around midnight when the fridge starts calling me.” She sat at the table and watched Martha bustle around.

“So tell me, dear,” she said, opening a drawer and pulling out a pie server. “What’s going on between you and my son?”

Cat stared at the older woman in shock, hoping she’d misheard.

“You both looked pretty out of sorts and mussed when we walked in, but then I thought, that can’t be right. You’re trying to fix him up with other women, aren’t you? So what gives?”

Cat started to answer but stopped when she couldn’t form a coherent response. The ambush had been laid masterfully, and even now, her captor held her in place with nothing more than a cheerful smile.

She tried again. “I—I’m not sure what to say, Mrs. Decker. I like Shane a lot, but…” She shrugged helplessly, wondering if she looked even half as uncomfortable as she felt. “It’s really complicated.”

“I have a good understanding about matters of the heart, you know,” Martha continued, transferring a wedge of pie onto a sheet of aluminum foil. “Sometimes people think couples who have only ever been with each other don’t know how complicated love and romance can be, but that’s the furthest thing from the truth. Aaron and I have spent the past forty years making it work through some pretty trying times, and I know one thing for sure. Nothing is so complicated that it can’t be worked out if you really love each other.”

She folded the foil into a neat triangle around the pie, then slipped it into a paper lunch bag. “I’ve always thought there was something interesting brewing between the two of you. Call it mother’s intuition. I know I’m overstepping, but I’ve got to ask…” Martha’s blue gaze pinned her to the spot. “Do you love my son, Mary Catherine?”

Cat’s brain whirred like a top, and she tried to think of what she could possibly say to escape this situation without making it worse. Her feet were already on the ground, her body in flight mode, when Shane walked in, saving her from coming up with a reply.

“I grabbed your coat.” He held it out expectantly. “Ready to go?”

She popped out of the chair like a jack-in-the-box, relief making her knees weak, and took the bag Martha held out for her.

“Thanks so much for the pie, Mrs. Decker.”

“It was nice see you again, dear.” Martha’s wink held just a hint of a challenge. “Don’t be a stranger.”

“Will do! I mean, will do not be a stranger, because I’m not. We already know each other…and stuff.” She pulled her coat on and followed Shane to the front door. “Good night, Mr. Decker,” she said as they passed him where he sat at the table laying out a crossword puzzle.

“’Night,” he said without looking up.

Cat’s hot face fairly sizzled when they stepped into the frosty night. She walked ahead of Shane to the driveway where her car was parked, hoping he would take pity on her and just let her go. When he opened her door and she slid into the driver’s seat, she neatly managed to avoid all contact with his body, but he stood by the open door while she turned the key in the ignition.

“My mom pulled the old separate-one-from-the-herd trick. Sorry about that,” he said, although the half smile suggested he wasn’t all that sorry. “By the time I saw it coming, it was too late to stop her.”

She pursed her lips and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “It’s not your fault. And you did good getting the coat from upstairs and running interference at the end there. She had me in a real spot for a minute.”

“I heard right before I walked in.”

Oh jeez. She leaned over and started fiddling with the radio. “Yeah, well, it was no big deal. Just a mom watching out for her son. Speaking of which, you’d better go inside before she gets the wrong idea about us.”

“And what would the right idea be?” he asked, his tone mocking, as if he knew what her answer would be, and he was daring her to come up with something more original.

Too bad for him that she was done with dares. “That we’re just friends and that’s all we’re ever going to be.”

“Right.”

“Shane, I’m sorry for…everything. Inside. It shouldn’t have happened.” Her body was still warm and loose from her release, and the words left a sour taste in her mouth. “Correction. I shouldn’t have allowed it to happen. I don’t know what’s the matter with me lately. What I do know is that, when I’m thinking straight, I don’t want this.” She gestured back and forth between them. “It’s not what I’m looking for.” She waited for him to argue and scrambled to get her defenses ready, but the argument never came.