Brooke stepped into Ty’s apartment and it was almost as if she’d never been there before. No longer a structure with risks, weaknesses, strengths…just Ty’s home. His clean color palette simple, strong and somehow comforting. She walked into the center of the carpeted living room area. Every home had its own distinct aroma. She breathed in. His home smelled like a man. Like wood and the coffee he brewed himself. All warm, delicious scents that made her want to curl up on his big leather couch, drink mugs of his rich coffee and stay here forever.
Brooke swallowed. It was on. The relationship. As if she had any clue how to do that crap. Poor guy really didn’t know what he was in for. She had a bucket load more bat-shit-crazy stored up in reserve than he could possibly suspect. He’d only seen the half of it.
Ty walked back into the room, buttoning a clean shirt over his chest. Brooke watched that skin disappear. Her fingers twitched, itching to reach out and stroke, touch, feel his perfect hardness. He approached, his steps light and loose, different from before. He moved with the satisfied swagger of cat with a belly full of cream.
Her nerves stretched tight. “You know I’m not going to be any good at this, don’t you?”
His full brows pushed together and he finished the last button then stopped in front of her. “At what?”
“At this…”she said, pointing back and forth between them. “Putting a label on it isn’t going to make me better at it. You can call a thistle a rose but it’s still a prickly weed.”
Ty smiled. “Baby, even roses have thorns.”
She held his gaze for a long moment. “I don’t even know where to start. Do we go on dates? Do I go back to my place? Do we—?”
Ty laughed softly and stroked the tops of her arms. “Relax. We don’t have to do anything.”
She nodded, letting out a breath and rolling her shoulders.
“But—” Ty smiled. “We could start with you coming to lunch at my parents’ place tomorrow.”
Brooke cleared her throat. “Your parents?”
“Yeah, my sister and her family will be there too.”
Parents? Sister? Shit, she knew even less about parents and siblings than about relationships.
“Don’t know if you’ve picked up on it, Ty, but I’m not so great on the whole social skills thing. Pretty much don’t know what to say to girls—at all.”
He undid the top button of her blouse. “You’ll be fine. They love you already.”
Brooke coughed, her throat going from dry to cracking. “You’ve told them about us?”
“Of course,” he said but his attention dropped to her chest. He ran a finger down her sternum.
Her skin prickled, her nipples hardened.
He did it on purpose. Put his hands so close to her skin, made thinking about what he was saying impossible.
She caught his hand. “What are you doing?”
“You need a shower. You’re all red.” Ty grinned his big white grin.
Brooke glanced down at her spattered chest. “So I am.” She brought his hand to her lips. “But I didn’t say you could touch, did I?” She scraped her teeth over his knuckles.
Ty’s grin wavered as heat filled his expression. “No, am I in trouble?”
“That depends on how well you scrub me down.” Her body rippled with gnawing hunger.
“And if I do an excellent job?” he asked, his low gravelly tone stoking the need in her belly.
“Then you know what happens to good boys…” she whispered and led him to the bathroom.
* * * * *
Brooke yanked on Ty’s hand. “I shouldn’t have worn this.” She tugged at the back of her dress. “You can see my ass.”
They paused on the lawn of the giant home overlooking Lake Washington.
“Your mother doesn’t want to see my ass.”
The way her pulse twitched in her neck you’d think she’d switched up the milk in her coffee with energy drink. A disco beat throbbed against the base of her throat.
This is what she got for trying to look girly and borrowing a dress from Charlize. Tall girl problems. Dresses just don’t sit the same. Maybe she should have turned up in slacks, pepper spray clipped to her belt…
That would’ve been honest at least.
Ty squeezed her fingers gently. “Baby, I promise, if your ass was on show, we’d never have made it out the house.”
She glanced at him. His easy, sexy smile lit up his face. Damn it, he was so excited. Excited for her to meet his family. Probably had no clue the way the idea made her stomach curdle. How in about an hour, she’d almost certainly bet his mother would be pulling him aside, telling him he could do better than such damaged goods. Because his mother would know. Women always did. Women could tell when one of their own was broken. If they took a moment to really look at you. No matter what you wore, how much makeup you put on, it was always there. Under the surface. That oddness. It wasn’t so hard to pick up on. Ty’s mother would take that moment. She’d take a hard look at the woman trying to date Ty.
Brooke sighed then did her best to return his smile, letting him lead her to the front door. Ty balanced a platter of pink cupcakes in one arm and released her fingers to press the bell.
The chime dinged and the door flew open, the bell still tinkling on. A woman in a pale-gray pantsuit flew outside.
She rushed past Ty and threw her arms around Brooke.
“Brooke,” the woman cried, embracing her tightly.
Brooke froze. The woman’s arms wrapped around her middle and hair tickled her nose.
Dammit.
A hugger.
She never knew what to do with a hugger or their lack of boundaries. Usually her don't-try-it vibe was enough to put off even the most ambitious touchy types.
Brooke raised her arms and patted the woman’s back, glanced over her head at Ty.
Ty smiled and shook his head. “Hi, Mom.”
His mother didn’t let go. Just squeezed tighter.
Brooke held her breath.
A man approached behind Ty’s mother. Brooke met his gaze and knew him immediately. Same warm caramel eyes. Same broad shoulders, same swagger. He laid a hand on his wife’s shoulder.
She pulled back, her eyes misty. “After all these years, finally we meet in person.”
All these years…
Brooke looked between the woman and the man. His features rippled with emotion, and then he grabbed Brooke too and pulled her into a hug.
Oh, shit…
His hug was warm, nice enough actually that she didn’t have to fight the urge to crack his nose. But her heart still stopped and realization punched her between the ribs.
“We’ve waited so long to meet you, to thank you for saving our son.”
Brooke closed her eyes, emotions sweeping up her body like a spray of hot water.
Why hadn’t this occurred to her?
That when Ty said he’d told his parents about her, he’d told them all about her. Or maybe they’d put it together themselves. They’d tried to see her all those years ago but she’d refused to see them. She just hadn’t thought today would be about that.
“All right, folks, let her breathe or she’ll never make it to lunch,” Ty said.
His father stepped back and Brooke grabbed Ty’s hand and moved in to his side.
“Brooke,” Ty said. “This is my mom, Christine, and my dad, Thomas.”
“Hi.” Brooke smiled shakily at Christine and then Thomas.
“You can just call us Mom and Dad,” Christine said, grinning wide. That same wide grin Ty used to melt her.
Mom and Dad?
Brooke let out a breath and leaned against Ty. Shit. So much for worrying they’d hate her. She glanced at Christine’s beaming face. You could practically see her mind tallying up the wedding guest list before Brooke even stepped in the door.
Well at least lunch would be interesting.