I raised my brows at him.
He shrugged and grinned.
“It’s lovely to meet you, Dana,” Nancy said, reaching back into the fridge and handing her father a bottle of beer.
“Yes, we’re not usually considered worthy of meeting any of Rick’s girlfriends.” She put finger quotation marks around the word girlfriends.
“In fact I think you’re the first in a couple of years.” Lucy remarked, sipping wine and studying me with huge hazel eyes.
“First what in years?” An elderly lady, as tall as the rest of the family, walked into the kitchen holding patent black heels but wearing a pair of tartan slippers. “Oh,” she said, her gaze settling on me. “You have company, Rick.” Her face broke into a smile. “Very beautiful company.”
“This is Dana,” Nancy said, gesturing toward me with her wineglass then taking another slurp.
“Yeah, she’s Rick’s girlfriend,” the little boy who’d been standing on Rick’s foot piped up. Jack, if I remembered correctly.
“And she’s really pretty,” Elliott said, his finger worrying at a wobbling bottom tooth.
“Thanks,” I said, smiling down at him.
He grinned then darted toward Lucy. “Mom, Mom, can we go in the pool now, please, can we?”
“You’ll have to ask Uncle Rick.”
Rick shrugged. “Sure, go get changed. I’ll be there in a minute to throw the last one to get ready in.”
Shrieks of delight filled the kitchen, echoing off the high ceiling and the hard floor. Nancy handed me a glass of wine. I took it gratefully and glugged back a big mouthful.
“It’s lovely to meet you, Dana,” Rick’s mother said with a smile. “I’m Hilary and this is Bert.” She pointed to her husband who was fiddling with the TV remote and flicking through the sports channels.
“Where did you two meet?” Nancy asked before I could respond to Hilary.
“I, er, we met at…”
“At a wedding,” Rick chipped in.
“Yes,” I said, “at a wedding, a few weeks ago.” If you call getting naked and sweaty in a dark office “meeting”.
“Whose wedding?” Lucy asked.
“Wolf and Mae French’s.” Rick helped himself to a bottle of beer and clinked off the lid. It rattled across the granite surface.
“Oh, that crazy one.” Lucy looked at me. “It was splashed all over Here magazine.”
I nodded and carefully sat back down against the island. “Yes, that was the one.”
“It was nuts, wasn’t it?” Nancy added. “Unicorns and pumpkin carriages. Mae looked like Cinderella.”
I smiled. “Yes, the theme was fairytale.”
Rick came and stood next to me, brushed my hair over my shoulder and touched the back of his finger to the curve of my jawline. “Dana was the event organizer. She has her own company and Mae and Wolf booked her to do the wedding.”
I wanted to melt into his body. Where he’d just touched me was the epicenter of rippling sensations that filtered to every nerve in my system. But I tried to look unaffected, as if his touch wasn’t a signal for my senses to go on high alert for hot, steamy action. “Yes,” I said, clearing my throat. “My company, Best Laid Plans, has done several celebrity weddings and parties over the last year with Here magazine.”
“Wow,” Nancy said. “That is awesome, your own a company and you get to meet A-listers.”
I smiled. “Yes, it’s great, I love it.”
“I’m going to check on the boys,” Rick said, dropping a quick kiss to the top of my head. “Back in a bit.” He glanced across the room. “Dad, are you coming?”
“Yep.” Bert flicked off the TV and rested the remote on the windowsill. He jogged out of the kitchen. “Grandfather duties call,” he shouted over his shoulder.
Rick followed and my eyes were drawn to his butt, the faded jeans he’d put on hugged it to perfection, showing off the ideal amount of roundness in his cheeks and his long, powerful legs. The label at the waistband had been ripped off, revealing a square dark denim patch. He wore no shoes, his feet were bare.
“He’s great with kids,” Lucy said.
I dragged my eyes from Rick and was met with her smiling, knowing face.
“Yeah, they all adore him,” Nancy added, giving me a similar look as her twin.
“I can tell,” I said, sipping my wine and praying a blush wouldn’t attack my cheeks. It was so not cool to be checking out my boyfriend’s ass in front of his mom and sisters.
“Do you have any children, Dana?” Hilary asked, twirling her fingers around the stem of her wineglass.