The Fix (The Carolina Connections, #1)(35)
“Nate, hand me that towel. No, the other one. I’m pulling this thing out before your mother burns the house down.”
Nate shot me a look that said he regretted inviting me over more than anything he’d ever done in his entire life. I just sent him the brightest smile I had. Oddly, the chaos in the room served to calm my nerves completely. Turns out my mom was right—everybody does have their own brand of crazy. And the Murphys’ brand involved yelling and spazzing out and cussing, and I couldn’t have felt more at home.
“Uh, Mom, Dad, this is Laney.” Two heads swung simultaneously to me.
“Oh my word. Laney.” Mrs. Murphy brought one hand to her hair and the other to her ample hip. “You must think we’re insane. I am so sorry!”
“Not at all,” I laughed. “It actually reminds me of home. It’s lovely to meet you, Mrs. Murphy. Oh, and I brought these for you.” I extended the flowers and muffins.
She came over, grabbed the offerings and shoved them in Nate’s hands and then proceeded to envelop me in a full-body hug the likes of which I’d never experienced before. “Call me Erin.” In that moment I think I missed my mom more than I’d realized. “And thank you for the gorgeous flowers and whatever’s in that tin—I’m sure it will be delicious,” she said, still hugging me.
The sound of the doorbell caused her to finally release me, and she turned toward the foyer.
“That’ll be Laney’s son and her brother,” Nate explained as Erin hurried off to answer the door.
“So, Laney,” Mr. Murphy began. He was just as tall as Nate and I could immediately spot the resemblance. They shared the same blue eyes, and although the older man’s hair was peppered with gray and he carried some extra weight, the similarities were undeniable. “I hear you’ve been spending some time with my son. I hope he’s treating you right.”
“He’s a perfect gentleman.” Well, most of the time. “He’s helping me out a lot around my house. Thanks to him my doorbell no longer sounds like a drowning cat and I don’t trip over my uneven floor on my way to the kitchen anymore.”
“Good, well you just let me know if he steps out of line and I’ll straighten him right up.” He smiled at me, and wouldn’t you know it, there was an identical copy of that damn dimple.
Nate just rolled his eyes at his dad. “You’re looking good, old man, but I still think I could take you.”
“Yeah, you just try,” he responded, the affection between the two obvious.
It was then that Rocco bounded into the kitchen followed by Gavin, who wore an indiscernible expression. He approached Nate and said quietly, “Dude. I don’t want to alarm you, but your mom just groped me in the entryway. I think I might be pregnant.”
Nate snickered. “Ah, the pat-down. She was just checking for contraband. Don’t worry—your virtue is safe.”
I didn’t even want to know what that was about, so when Erin re-entered the kitchen I quickly made introductions. Rocco was shy, as usual, and I noticed a few nose wiggles, but with three familiar adults in the room and Erin’s innate warmness, he was soon emerging from his shell a bit.
The surprise of the evening, though, was how taken Rocco was with Nate’s dad, whose name I learned was Riordan. The older man held a seemingly endless store of kid-friendly jokes and he soon had Rocco in fits of giggles. I couldn’t help it when my eyes teared up a bit. Nate immediately noticed and laid a hand on the small of my back, not removing it until his sister, Bailey, arrived with a friend and we all sat down for dinner. Nate’s arm then moved to the back of my chair and remained there throughout the entire meal.
Erin had set the flowers I brought as the centerpiece to the table and she thanked me profusely for the muffins I’d made using applesauce instead of butter. Who knew how they’d taste, but it was worth the effort.
Conversation over dinner was lively, and I couldn’t remember laughing so much in a very long time. The company definitely made up for the almost inedible chicken, and one look around the table showed all parties’ creative attempts at hiding their uneaten chicken on their plates. Thankfully Rocco didn’t blurt out any embarrassing comments about the food. Instead he just stuffed his face with rolls and exchanged more jokes with Riordan. Within the flow of conversation around us, I noticed Bailey not so subtly checking me out throughout dinner. But with Nate’s regular grazes of my shoulder and neck, I maintained my composure and just tried to smile back at her.
I could see some resemblances between Bailey and the rest of her family. She shared Nate and Riordan’s blue eyes, but her hair had clearly come from Erin. It was a beautiful shade of blond and she wore it in a ponytail with a big swath of bangs angled across her forehead. She was also fairly tall—I’d guess maybe 5’7”—which was no surprise considering the height of her brother, and she seemed to share my preference for casual clothes.
While Bailey conversed naturally with everyone throughout the meal and entertained us with some stories (as well as some incredibly well-timed insults at Nate’s expense), her friend Kia was less than entertaining. She chattered like a sixteen-year-old girl on a caffeine drip and seemed not to realize that none of her stories were hitting the mark. We were all too polite to let it show, of course, responding instead with head nods followed by a change in subject. I caught Nate shooting looks at Bailey every once in a while, which she responded to with wide smiles. It was after a particularly mind-numbing tale of a nail appointment gone wrong that Gavin decided he was done being polite. Why he thought it was a good idea to provoke a confrontation at his boss’s dinner table I have no idea, but as I’ve stated before, Gavin is an idiot.