Page 123 of Firecracker

“I heard lots of stories about you tonight.”

“Oh, great.” He rolled his eyes, but apparently they hadn’t been all bad.

“He’s a very smart firefighter,” she added. “And brave.”

Mom’s face wore a look of worried confusion. Like she’d never realized that he was smart and brave. Christ.

“So what do you do for a living, Arden?”

“Well, right now I’m working as a waitress at a pub.”

Mom blinked. If she said one goddamn word that was insulting to Arden, he’d lose his shit. Protectiveness surged through him.

“It’s not what I want to do forever, but I was in kind of a bad financial situation when I moved back, so I needed to find a job right away. Turns out, I enjoy it. And I’ve just started doing a little catering.”

“Catering,” Mom repeated, nodding, her face expressionless.

Tyler’s gut tightened.

“Yes.” Excitement lit up Arden’s eyes. “I love entertaining and cooking and baking. Basically I like feeding people.” She laughed. “I never thought of making a career out of it, but I’m thinking of giving it a shot.”

She told Mom about her ideas for using local vendors, her enthusiasm contagious. Pride expanded in his chest as she talked.

“Well, that sounds really promising,” Mom said with a smile.

Arden lifted a shoulder, smiling. “We’ll see, I guess. But it’s nice to have a sense of direction. After my husband died, everything felt a little…aimless.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Mom said quietly. “So tragic to lose your husband at such a young age.”

Arden nodded. “Thank you. It was really difficult.”

Tyler wished he could tell his mom the whole story so she’d know how amazing Arden was, but that was her story to tell, if or when she wanted.

“Well,” he said. “We should get going.” He and Arden stood, and Mom rose too.

“Come again, please.” Mom touched Arden’s arm. “Maybe for Sunday dinner one weekend when Ty’s not working.”

She liked Arden.

Fuck yeah.

This wasn’t why he’d brought Arden here with him. Or maybe it was. Maybe he hadn’t even realized that he’d wanted his mom to meet Arden. That he’d wanted her to like her. And now he knew she did…

“That would be so nice, thank you,” Arden said, though he sensed her hesitance. “Hopefully we can work that out.”

Noncommittal.

Enough of this. He was losing patience. He’d tried to back off a little, so she’d have time to accept what was happening between them. He wasn’t some kind of woo-woo guy, but it almost felt like this was meant to be…from the time they were teenagers and he’d crushed on her…no other woman he’d dated or had a relationship with had ever been right. It had all been leading to this. To this woman. To right now.

He drove through the dark streets to their home, trying to figure out how he was going to do this. Where. What to say.

“You’re so quiet.” Arden reached over and curled his fingers around one of his hands.

He glanced at her and smiled. “Is that unusual?”

“No.” She rubbed her thumb over his hand. “You’re not a loudmouth.”

He barked out a laugh. “Gee, thanks.”

---