Dreaming of You (6 page)

“I thought we were going to lunch?” I asked, trying to keep myself from panicking.

“We are, silly boy; we’re having lunch with my mother.”

“Yeah, hi… I’m thinking no!” I started squirming in my seat. “I can’t meet your mother… I mean… Jesus, Logan, I had your dick in my mouth a few hours ago!”

“Okay.” His eyes widened as he tossed some money over the seat for the driver. “How about we get out of the car and talk?” He grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the cab. I felt the inevitability of what was happening to me sink in. Shutting the cab door, he looked at me and smiled. “Aden, it’s going to be fine. My mother doesn’t know you had my dick in your mouth last night.”

“Last night, try this morning.” I watched the cab drive off, leaving me no escape. “Jesus, I know it. She’ll be able to tell. Mothers know things like this.”

“Aden”—Logan grabbed my already sweaty palm and led me up the driveway—“if it makes you feel any better, she asked me to bring you to lunch yesterday when I was talking about you. That was before we had sex.”

“Okay, you have a point.” I was walking next to him and said, lowering my voice, “An idiotic one, but a point just the same. Why didn’t you tell me about this beforehand?”

“Because you would have said no,” he said with a slightly ornery laugh.

“Um…yeah!” Shit, I’d met parents before, but never on the second day. “Sure…we’ll just waltz in and you can say…‘Hey Mom, here’s the ho I fucked last night.’”

He stopped walking and started laughing. “That would be funny.” He turned and placed his hands on my shoulders. “It’s going to be fine…you’ll love her.” He leaned in and started to kiss me.

“Are you nuts!” I twisted away from him. “I’m not gonna mack on you on her porch!”

The most adorable smile spread over his face. “Damn, if you aren’t the cutest thing I think I’ve ever seen. Come on,” he added, grabbing my hand, “and stop fidgeting.”

Easy for you to say, I thought as he opened the front door, allowing me to go first.

Lamb to the slaughter! Lamb to the slaughter!

“We’re here, Momma,” he called out.

I jumped when the door closed behind us. We were standing in an oversize entryway with large rooms on the right and left. A massive central stairway led up to the second floor with two separate hallways on either side running to the back of the house. I looked up to see an enormous crystal chandelier hanging above our heads. You could almost see your refection in the marble floors, they were so polished and shiny. I felt uncomfortable standing on them with my shoes on.

The room on our left was very bright with a lot of floral and soft pastel colors in the fabrics and on the walls. The one on the right was more masculine with leather chairs, richer colors, and textured fabrics. Obviously both living areas, I assumed one was for the morning, and the other the afternoon and evening.

“Well, there’s my baby,” a soft Southern voice called out coming down the stairs.

I looked up to see an extremely beautiful woman with black hair pulled back into a flawlessly groomed ponytail. She was dressed casually in khakis and a white button-down shirt. She didn’t look old enough to be Logan’s mommy, but then Logan looked younger than his years himself. She was sort of how I’d picture Scarlett O’Hara if she were alive today, and in her fifties or sixties.

“Hi, Momma,” Logan beamed, slipping back into a little bit of southern accent. They hugged one another, and I stood back smiling as she gave me a once-over. She was smiling the entire time, finally giving me a wink, which made her look exactly the way Logan did when he winked at me.

“So this must be Aden.” She pulled away from Logan and extended a hand toward me. “Emiline Price. Logan talked my ear off for a good hour about you yesterday, and so I just told him he simply had to bring you on around for lunch today so I could get myself a look at the man that bewitched my son in a mere morning.”

“Oh, I-I…” I stammered, shaking her hand and looking back and forth between the two of them.
Wow, it’s the eyes. They have the exact same eyes.

Logan grabbed both our hands to stop me from continually shaking hers. “He’s a little nervous, Momma. I may have forgotten to mention we were having lunch with you.”

“I… Well, not nervous… I… Unprepared perhaps,” I said with a look of desperation.

“He didn’t ask you before bringing you here for lunch?”

“No…ma’am, but thank you for apparently inviting me.”

“Well, you’re most welcome, Aden.” Emiline turned to lead us into the prissy floral room. “Logan, you are a very naughty boy. I know I raised you with better manners than that.”

“You always say that.” He folded his arms as we sat across from her on one of the two facing loveseats. “But if that’s true, then how do you explain Sadie?”

“You leave your sister out of it. Sadie is…well, Sadie. She’s just like her grandmother, a woman who speaks her mind.”

“Is she coming to lunch?” he asked.

“No, I thought it best not to subject your new friend to her on his first visit.”

Okay, she said first visit. Not only visit. That’s promising.

“That’s probably smart,” Logan said with a sexy, deep laugh, placing his hand on my leg.

I looked over at Emiline, who was looking at Logan’s hand on my leg. I immediately started sweating again. “Well, Mrs. Price, if she takes after her mother, she must be exquisite.”

She smiled at me in an unreadable way. “You are a charmer, and please, call me Emiline.”

Okay, Aden, stop blowing smoke up her ass.

Logan squeezed my leg and gave me a wink. “I told you he was nice.”

“Yes.” Emiline looked down at the tray of beverages on the coffee table. “So, Aden, would you like coffee or juice?”

“Juice would be fine.” I smiled weakly.

“So what do you think of my boy?” she asked, reaching down and pouring some orange juice from a carafe.

“He’s…super.” I answered.
Super! What the hell, Aden, you aren’t a member of the Brady Bunch.

She reached out, handing me the orange juice. I took the glass from her with both hands, terrified I’d have a freak spasm and spill it all over her immaculately put-together room.

“What do the two you have planned for today?”

“Well”—Logan took a glass of juice as well, obviously trying not to laugh—“I thought I might borrow one of the cars and show Aden around Atlanta.”

“That sounds lovely.” She poured herself a cup of coffee. “Of course you can use one of the cars, whichever one you want.”

Jesus, how many fucking cars does she have?

“Aden, how long are you in town?”

She hates me. She’s already asking when I’ll be leaving
. “Just for the week, I’m afraid. Atlanta is beautiful, though. It’s great visiting a large city.”

“Oh,” she said, “just visiting. You wouldn’t enjoy living in a larger city?”

“Oh, well…no… I mean, yes… What do I mean?” I asked, laughing nervously. “I don’t know, exactly. I never lived in a big city.”

Logan let out a low rumble of a laugh and grabbed my hand, squeezing it gently.

Again with the touching!

“At least the two of you will have the week to get to know one another a little.”

“And I don’t intend on letting him out of my sight for one minute of it,” Logan declared.

“Really,” Emiline said with a raised eyebrow.

Um, hi…why not just come out and say you plan on fucking me all goddamn week?
“Yeah, that’s very sweet. I’m sure he didn’t mean
every
single minute.” I took a sip of juice.

Logan looked at me and smiled. “That’s exactly what I meant.”

“Well, yeah”—I could feel my face turn beet red—“but he of course means like every
waking
minute.”
Stop talking! Stop talking!

“Of course,” he clarified in a deep Southern accent and with a sly smile, showing off his dimples. “I most certainly did not intend on compromising your virtue when I spoke before.”

Emiline looked me directly in the eye. “It’s so nice to meet young people these days with old-fashioned values.”

Laughing nervously, I replied, “Well, that’s me.”
He is so not getting any tonight, and she is totally not buying this
. “This is a beautiful old home, Emiline.”

“Thank you,” she said, looking around the room. “If you like, after lunch, I’ll give you a little tour.”

“That would be great.”

“Well,” Logan said, “would you both excuse me for a minute? I need to use the little boys’ room.”

Yeah, I mind, fucker. I will kill your ass if you leave me alone with her.

“Of course we don’t mind,” Emiline said. “I’m sure the two of us can amuse one another in your absence.”

He got up and grabbed my shoulder, giving it a little squeeze. “I’ll be right back then.”

“’Kay,” I said.
Here it comes. Now is when she tells me there are several pig farms in the area where she can have my cold dead corpse dropped off if I don’t leave her son alone.

“My son seems to be very taken with you, Aden.” She set her cup and saucer on the coffee table. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so excited.”

“Really?” I asked excitedly, then caught myself. “Well, the feeling is mutual.”

“Is it? You seem as nervous as a pack of mothers watching their toddlers play on the jungle gym. Are you always this jittery, or is it just me?”

I sat there for a second, wide-eyed, wondering how the fuck I was supposed to respond to that. “Okay, well…I’m going to take a leap here and just lay it on the line.”

“How refreshing.” She scooted up in the loveseat. “I’m on pins and needles.”

“I don’t have a clue as to what’s going on between your son and me. I know I like him, a hell of a lot more than I should, considering I barely know him. I’m trying desperately not to allow myself to get carried away, because I know in a few days, we’re each going to get on separate planes and fly away from one another. But…I can’t seem to stop myself, and I think he feels the same. At least I want to believe he does. I mean”—I shook my head—“if you have a crystal ball lying around, I’d love to know where this is all leading.”

“Well, I’m no expert, and I’m certainly not asking for any details, but I think we both know where it’s leading, if it hasn’t already.” She leaned back into the loveseat.

Jesus, Mary!

“But where it goes beyond that is up to the two of you. No fortune-teller can predict life, with all its little twists and turns. I like you much better this way,” she added with a smile. “Old ladies don’t like to be pulled by the tail.”

“I apologize; I have this thing about needing to be liked. It sometimes gets in the way of that actually happening.”

“Well, as long you don’t hurt my boy, I promise to love you to pieces.”

“Okay,” I said, smiling. “I’m actually glad he brought me here. It’s good to know he feels something too.”

“I raised my children to be compassionate with others. Logan was a success. Sadie, on the other hand… Well, let’s just say I should have beaten her more as a child.”

“Beaten who?” Logan asked, coming around the corner.

“Never you mind.” Emiline got up out of her seat. “Well, shall we have lunch?”

We moved into the dining room and ate cucumber sandwiches, some type of cold dill-potato soup, and iced tea. I hate cucumbers, but I ate the whole sandwich, smiling my way through it. Emiline asked a lot of questions about my family, and Nathan’s and my restaurant, my life at home. She also talked a little about Logan’s father, whose name was Jackson. She didn’t say so, but I kind of assumed Jackson Price had been from old money. She referred to him as Jacks, as if plain old Jack wasn’t special enough.