“Perfect.” He kicked back on my bed like it belonged to him after following me to the room. He crossed his legs at the ankles and hooked his arms behind his head, looking like he was posing for the cover of a magazine while he waited for me. I almost went cross-eyed as a result, but I managed to keep from jumping his bones. Within a few minutes, I was dragging him out of the room before I lost the fight against temptation.
As we headed downstairs to the waiting town car, he held my hand and swung it in between us. “So, I’ve already promised my mother that I’d stay late and help her clean up. She has health issues, and since she’s already insisted on cooking for us, I wanted to help with the aftermath. Knowing her, she’ll also want to talk about you after she meets you. You’re more than welcome to stay, but I can have the driver take you home if you’d prefer that.”
“Thanks for offering, but I think I’d rather give you two some private time. The trip to the hospital must’ve scared you both, and I’m sure your mother will appreciate some time alone with you. To gossip about me, sure, but also just to check on each other.”
“It’s up to you,” he said. “You’re very welcome to stay, but I’m sure you’ll want some time to yourself after as well.”
I glanced at him, my eyes wide. “Why? Are you expecting it not to go well?”
He laughed. “It’s not that at all. Mom is just very excited about meeting you and I don’t think she’s going to stop talking to you all night. You might want some peace and quiet as soon as you can get it.”
The nerves I’d been keeping at bay all day made an appearance again. “What if she doesn’t like me?”
Smiling, he put his hand on my knee and squeezed. “Don’t be nervous. I know it’s a tall order, but you really don’t have to be. My mother is going to love you.”
“Let’s hope,” I replied. Then I got distracted by the car slowing as we entered a residential suburb. It wasn’t one I was too familiar with, and I turned to look out the window as we drove through it.
As I’d suspected, he hadn’t grown up in a terribly well-off neighborhood. I knew his mother still lived in his childhood home, and the area was middle class at best. It was comforting to know for sure that, while we were worlds apart financially now, our respective upbringings weren’t so different after all.
The car eventually took us to a small but neat townhome and pulled to a stop at the curb. A few of the houses we’d passed had been rundown, but it was obvious that Tanner’s mom’s had had recent repairs.
He helped me out of the car and took my hand. “It’s not the best neighborhood, I know. I’ve offered to move her into any house or apartment she wants, and I’ve been trying to get her to agree to move into a care facility, but she refuses to leave this place, so I’ve tried to make it as nice for her as possible. I’ve also been helping her with maintenance, but as you can see, it’s an ongoing process.”
Feeling a swell of love for him, I tightened my grip on his hand and chuckled. “Maintenance is always an ongoing process. It’s sweet of you to help her take care of this place, though. A lot of people would’ve used it getting a bit more rundown as a way to force her to move out.”
He shook his head, exhaling heavily through his nostrils. “I could never do that to her. Eventually, I am going to have to force her hand somehow, but I wouldn’t do it like that. I’m still hoping that she’ll come around on her own. This house isn’t huge by any means, but it’s getting much too big for her. The upkeep and cleaning alone are a lot of work, and that’s without repairing the things that have outright broken.”
“I know what you mean. My mom still lives in the apartment I grew up in, and even though it’s tiny, she’s been struggling with keeping the space clean and using it all. She also refuses to move, though.”
“Let’s make a pact,” he said, smiling as he glanced at me. “When we get older, we won’t put our kids through this. We’ll just downscale when the time comes without any argument.”
Shock traveled through my system. Our kids? When we’re older? Downscaling together?
It was the first time he’d mentioned anything about our future in the super long term—as in life long—but as he said it, I could suddenly envision growing old with him. Having kids and not wanting to put them through the stress of living in a place we couldn’t maintain anymore.
So instead of questioning him, and not just because we were now standing in front of his mother’s door, I just smiled back and agreed. “Yeah, let’s move into a care facility early on and really make our mark on the place while we still can. We can organize wheelchair races in the hallways and parties in the dining room. They’ll probably try to kick us out, but I’ll offer to do some redesigning in return so we can make it exactly how we want it and you can offer to sweeten the deal by paying for the remodel.”
He laughed. “I like the way you think.”
The door swung open, and my thoughts stopped in their tracks. The big moment had arrived, and I was officially about to meet my boyfriend’s mother. She was a smallish woman with graying, light brown hair and Tanner’s sparkling blue eyes.
As soon as she saw him, she grinned and pulled him into a warm hug. “Hello, my baby boy. Thank you for coming.”
He returned her hug, then pulled back to motion toward me. “Mom, this is Larisa. Larisa, this is my mother.”
“Larisa.” Her smile widened when she said my name, but before I could say anything about it being nice to meet her, she pulled me into a warm hug, too. “It’s so nice to finally meet the girl who tamed my Tanner. Come on in. I hope you like lasagna.”
“I love it,” I replied. “In a different life, I’m pretty sure I was Garfield. That’s how much I love it.”
She laughed, and the sound was as warm as her hug. “I knew I was going to like you, but any girl who’s willing to consider that she might’ve been Garfield in a previous life is a girl I can give my blessing to. Tell me, darling, Tanner hasn’t been giving you too much trouble, has he? He might not agree with me, but he’s not too old for me to give him a good talking to.”
I linked my arm through hers when she offered it, and laughed when I heard Tanner groaning in response. As nervous as I’d been about meeting her, I liked her instantly too, and as far as I was concerned, that was yet another good sign.