Page 57 of Shameless
“No, I just didn’t realize this would be a ‘meet the parents’ trip’.”
“Hey.” He moved toward me and reached out his hand for mine. I took it and wrapped his arms around me. “I want you to be the last woman I bring home to meet my folks. If that’s not during this trip, then it’s okay.”
I looked up into his brown eyes. “What you said earlier was true?”
He cocked his head slightly. “You mean ‘I love you’?” I nodded, and he cupped my cheeks. Looking directly into my eyes, he said, “I love you. I love you. I loveyou.”
“I love you too, but I wasn’t sure if it was some heat-of-the-moment type thing.”
He shook his head. “Hell no. I’ve been wanting to tell you for days now, but wasn’t sure if it was too soon for you. So, maybe me telling you when I did was a heat-of-the-moment thing, but only because I couldn’t contain how I feel about you any longer.”
“I’ve been wanting to tell you for a few days too.”
“You have no idea how incredibly happy that makes me.” Blake pressed his lips to mine and Skye barked.
We stepped apart. “I better take her outside.”
“Do that and I’ll make you coffee and breakfast.”
“How did I get so lucky?”
“No, sweet thing. I’m the lucky one.”
* * *
It had beenyears since I’d had to do the whole “meet the parents” thing, and I was nervous. I supposed it was normal because people didn’t want the parents of the person they were dating to think poorly of them. I didn’t assume Blake’s parents wouldn’t like me, but I still wanted to make a good impression, so I hoped I didn’t say or do anything stupid.
“I’m so nervous.” My leg bounced up and down as Blake drove us toward his parents’ place. Skye sat in the backseat of his Chevy Silverado double-cab, staring out the window at everything.
“Why are you nervous?”
“I don’t know. I mean, what are they going to think since you were supposed to marry someone else two months ago?”
“I’m sure my brother already told them we’re dating.”
I blinked. “Why would he do that?”
He shrugged. “My family probably assume I’ve gone back to my old ways and Brandon told them otherwise.”
“What old ways?”
“Partying, being irresponsible, never taking anything seriously. Shit like that.” The Blake I knew was nothing like he described. Sure, we’d had a few drinks in Cabo and Vegas, but he had never gotten drunk and acted recklessly. “And they think you’re still that way?”
He shrugged. “No, but let me tell you this. The last girl I brought home to meet my folks was Stacey.”
“I kinda figured that.”
“But …”—he held up his finger—“that was five years ago, and I told them she was my girlfriend when she wasn’t.”
I blinked. “Why would you lie to them?”
“It was stupid. I even lied to them about her wanting to be an actress when really, she was in school for dance.”
“Seriously?” Blake came across as such a genuine guy, and everything he’d ever told me, I had believed. But hearing him tell me he lied to his parents about his relationship with his ex was a little disconcerting and made little sense. “I don’t understand.”
“I was a different person back then, and I didn’t think she and I would be anything except a hookup.”
“So why not tell them she was just a friend?”
