Page 130 of Meet Me In The Dark

“It’s my mother.”

I jump off the couch so fast, I nearly trip over my own feet. “Your mother?”

“Yeah.”

He stands, far too calm fora man whose mother just walked into his house unannounced.

“You’ve got a code on the gate,” I remind him.

“She has it.”

“But how did she just walk in here? Like, into this house?” I whisper-shriek.

“She has a key.”

I gape at him. “Okay, we have very different families.”

He smirks, pops a piece of popcorn into his mouth, and chews like this is entertainment.

“Julian, I cannot meet your mother looking like this.” I motion wildly to myself: sweatpants, his oversized T-shirt, my hair an absolute disaster, and zero makeup.

He steps in, kisses me, and murmurs against my mouth, “You’ll be fine. My mother loves everyone… except Melinda.”

Is that supposed to make me feel better?

It doesn’t.

And who the hell is Melinda?

Before I can argue, stall, or fling myself out the nearest window, she walks in.

Julian turns and greets her with a warm hug, and I want to die.

She looks like the kind of woman who could bake cookies for you and win a bar fight at the same time.

Julian gestures to me with an easy smile. “This is Celeste.”

His mother turns to me, her gaze sharp but not unkind.

Oh, God, here it comes.

I wipe my palms on my sweats and force a smile like I’m not having a minor breakdown inside. “Mrs. Blackwood,it’s so nice to meet—”

“Oh, I’ll have none of that Mrs. Blackwood bullshit, love. It makes me feel old. Call me Margaret. And I didn’t mean to intrude, I just haven’t heard from Julian, and he wasn’t answering his phone. I thought I was about to walk in on him naked and dead.”

“I turned it off,” he tells her.

Shock crosses her face before she turns to me, her eyes crinkling and her tone suddenly warm. “I like you already.”

I blink. “Oh, thanks?”

Julian chuckles under his breath while Margaret drapes an arm around my shoulders, guiding me toward the kitchen like we’re old friends.

“Come on, love, let me get to know the woman who made my son relax for more than five minutes.”

Oh.

Oh, fuck.