Page 38 of Country Road Romance

“You always think that, do you?” Jared asked with his eyebrow skeptically raised.

“I do, in fact.”

“I really don’t know why you two can’t just start dating,” Joyce said. “It would really make everything so much simpler. Charlie, you’re just the kind of man that I’ve always been looking for for Jared. Are you sure you don’t want him?”

This was very uncomfortable territory, not least because Charlie did very much want to put Jared in his back pocket and take him away. Since he knew that wasn’t at all what Jared wanted, however, he decided to be as coy as possible, without turning Jared off. He wasn’t sure he could pull off that particular juggling act, but damn if he wasn’t going to try.

“Well,” he began, but Jared interrupted him.

“Mom, Charlie is a guest in our house. Maybe we could save the matchmaking for later?”

Joyce looked like she wanted to keep pressing–and Jared looked like he wanted to melt into the ground–but they were saved from all of that by the arrival of a stately dowager that Charlie could only assume was Jared’s grandmother.

“Well, well, well,” she said as she approached, “what’s this, the welcoming party?”

Marla Grayson–Jared took a moment to properly introduce his grandmother–was one of those formidable dowagers that were a dime a dozen in West Virginia. Though she was probably in her eighties, Charlie thought that she didn’t look a day over sixty, with her white hair that had been swept up in a bun at the back of her head, her floral-print blouse, and her polyester slacks. One of her gnarled hands gripped a cane as she came up to the door, but Charlie got the distinct impression she wasn’t as feeble as she looked.

“Grandma!” Jared said, stepping forward. “It’s so good to see you.”

Marla gave him a look, and then her face broke into a smile of undeniable joy and she swept him into her arms. Charlie tried very hard not to be jealous.

“It’s good to see you too, sweetie,” he said, patting Jared’s arm as she pulled away. “And this must betheCharlie Garrett. I’m just so happy to meet you!” she exclaimed as they all stepped into the house. “You know, when Joyce said that Jared had managed to bring home someone from the Romance Network, I almost couldn’t believe it. It just seemed too good to be true, and yet here you are!”

She looked Charlie up and down for a good few minutes, and he got the distinct impression that she was acting as trial, judge, and jury all at once. He wasn’t at all sure that she liked what she saw, but then she nodded her head.

“Well, I gotta say that it’s nice that Jared finally brought someone decent around for a change. I never did like a lot of those other fellas that he brought here.”

Charlie was familiar enough with the older generation’s way of referring to gay relationships to know exactly what he meant, and he felt a little flutter at the idea that people were starting to assume that he was Jared’s boyfriend.

Easy, Charlie. Let’s not put the cart before the horse.

In any case he didn’t have much time to really dwell too much on just what he was to Jared, because Joyce swept Marla into the dining room, where the rest of the family had already gathered around the table. There was the usual hustle and bustle and greetings as everyone made Marla welcome and, a short time later, there was an entire spread ready for eating, all laid out with precision on the dining room table.

For the life of him, Charlie couldn’t figure out how Joyce had managed to get an entire dinner together in such a short time but, there it was, as pristine and ordered as if she’d been working in the kitchen all day. There was a delicious, succulent roast in pride of place in the center of the table on a gorgeous red serving platter–Fiestaware, of course–while it was surrounded by everything from green beans to baked potatoes, corn on the cob to macaroni and cheese.

It was the sort of home cooked meal that he almost never had when he was in California.

“You’d better take a seat if you don’t want to get shut out,” Jared said, gently taking his hand and guiding him over to the table, and Charlie thought of the kiss they’d shared such a short time ago. Was that just a fluke, or did it actually mean something? And, just as importantly, was it going to lead to anything else?

They sat down, and just being this close to Jared was more than a little intoxicating. Charlie flicked his eyes to where Marlasat across from him and saw that she had her eyes on him. He gave her a smile, and she returned it, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that she was weighing him in her own private set of scales. She might not know that Jared was gay, but she certainly knew thatsomethingwas up.

For a few minutes Marla was content to let the conversation ebb and flow around her, but it wasn’t long until she got right to the heart of the matter. Like grandmothers everywhere, she was old enough to feel entitled to say whatever she wanted, even if it happened to make other people feel a bit uncomfortable.

“I know that everyone else in this family thinks that I’m some simple-minded old lady,” she said, “but I do watch the news. And you, young man, were on there.” At this she wagged his finger at him.

Is this really happening?He thought.

“Now, I know that it’s not my place to say this, but I really don’t like to see young men fighting, no matter what their reasons are. Violence never gets you anywhere, Charlie Garrett. Remember that.”

Charlie wasn’t about to disagree with her, particularly since he knew she was right. He almost told her that he’d done it to protect Jared, but decided against it.

I’m not sure she would approve even if she knew.

“You know what? You’re absolutely right,” he said instead. I’m definitely going to be minding my Ps and Qs from now on.”

He was vaguely conscious of Jared giving him an incredulous look and mouth and mouthing the letters “Ps” and “Qs” with a very perplexed look on his face.

“See that you do,” Marla said, and took a healthy bite of roast and then washed it down with some iced tea. “I don’t want to tune into the news and see your name there again, unless it’s to hear about you getting some kind of award. I’m sure you’re going to be going places, young man, so be sure not to mess it up!”

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