Page 57 of Making It Up

She laughs. “Actually, Jack just told me that Mia was stopping by. Charlie said that meant you’d be here too.”

I sigh. I shouldn’t be here. It is my mother’s house and I do stop by routinely, but tonight, I’m here because Mia is here. I won’t lie to myself about that. Or to my mother. But I shouldn’t be here because of her.

“You don’t seem surprised by that either,” I say to my mom.

“That you came out here because Mia Hansen is here? Should I be surprised by that?”

“Maybe?” Mia and I have never really spent time together before. Why does everyone seem to think this is so obvious?

“You’re an incredibly intelligent person. Mia is wonderful. I’m not at all surprised that you realize that.”

I shake my head. “I shouldn’t be…seeing her.”

My mom studies my face for a moment. “Well, you can’t really help it if she’s at your mother’s house when you stop by,” my mom says, tucking her hands into the back pockets of her jeans.

I narrow my eyes. “I mean, I shouldn’t be dating her.”

My mom gives a light chuckle. “If just running into her at your parents’ house, hanging out with your brother, riding four-wheelers, and painting nails with your nieces is your idea of a date, I’m not really surprised you’re still single.”

I open my mouth, then shut it as her words, tone, and expression sink in.

Charlie filled her in completely. Not just that I might be interested in the fact that Mia would be here and might be stopping by, but the entire plan. That Mia is making up reasons for us to run into each other. That it’s supposed to seem casual. That we’re essentially sneaking around behind her father’s back.

My mom is now in on it.

“I guess it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility that I would run into her here,” I say.

My mom lifts her shoulder. “She is the librarian helping your brother with what he needs to put together a birthday party for his daughter. And you’re a good uncle. Who would care about that birthday party. Seems to me you’re both just very nice people. And I like to invite very nice people to stay for dinner at my house.”

Yep, she knows all about it. And evidently, approves. Of course she does. There is absolutely nothing about Mia Hansen that any parent would disapprove of.

Me on the other hand…

Then the rest of what my mother said sinks in.

“Wait, riding four-wheelers?” Surely Mia didn’t tell them all about our conversation about four-wheelers and dirt bikes.

“The girls took her and Sloan out. They couldn’t wait to show them how to ride when Sloan told them that Mia has never driven a four-wheeler before.”

Wow, I don’t have to worry about other men horning in. It’s my own adorable nieces getting in the way of me getting Mia dirty in new-to-her ways.

Just then, as if on cue, I hear the sound of four-wheeler engines in the distance.

“Those girls are always on time for dinner,” my mom says.

I chuckle despite myself. “Who’s cooking?”

She sticks her tongue out at me. “Jack.”

My mother is good at a number of things. Cooking is not one of them.

My brother isn’t awesome, but he’s okay and he’s really trying. It’s one of his goals to start making meals that his daughters remember and enjoy. He did help with cooking before his wife died, though he did not do the bulk of it. He handled things like pasta night and taco night. And apparently, he’s great at putting chicken nuggets and fish sticks in the oven. Anything dealing with sautéing, roasting, or baking fell to Kaitlyn though.

My mom turns and heads back inside, probably to lend her help to Jack—and she’s not a bad sous chef—but more likely to give me a chance to take in the sight that drives into her front yard.

It’s very possible that my mom knows exactly how the sight of Mia riding a four-wheeler, her grin huge, her cheeks flushed, her hair tousled and falling around her shoulders as she pulls the helmet off her head, will hit me low and hard in the gut.

My mom and dad are madly in love. They are romantic, there’s no question. And my mom has always found my dad sexy on a dirt bike.