He tried to picture what it might be like to be with her. Not just in bed. In fact, he’d been trying very hard not to picture that since the second she’d walked up to him in that form-fitting leather skirt she’d poured herself into. The image of peeling her out of that skirt was the last thing he needed in his head right before he walked into his parents’ house.
But the rest. Dating her. Hanging out with her. Seeing her every day. Hearing that laugh. Pushing all her buttons just to see which of his buttons she’d push back. That was actually something he could imagine all too easily. Something he was beginning to want more and more.
Jenny waved at him to come in. Time to wade into the storm and hope he’d make it out in one piece.
And hope that Gina was still by his side at the end. Because despite everything stacked against them, he couldn’t get her out of his mind.
He was so screwed.
Chapter Twelve
Gina walked slowly down the hall, watching Rick get older as the pictures went on. There was a family picture taken every year from the date of his parents’ marriage to the present year. He had been an unbelievably cute baby. Adorable toddler with chubby cheeks and a mischievous grin—which he still had. She could see the adult he’d become even in his baby pictures. And it wasn’t too hard to imagine him holding his own child with chubby cheeks and his father’s smile.
She stood back, surprised at that thought. Since she was eyeball-deep in happy family photos it wasn’t such a huge stretch of the imagination, but it was for her imagination. The whole happy family thing wasn’t something she’d really envisioned for herself. Not that she had any objections to kids. It was…well, if she were really honest with herself, she was afraid. Terrified to be in charge of someone else’s life to such a degree. To be their sole source of survival.
She didn’t know how her mother had done it. But her mom had always kept a decent roof over Gina’s head, food in her belly, clothes on her back. Even Christmas presents under the tree. Every year. The things her mom must have sacrificed to make sure Gina grew up healthy and happy boggled Gina’s mind. She wasn’t sure if she had it in her to do so much for someone else. What if she wasn’t good enough? Wouldn’t it be better to not even try than risk screwing up some poor kid because he or she had the misfortune of being her offspring?
“He was such a good boy,” Rick’s mom said, startling Gina as she came up behind her.
After swallowing her heart back down to where it belonged, Gina smiled at her, still a bit uncomfortable. But only because she didn’t know the older woman. Rick’s mom, Linda, had made Gina feel nothing but welcome since the second Jenny dragged her through the door and right into her mother’s arms.
“He was always a help with the girls. My twins, Karen and Stacy, were born when he was only eighteen months old, so I had my hands full. But he was a helper even then. Always wanting to help change the babies, or hold them and play with them. By the time Annie came along, he was a pro at being a big brother. And he practically raised Jenny by himself. Wouldn’t let me do a thing.”
Rick joined them, laughing. “Hardly. I shared my toys every now and then and tried to keep the girls from killing themselves. Or each other.”
His mother patted his cheek. “No small feat. Those girls, I don’t know about them sometimes.” She shook her head but was smiling fondly.
Gina’s heart contracted with an overdose of the warm fuzzies. After seeing how Rick had grown up, it was easy to understand why he was the way he was. With such a big family, at least one of them had to be organized, or the place would have fallen down around their ears. Oh, it still seemed chaotic. But it was an organized chaos. Rick was definitely a chip off his mother’s block. The woman ran a tight ship.
She had given Gina a huge hug and sent her off with Jenny to explore the house. Every room she’d seen had been neat and organized, everything in its place, shelves tidy with boxes and baskets and labels. The place was a Better Homes and Gardens dream.
Jenny had stuck to the basics. Kitchen, full of light and the delicious smells of cooking food; living room, in pristine order with requisite family piano covered in framed photos in the corner; family room, with some sort of cushy chair or sofa in every corner; bathroom, fairly typical except for the crafty little sign over the toilet if you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie and wipe the seatie.
And in every available space of the house was family. Rick’s four sisters were in the kitchen, helping get things ready for dinner. Karen and Stacy’s husbands were in the backyard on the deck, watching their kids run around. The twins, Karen and Stacy, had actually married twin brothers. The logistics of that boggled Gina’s mind. They’d had a double wedding on their 24th birthday and had each popped out a kid within a year of marriage with another one following not too long after.