Playing for Keeps (Heartbreaker Bay #7)(79)

“God yes,” Clara said. “Although I can only put my legs in, dammit.”

Ten minutes later, Clara and Greg went outside to check on the hot tub while Sadie and Caleb changed. When Sadie came out of the bathroom, Caleb was waiting in the hallway for her.

“Thanks for surviving dinner,” she said when he pulled her into him. They were surrounded by bunches of family pics from over the years, including Clara with all her academic and band awards, and Sadie in several decades of really bad fashion choices where she often looked like she was trying out for a part in a zombie apocalypse movie. “You handled their grilling better than most.”

“How many have survived?” he asked.

She pulled free and moved to lead him outside, but he caught her hand and pulled her back around, gently pushing her hair from her face. “Too personal?” he asked.

“Too embarrassing.” She sighed. “Zero. I’ve brought zero people home. Your turn now.”

He held up two fingers. “My family has met two women. They scared away one, and I scared away the other all on my own.”

She stared up at him. She wanted to know more, but now wasn’t the time. “What did you say to my parents when I was in the kitchen?”

He didn’t pretend to not know what she meant. “I asked your mother if she realized she hurt you with her comments and questions.”

“And . . . ?”

“And she said nothing hurt you.”

She searched his gaze, knowing there had to be more. “And?”

“And . . . I asked if she was sure about that.”

Sadie’s heart caught. Actually, her bones melted, leaving her nothing but a puddle. Dammit. And as always when she felt unbearably touched and didn’t know how to deal with it, she reacted badly. “I don’t need you to fight my battles for me, Caleb. I fight my own battles.”

His gaze met hers. “I’m very aware of that. But I’m always going to have your back, Sadie.”

She just kept staring up at him, realizing that he wasn’t trying to fix her life. He was trying to be there for her in the only way he knew how.

Since she was now in bare feet, she had to go up on her tiptoes to brush a kiss across his jaw. Before she could react, he’d turned his head so their mouths lined up and slid a hand to the nape of her neck to deepen the kiss.

When they pulled free, she had to shake her head to clear it. “What was that for?”

“For trusting me enough to let me come here with you tonight.”

“I had to bring someone,” she said. “I thought it might as well be you.”

He flashed her a knowing grin, not insulted in the least. “You wanted it to be me.”

Because that was very true, and also because it made her squirm a little bit, she took his hand and pulled him down the hallway.

He took in a picture of her around eight years old looking like the little girl in the Addams family. “Cute.”

“No, I wasn’t cute. I insisted on wearing whatever I wanted and was practically rabid.”

“Aren’t all little kids?” he asked easily. “Remind me to show you a picture of me when I was eight. I too dressed myself. I favored a cowboy hat, a Superman sweatshirt, and a cape made of my mom’s favorite shawl, topped off with rain boots and jeans so big I had to use a rope to hold them up. It was the only outfit I’d wear. When my mom washed the clothes every few days, I’d insist on standing naked as a jaybird in front of the washer and dryer, waiting for them to finish.”

“That’s not rabid, that’s just crazy.”

He smiled. “And yet I’m your date tonight.”

“Well crazy does attract crazy.”

He slung an arm around her neck. “Don’t I know it.”

They stepped outside together and Sadie’s heart started to pound as she realized her moment was almost here, the one she’d been looking so forward to all night. She dropped her towel and got into the hot water, turning so she didn’t miss the show.

Caleb was in navy blue board shorts and a long-sleeved T-shirt. He did that very male move of reaching over his shoulder and yanking his shirt off, leaving him in just the board shorts, slung low on his lean hips. Sadie’s gaze went to the way they were cut with muscles that tended to make women stupid, but she knew where everyone else’s gazes went.

To his tattoos.

As she watched her parents take in his ink and suck in a judgmental breath, she waited for the amusement to hit her. After all, this was why she’d brought him tonight, right? For the shock value. The entertainment. She’d known he’d charm the socks off her parents, that they would fall for him even more quickly than she had, and that they’d consider him everything they’d ever wanted for her. And she knew it would all be based off the superficial knowledge they had of him and his appearance.

And now she could say gotcha . He wasn’t what he appeared to be. He was, in fact, better than he appeared.

But the joy of the moment never hit.

Instead, she felt something turn over in her gut and it made her feel a little sick. Here she’d been thinking that ever since Wes, she’d started over. That she’d actually gotten somewhere, that maybe she wasn’t as damaged and screwed up as she’d once been.

But apparently, she hadn’t come as far as she’d thought. Because her mom reacted predictably. She sucked in a hard breath and then met Sadie’s gaze, and in them was the usual disappointment.