Totally, Sweetly, Irrevocably(31)

“Gretchen,” her friend supplied with a slight pout. He felt bad for forgetting her name, but really, with four sisters constantly bringing their friends in and out of the house, there was no way he could keep them all straight.

“Very nice to meet you, Gina,” Jenny said, sticking out her hand for an enthusiastic shake.

Rick breathed a slight sigh of relief. Jenny was normally a hugger. But maybe she’d picked up on Gina’s deer-in-the-headlights look and decided to take pity on her.

“Hey, Mom has been trying to call you all day. She wants to make sure you’re coming for dinner tomorrow. She said she’s fixing all your favorites so you better not forget. Gina!” She turned a megawatt smile that would put a supermodel to shame on Gina, who cringed a bit, but admirably did not flee in terror. “I know Mom would love to meet you. You should come, too.”

“Oh, that’s nice of you but I wouldn’t want to impose or…” Gina started.

“Oh, nonsense. Any friend of Ricky’s is always welcome, and I know the rest of the family would love to meet you. I won’t take no for an answer.”

“Well…I guess I could stop in…” Gina looked at him helplessly, and while Rick could throttle his sister at that moment for putting them on the spot, he couldn’t help but laugh at her tactics. There was no stopping Jenny once she’d set her mind to something.

“Great! I’ll let Mom know you’re coming. You’ll have fun, I promise. Mom’s a great cook.”

Gina paled a bit, but Jenny didn’t give her the chance to object. She leaned over and gave Rick a hug again. “I gotta run, but you make sure you bring her tomorrow. You don’t want to disappoint Mom!”

Before either one could say anything else, Jenny and her sullen friend Gretchen had scampered back out the door.

“Sorry about that,” Rick said, though he couldn’t keep the fond smile from his lips. “Jenny can be a little…hyper.”

Gina laughed. “I could tell.”

“You don’t have to come tomorrow, if you’d rather not.”

His phone beeped before she could answer him, and he pulled it out, grimacing when he saw the message.

“What is it?” Gina asked.

Rick sighed. “My mother. She’s excited to meet you tomorrow. She’s going to bake her famous chocolate cake.”

Gina shook her head with a laugh. “Your sister called your mother already? In the two minutes since she left here?”

“Yeah. She’s a piece of work. Probably knew we might try to back out and figured laying on the mom guilt would get us there.”

“I’d hate for your mom to go to any extra trouble for me, though. Can’t you call and…”

He was already shaking his head before she’d finished asking. “Once Mom has a party planned, it’s pretty much impossible to stop her.”

“Bringing me home is grounds for a party?”

He really didn’t want to answer that. His mom and sisters would be falling all over themselves to make it a special night. Because he’d never brought a girl home before. He’d had girlfriends, sure. And they’d met his family. But he’d never brought one over for a family dinner. Those were special family nights, and he’d never really felt the urge to include any of his previous girlfriends in them.

While he’d definitely been roped into bringing Gina, he was surprised to find he didn’t really mind. He couldn’t help wondering what his mom would think about her. Of course, bringing home a girl he wasn’t even dating and had no hope of a future with was beyond pointless. What difference did it make if his mother loved her? A relationship between them would never work. Introducing her to his family seemed almost…dishonest.

But Jenny had probably already texted his other sisters and let them know. His mother was almost certainly already getting the house cleaned up and pulling out ingredients. Backing out now would create a lot more problems than it would solve.

Gina watched him, waiting for an answer. He gave her a small smile. “My mother will latch onto any reason she can find to throw a party. That woman loves to celebrate. But don’t worry. It’s only dinner. And just the family. Nothing major. Though my mother’s chocolate cake is definitely worth making the trip. Three layers dripping with the absolute best chocolate frosting you’ve ever tasted in your life.”

“Well, I guess I can’t say no to chocolate cake.”

The warmth always present in his chest when he looked at her spread throughout him. He swore that smile of hers could single-handedly melt the polar ice caps. Although…that wasn’t really a good thing. Seemed to have the same effect on him, though. Impressive…and disastrous.