“It’s okay, Mom.”
I couldn’t help but notice the way Sandy was staring at me. I’ve had lots of women eye fuck me before, but this was different and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Meagan was helping my mother pull out food as they brought it into the formal dining room. I decided to ignore Sandy and talked to Ricky.
“So, Rick, what are you going to school for?”
“History major. Trying to decide if I want to go into law like dad here, or maybe take it in another direction.”
My eyes lifted as I looked over to James. So he was a lawyer? That was good; at least he could take care of himself.
“Like what other kind of direction?”
Ricky glanced over to his father and then back at me with a weak smile. “I haven’t decided yet.”
Huh. Interesting. Sounds like Ricky is being pushed into law school and he might want to do something different. That reminded me of Mitchell. I still needed to talk to Meagan about him.
“James, will you go grab the steaks, I think we’re about ready to eat,” my mother said as she smiled and motioned for everyone to sit down. “Meg, sit down. I’ve got the rest of this.”
Meagan smiled and headed over to where I was about to sit.
I pulled out a chair and began to sit down when Sandy took the seat next to me. Meagan tried not to show her look of shock as she moved and took the seat on the other side of me. Turning to say something to Meagan, Sandy talked.
“So, how did you get to move up for a promotion so fast? You must not have done a lot of patrol work before moving up.”
“I did a few months on patrol but tested high on my state licensing test, and well, they needed more detectives.”
“Wow. Impressive how far you’ve come.”
My eyes narrowed as I looked at her with a confused look on my face. With a wink, she leaned forward and talked to Meagan.
“Meagan, how did you and Grayson . . . sorry . . . Gray, meet?”
With a smile, Meagan took my hand in hers. “My best friend is married to Gray’s cousin, Noah. They live in Texas.”
Sandy leaned back in her chair and took a sip of her water. “What a small world isn’t it?”
Meagan laughed as we looked at each other. “Yeah it is,” she said as she leaned over and kissed me on the lips.
“Time to eat!” Mom called out as she walked into the room.
Everyone glanced over as my mom and James brought in a huge plate full of steaks. The rest of the dinner was everyone getting to know each other. Sandy seemed to lose her interest in me fairly quickly, which was a sigh of relief.
After James, myself, and Ricky cleared the table, we headed into the living room while the girls cleaned up the kitchen. I had to admit, I liked James. He was smart, looked at my mother like she was his everything, and appeared to have normal kids.
Everything on the outside looked good. I made a mental note of his last name of Kennedy and when Ricky mentioned his dad was turning forty-eight in six days. I made plans to run a background check on his ass first chance I got.
While everyone sat in the living room and talked, I got up to get some fresh air. The whole idea of one big happy family wasn’t sitting right with me at the moment and I needed a few moments to let it all sink in.
Leaning over to Meagan, I spoke softly against her ear. “I need a few minutes. I’m stepping out back.”
Meagan’s expression turned to worry. “Do you want me to go with you?”
I wanted to pull her into my arms and tell her how much I loved her. The sooner we got out of there and home, the better. The only thing I wanted to do was wrap Meagan in my arms and sleep. I didn’t want to think about my mom dating this guy or the fact that they were trying to mash us all together at once.
“Nah, you didn’t bring a coat and I only need a couple minutes.”
Her eyes softened as she whispered, “Okay.”
I stood and headed into the kitchen and out the back door. Taking in a deep breath of cold air, it burned my lungs as I held it in. The pain felt good as I tried to make sense of the feelings I was having. I was happy for my mother, yet I didn’t like the idea of James.