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“It’s going to be great.” I had some slightly homemade beansstaying hot in the slow cooker and several salads in the fridge. Dinner wasgoing to be delicious, and while it might be awkward sometimes, I knew hisparents were trying.
Ryan opened his mouth as his eyes sparkled, so I knew he wasgoing to say something teasing, but just as the words were going to come out,the doorbell rang. Both guys froze like someone had paused the movie we werestarring in. “Big, deep breaths. There’s only so bad it can go. They want tomeet me and see the house. They already know about us and were still pushing.”
The order to breathe and just the reminder in general hadthem both sucking in air and some of the tension faded. “Let’s go before theystart picturing crazy reasons for why we’re not answering the door.”
I grinned as both of my boys groaned dramatically. Hoppingoff Scott’s lap, I smoothed out my shirt before grabbing a hand from each ofthem and dragging them toward the door. I wasn’t exactly excited to have Ryan’sparents come over, but I was definitely ready to get it over with.
Once this was done, everything else would go much moresmoothly.
I just had to keep reminding everyone about that…includingmy own mother.
I’d gotten several panicked calls from her this week to goalong with Ryan’s and Scott’s.
It was cute that she was worrying about them so much, but Ihad more worried family members than I could handle right now, so I needed thisto go smoothly.
Giving them both one more quick smile and a reminder that itwas going to be great, I released their hands as Ryan opened the door. Framedbetween my two guys, it was impossible for his parents to ignore ourrelationship, but they were all smiles as we stepped aside.
“Hey, how was the drive? Come see the new house.” That waseasier for Ryan to focus on, and probably his parents too, so after he madeintroductions and we got only slightly awkward hugs and handshakes, we usheredthem inside.
“This is much nicer. You don’t even have pimps as neighbors.”Susan beamed as we led her into the living room. “Oh, look at that backyard.”
So the important things in a new house were hookers andgrass?
That was good to know.
As they wandered and we nodded through Ryan’s father’slecture on proper lawn maintenance, everyone started to relax. Roger seemed toapprove as he peeked into the kitchen too. “Looks like it’s well taken careof.”
Scott looked like a thousand-pound weight had been liftedoff his shoulders. “Yeah, the guy who owns it did some upgrades before he putit back on the market.”
Roger swallowed, finally looking hesitant. “And he’s…well,he was nice to you boys?”
That was cute.
Thankfully, we could all nod as Ryan spoke up. “Yeah, hisson is gay and married. He didn’t have an issue with us.”
Roger was going to leave it at that, but Susan justcouldn’t. “He was good about all three of you?”
Scott’s cheeks pinked faintly, but he nodded. “He reallydidn’t ask many questions once he realized that Dare wasn’t moving in with us.He just said that if that changes, we need to add him to the lease.”
He’d been much more worried about the lease than where wewould be sleeping and who we’d be sleeping with.
Thankfully.
“That’s good.” Susan let out a breath. “People won’t alwaysbe nice when a relationship is unconventional. I don’t want you renting fromsomeone who’s homophobic.”
The mom drive to protect her chick was clearly stronger thanher worries about Ryan’s relationship.
I thought everything was going smoothly until we led themtoward the backyard and Susan seemed to think they were far enough behind usthat we wouldn’t hear her whisper.
She wasn’t and we did.
“Roger, you have to tell Ryan to be careful or he’ll breakthat boy.”
Oh goodness.
Ryan’s face went white and then red just as fast, butthankfully Roger was smarter than his wife. “Oh, hell no. First of all, Ryan’scareful, and second, Dare seems like the take-charge type.”
Yep, he was a lot smarter than his wife.
