Ivegotyou w3979 doc, p.14
IveGotYou_w3979.doc, page 14
Dillon and Katie immediately grabbed their jackets and were outside by the time Amber took her coat out of the closet next to the back door. She quickly zipped up her silver parka-style jacket and headed to the door, with Josh reaching around her to open it. Outside, the kids were already headed down the driveway as Josh kept pace next to her. Amber found herself somewhat shocked to be suddenly headed over to his parents’ big Thanksgiving holiday—she’d assumed he’d only played around last night with the idea of her coming over to meet his family.
“Um, I don’t know if I’m dressed right? Is your family pretty informal?” she asked, more than nervous, expectant, and unsure of what she had just agreed to.
“Are you kidding?” He eyed her casual jeans and jacket and laughed. “Our family motto is ‘It’s not a Craig family holiday until someone throws up or goes to the emergency room.’”
She found herself laughing along with him; just like she did any other time she was with the man. “That’s certainly interesting,” she stated. She smiled as he glanced down at her, and their eyes locked again until she relented and looked ahead. She felt more than nervous, not because she was about to meet his family, but because he was able to get to her time and again.
Silently they walked side by side in the cold November air. The crunch of dried leaves beneath their feet made up for the lack of conversation as they made their way down one block of pre-World War II homes and around the corner, with Dillon and Katie ahead of them.
“So…Cooper finally stopped in the office the other morning,” she stated, finally thinking of something to say. “I can’t believe he did so willingly on his own. Any idea what motivated him to come in and have Brook put him in our files like I requested he do?”
He looked sheepish and shrugged carelessly. “Guess I mentioned to him that if he didn’t get his ass over to your office, he wasn’t gonna like the job I had lined up for him in the afternoon.”
She laughed—she’d already known Josh had something to do with Cooper Gerhardt’s sudden appearance at her office. “Mmm, I thought it might be something like that.”
“Yeah, and the weird thing is that the guy tore out of the garage royally pissed and swearing and came back an hour later all happy, whistling and acting weird. Besides all that, he hasn’t gotten drunk since. Kinda strange if you ask me.”
“Really? That is strange.” She thought back to when Cooper had been in her office; she hadn’t noticed anything that could have made a life-altering change in the man.
“Creepy is more like it.”
She smiled and changed the subject. “So how is the shop remodeling going?”
“Good. The construction crew poured the foundation for the addition, got it framed in with the roof on too. The addition will be the showroom/reception area and new office space. Next week they’ll close it up with windows and do insulation and then take down the wall between the old and new construction. Meanwhile, the guys and I are trying to figure out a way to keep working while we update and remodel the garage area. I might have to put up a temporary shelter with heaters for us all to work in so I can keep on schedule and where we should be profit wise.”
“Sounds like a good plan.”
“You’ll have to stop over some time and check out the progress. I’ll give you a tour of the layout.” He sounded genuinely excited about what was taking place in his life.
“Great, I will,” she whispered, more than happy for him but at the same time suddenly getting a panicky feeling in her stomach.
They walked around another block of old, established homes with a tight silence between them. “Something wrong?” he questioned, somehow sensing her change in mood.
“I’m nervous,” she blurted out, looking up at him. “What if your family doesn’t like me?”
He just grinned and laughed. “Hell, I’m not worried about that,” he confessed. “I’m just afraid you won’t like them. But look at the upside—at least you get to leave, and you never have to come back if you don’t wanna, unlike me.”
She thought he sounded just like someone under house arrest. “That’s supposed to reassure me?”
“Trust me. My family is gonna like you. Although my brothers will probably give ya crap for showing up with a loser like me—their opinion, not mine—and my sisters will talk your ear off, and my mom will stuff you with dessert and then make you play cards. Oh yeah, my old man will have to know what kind of car you drive.”
She didn’t know if she should laugh or cry.
“Besides all that, the brother and sister-in-laws will probably give you the sympathy look since they all went through the same gauntlet,” he teased as they crossed the street and headed toward a massive, older two-story Arts and Craft style home that had at least twenty cars parked out front and across from it.
“I’m glad you find this so amusing.”
“I’m laughing because I would have never pegged you as a Nervous Nelly. Don’t you have to get up in court and speak in front of crowds every week?”
“Yes, but the lawyers, judges, witnesses and juries are focused on the defendant—not me.”
He just grinned at her reply and passed the sidewalk leading to the front of the house, directing her instead to the long driveway, with Dillon also striding up ahead to the drive as Katie practically ran alongside her foster brother to keep up.
Amber slowed her steps, shocked at the vast amount of males of all ages and sizes, shouting and yelling while playing a game of basketball in the leaf-strewn driveway of the Craig homestead. “Why does this picture remind me of a prison yard?” she joked, covering her jittery nerves with humor.
He chuckled again and grabbed her hand in his. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you if there’s a prison uprising,” he teased back, before he turned to start up the driveway again.
She stood rooted to the pavement, surprised as he took her hand in his large callused one. The last time he’d touched her was the night of Stacy and Marc’s wedding, when he’d grabbed her hand and pulled her onto the dance floor after she’d turned down his first three attempts at asking her to dance. Finally, on his fourth try, she’d relented, more out of pity for the man than her need to dance. That night, with her hand in his, he’d slowly led her onto the dance floor before gently taking her into his arms. In that moment, she’d experienced a strange mixed bag of emotions—from excited, to safe and secure, to finally cherished. Her unexplained feelings stemmed from the way he’d been so patient with her all night, the way he tenderly held her against him, and how attentive he’d been. All of it seemed too good to be true. Too right—especially with someone so wrong for her.
Little did she know.
“Amber, you okay?”
She pulled herself together and swallowed hard as he turned and looked down at her with a questioning, lazy half grin on his handsome face. “Yes…fine,” she whispered, as she tried hard to smile and act normal when she felt anything but.
All this time, the perfect guy was right under my nose. How could I not see it?
He was a great friend to others, hardworking, smart, kind, sexy, funny, had a nice family…so how could I not see it until now?
Because I was too busy denying, pushing away, and willing it not to happen, pretending from that first night at the wedding when I danced with him that it was nothing, all because I was too scared to admit Josh Craig could be the one—too scared because he didn’t exactly fit my stupid perfect husband profile. I was so sure there was someone else out there who would fit it better.
“I know they look like a motley crew, but I swear they’re harmless,” he kidded again, pulling her behind him as they walked up the drive.
“Josh…wait.”
He stopped at her soft request and looked back at her again. “Now what?” He grinned and tilted his head to one side in mock exasperation with her stalling.
“It’s just that…well…thanks for asking me to come over,” she offered breathlessly. Her heart raced uncontrolled as she suddenly saw him in a whole new light. From out of nowhere, she found herself overwhelmed with the need to hug the man, before falling into his arms crying. “It was really sweet of you.”
Chapter Eleven: Safety in Numbers
Sweet?
Was that good?
It had to be. The woman sounds—oddly enough—happy to be meeting my family.
This made him more than confused, dumbstruck, and plain suspicious; there was no way in hell he would want to be in her position if the situation was reversed.
“Yeah, that’s all right,” he threw back, not sure why she was looking at him the way she was. “Sure everything’s okay?”
She nodded and continued to look anything but sure. “Yes…perfect.”
“I don’t know. You’ve got a strange look on your face. Not thinking of callin’ the cops, are you?”
She laughed and smiled up at him as he did the same back down at her. “With this crowd? Definitely a SWAT team for sure.”
He couldn’t hold back his laughter. The woman hadn’t even met his family, and she already fit in. “Come on, Miss Smarty Pants.”
He held her small hand in his as they walked up the drive, trying like hell to ignore all the weird looks his uncles, cousins, nephews, and brothers threw his way. He was pretty sure they were all thinking the same exact thing right now:
What the hell?
About time, loser.
What’s a hot chick like her doing with him?
It won’t last.
He couldn’t blame them for thinking those things, since the same exact statements were running through his mind at full throttle. He was totally confused about where he stood with her, especially since they hadn’t really dated, unless he counted the shopping thing and the Saturday night at the jail together, but here she was meeting his family. He also probably needed his head examined, given that he was bringing some woman home to his family whom he hadn’t even asked out yet. Although he guessed a guy had to take what he could get. Even if that meant he had to bring her home to endure an inquisition by his entire family on Thanksgiving Day.
First up, he led her over and introduced her to his dad, John Craig, and then the rest of the male Craig mob. Once they’d met, he didn’t know why she’d worried or why he’d been concerned about her presence here today. She easily took on the Craig men, countering with smart remarks of her own pertaining to the barbs the guys slung her way: regarding him and her together, her lack of taste in men, and how a woman like her could probably do better without even trying. She whipped the guy’s collective butts when it came to trash talking, since none of the Craig men realized they were up against an attorney who could out-talk anyone on any given day of the week. It was all he could do not to bust a gut laughing or to take the woman and pull her into his arms.
Given he had an audience, he resisted the urge to do exactly that and instead introduced Katie and Dillon. Immediately his younger brother Jared tossed the teenager the ball and informed him what position he was going to play. After which Dillon gave Jared the typical ‘Screw This’ look, which was a standard threat of Dillon’s—the kid made the same expression each day at the shop when he was given chores to do.
“Come on, ladies,” Josh told both Katie and Amber. “Let’s go inside, and I’ll introduce you to the rest of the firing squad before the first game starts.”
Amber reprimanded him. “Come on. I like your family, even if they remind me of a police lineup.”
He whispered teasingly into her ear as they walked across the drive towards the house with Katie ahead of them. “Have I told you that your smart mouth turns me on?”
“Um…no,” she returned, sounding almost speechless for a second. “Turned on, huh? So what do you want me to do about it, exactly?”
He looked down at her, caught the flirting tone in her voice and saw the glint of something naughty in her eyes. He swallowed hard, sure this wasn’t the time nor the place to finally jumpstart something with her, even if he’d spent the last year waiting and hoping and praying that something would fire between them. Christ! It definitely wasn’t the best time for the woman to start to look at him and say things like that—all throaty and breathless sounding. Two minutes before meeting his mother. I have absolutely no timing with women.
He did the only thing a guy could do in this situation—he groaned hard, sucked it up, and just plain ignored her last teasing remark. He also ignored her soft laughter as he held her hand and pulled her towards the back door that led into a mudroom-style back hall, and then into the large family kitchen of his parents’ home.
The same home he’d spent his childhood in, his angst-filled teenage years, big family holidays, ordinary weekends, humid summer days wishing they had air conditioning, winter evenings in the living room watching hockey with his dad and brothers, enjoying great meals around the big kitchen table thanks to his mom’s cooking. More great times than he could count, mixed with a bunch of just plain good ones, along with the inevitable sad days of deaths, funerals, and illnesses in a person’s life—all of it spent under one roof.
Now he was finally bringing home a woman, and not just any female—Amber represented everything he could ever want in a woman. He’d known that from the first time he laid eyes on her, though he’d never believed he would find himself bringing her home to meet his family.
And he never thought the woman would pick this exact moment to finally see the light where he was concerned.
****
Inside the big informal kitchen, all the Craig women were busy laying out a production line of pies, cookies, bars and desserts on a long wood table covered with a red-checked oil cloth. Warmth and the homey scents of Thanksgiving filtered through the air, along with the sounds of music mixed with children’s laughter, and all of it intermingled with the roar of twenty females talking at once.
Amber looked on as Josh pulled her behind him into the 1940s-style kitchen, complete with black-and-white checked floor, old glass-fronted cabinets, green Formica countertops, and no less than three food-splattered high chairs that looked recently vacated. She wasn’t sure in the least if she was up for crashing a private holiday, but there was no turning back at this point.
“OMG—it’s the hot babe from Henry and Son’s!”
She quickly glanced over to a dark-haired teenage girl who not only resembled Josh, but who had promptly announced their arrival at the top of her teen lungs, which in turn made everyone in the room stare in their direction. It was so quiet a pin could be heard dropping a mile away. But only for a second, before a chorus of ‘Oh’s!’ were muttered collectively. Each female took in the fact that their brother, son, nephew, or uncle was now currently holding hands with a strange woman on Thanksgiving Day.
“Hello, everyone,” she offered firmly and politely, trying to act as she did when addressing a new jury panel. “I’m Amber Bradley.”
Josh turned and gave his younger sister a dirty look. “Nice going, Big Mouth,” he grumped, then turned back to the group. “Yeah, well, like Janey already told you, this is my friend Amber and her friend Katie. They were at the Bergstroms and decided to come over and meet everyone.”
“Hi, Katie,” Sara, Josh’s niece, spoke, jumping down from one of the kitchen stools next to the peninsula that separated the kitchen and dining room.
“Hi, Sara,” Katie beamed and turned to look up at Amber. “We go to school together.”
Sara immediately came over and took charge. “Want to go watch the dog show on TV?”
“Is that okay?” Katie questioned.
Amber smiled, glad that Katie had found someone to link up with. “Sure, go ahead.”
The two girls giggled together and immediately started talking about school as they exited the room.
“And I’m Josh’s mother, Gina,” a petite, dark-haired lady who looked to be in her late fifties introduced. She welcomed Amber not only with a big smile on her face, but with an equally warm aproned embrace as well.
Amber hugged her back and was immediately put at ease. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Craig.”
Josh’s mother laughed contently and shook her head as she stepped back. “Just call me Gina. Now come with me and I’ll introduce you to the rest of the crew. Do you like champagne, dear? We were just going to sit down and have some with dessert and play some cards. Over the years, it’s become a tradition for us ladies after the dishes are done. Oh! We do have red and white wine too. Now just ignore the mess in the kitchen—we’ve almost got it under control.”
She looked behind her to see Josh grinning wildly and giving her the ‘I told you so’ look. She grinned back secretively before turning to follow the immaculately styled Gina Craig. She noticed Josh didn’t linger for a second longer than necessary before he headed back outside. It didn’t bother her in the least, since over the next two hours, she found herself having more fun than she could remember having on a Thanksgiving. She chalked it up partly to the three glasses of champagne she’d had, but mostly to the fact that the Craig women were all so outgoing, talkative, fun, and generally fascinated not only with her profession as a defense attorney, but with the fact that she’d shown up with Josh this afternoon.
“So who’s the hottie outside?”
She glanced next to her as Josh’s youngest sister got her attention. “Who? Josh?” she joked. Janey rolled her black-rimmed eyes dramatically. “I’m talking about the tall guy with the short blond hair who’s currently whipping the other guys’ butts at basketball.”
Amber glanced out through the dining room windows that overlooked the backyard and a portion of the drive and garage area. “Oh, that’s Dillon Lange. He’s Katie’s foster brother, and he just started working with Josh at the garage after school.”
“Is that so?” Janey said mysteriously, as she glanced over Amber’s shoulder to get another look outside.
“He’s a junior at Cedar High School,” Amber mentioned, taking a long look at Josh’s black-shrouded sister. The girl, with her glossy dark hair and stunning creamy complexion, would no doubt look beautiful outfitted in some brighter tones of clothing. “He started classes at Cedar High last spring.”
