Page 28 of Country Road Romance

“Okay, boys, you can come down now. I think you’ve had quite enough time to get unpacked and get everything in order.”

Keeps a clean establishment indeed.

“I told you,” Jared said, reading his mind. “And one thing you will very quickly learn is that what Joyce Russell wants, she gets. And she most certainly doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

They started down the stairs, their arms barely touching one another as they did so. Even though Jared flinched away, Charlie still felt that same little pulse that he’d felt on the few other occasions when the two of them had come this close.

I just wish that Jared would quit pulling away like he’s been shocked,he thought.

Joyce was waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs, her hands on her hips. She looked like every mother from every sitcom that Charlie had ever seen.

“I hope that the two of you weren’t doing anything naughty upstairs,” she said. “Like I said. There’ll be no hanky panky under my roof.”

“Joyce, for heaven’s sake, leave them alone. They’re adults and they can do whatever they want to,” Doug chimed in.

She shook her head. “Don’t listen to your father. I make the rules in his house. Now, come back to the living room. I want you to tell me everything.”

“Joyce, don’t you think they should at least have a chance to catch their breath?” Doug smiled indulgently at his wife as they made their way back to the living room.

“I think we should at least find out what’s going on with these two. It’s not every day that you have a celebrity in your house, is it?”

“It’s okay, Mr. Russell. I don’t mind explaining a bit about what happened.” He took a deep breath, because he had the feeling that the elder Russells weren’t likely to be very approving of his decision to punch another person, regardless of his reasons.

“It’s like this,” he said, as they sat down in the living room. “Jared and I were at this bar, and there was this guy, and he was being a jerk–on top of saying all sorts of nasty, homophobic things to me earlier in the day–and he shoved Jared and, well, I punched him. Of course there were a lot of people standingaround, and they managed to record it all, and, well, here we are.”

It all came out in a jumbled rush of words, and for a moment he was afraid that he’d spoken too quickly and that they hadn’t really absorbed what had happened.

To his surprise, it was Doug who spoke first.

“Serves him right,” he said bluntly.

“Doug,” Joyce said. “We don’t advocate violence in this house, no matter how awful people behave.”

“If someone is going to go chasing after another man and start calling him names right out in public where everyone can see it, and if he’s going to push our son, then I don’t see why he shouldn’t be taught a lesson.”

Charlie was starting to see where Jared got his fighting spirit from.

Joyce just sighed and shook her head.

“Go on, Charlie.”

And so he told her the rest of what had happened that night and why he was sitting here in her living room.

Just as he finished, however, Joyce leapt to her feet. “I’m so sorry,” she said, “but I just noticed how dusty that shelf is!” With that she was off.

“Don’t worry,” Jared said, leaning in. “She’s always like that. All it takes is one speck of dust and she’s off like a rocket. She can’t stand even theideaof anything being out of place, particularly when we have a guest in the house.”

“You have no idea how exhausting it gets,” Doug said with a rueful shake of his head. “I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve had a cup of coffee whisked away while I was in the middle of drinking it, just because she wanted to get the dish washed and put away.”

If Joyce was offended at all of this talk about her cleaning proclivities, she didn’t show any sign of it. If anything, all of this commentary just made her clean even more fervently.

“I just can’t believe that I havetheCharlie Garrett sitting in my living room,” she gushed as she bustled around making sure that everything was where it needed to be. “I also wish that my son had bothered to tell me that he was bringing home a movie star, or that he was working with him in the first place.”

Said son had the good grace to look at least a little bit ashamed.

“I’m sorry, mom,” he mumbled under his breath. “I guess time just got away from me.” Jared was so cute when he blushed that Charlie wanted to reach out and cup his face and kiss him until he made him turn completely red.

“Well, next time you decide to bring home one of the biggest stars of the Romance Network, why don’t you take a moment to call ahead for reservations, hm?”

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