Page 35 of This Time Around

“Oh!” Maegan said, releasing Milo fast enough that he stumbled and would’ve fallen over if he didn’t grab the edge of the desk.

“You’re lucky I held back because you’re a lady,” Milo called out after his sister when she walked away with her customer.

Maegan flipped her brother off behind her back.

“What the hell happened in here? One minute she’s teasing you about a threesome, and the next thing I know, she’s kicking your ass.”

Milo scoffed. “She wasn’t kicking my ass. I was letting her win.”

“Okay, we’ll go with that. Why was it necessary for you to let her win, Milo?”

“I got even with her for teasing me about the threesome by recommending that she get an area rug for her office since the tile was hell on knees.”

My face turned bright red.

“I tried to play it off like I was joking, but I’m not as good at hiding my emotions as she is.” That was definitely true.

“Well, at least she’ll have something juicy to report back to my mother,” I offered. “Oh, by the way, you’re coming with me to dinner tonight at my parents’ house.”

“Excuse me?” he asked huffily. “What happened to asking me?”

“Look, my mother demanded that I bring you, so I’ll hogtie you and carry you in there if I have to.”

“No, you won’t,” Milo scoffed. He was right. I had other ways to persuade him to do the things I wanted.

“She’s making that chocolate silk pie you love so much for dessert.”

“In that case,” Milo said. “What time are you picking me up?”

“Mom said we’re eating at six thirty, so—”

“We need to be there by six then,” Milo said. I smiled because he remembered.

“Yep. I’ll pick you up at five fifty.”

“Deal.” Milo stood on his tiptoes and gave me a quick kiss. “See you tonight. I need to get back to work before Maegan kicks my ass again.”

“Ha! You admit it.”

“She’s mean as a snake,” Milo said dramatically. Then he blew me a kiss and walked away.

I took my phone out of my pocket to text my mom.He said okay, but only after I promised him one of your chocolate silk pies. Oopsy.

Atta boy, Andy,she fired back to me.

I chuckled to myself as I went upstairs to get to work. Knowing I would get to spend time with Milo and my family put me in a good mood and made the day go by faster. I wanted to call the whole thing off when I picked up Milo at his house because he looked so handsome in his navy-blue pin-striped dress shirt and dark, denim jeans. In addition to looking good enough to eat, he appeared nervous.

“You wouldn’t be so nervous if you knew the lengths my mother went to get you to dinner.”

“Does that mean you’d rather I not go?” he asked then worried his full bottom lip between his teeth.

“It means I wish we were both staying homealone, but maybe we can duck out early and watch a movie or something.”

“Maybe. We’ll see how well you behave tonight,” Milo teased.

When we arrived at my parents’ house, both Milo and I moaned.

“What the hell?” I asked, pointing to the extra vehicles in the driveway. “Both sets of grandparents are here too?”