Chapter Seven

Emma gave a quiet sigh of relief as she followed Brant through the airport in Pensacola. After their awful airport experience in Miami, she was grateful there were no dogs in the vicinity. “Emma!” a familiar voice called out. Uh-oh, maybe her relief had come too soon. Her mother, dressed in formfitting jeans and a white V-neck T-shirt, was bearing down on them. Shit, she had told her that they would take a taxi. She should have known she couldn’t count on her mother to listen to anything she said.

Brant gave her a questioning look. She rolled her eyes. “You might want to go ahead and brace yourself; that’s my mom.” She barely had time to finish speaking before her mother launched herself into his arms. Emma couldn’t contain her chuckle at his deer-in-the-headlights look.

“Well, hello there, handsome!” Her mother finally peeled herself off of him long enough to say, “I’m Kat Davis; what’s your name, hon?”

Brant gave her a nervous smile. “Great to meet you, Kat. I’m Brant Stone.”

Her mother’s mouth seemed to drop to the floor before she blurted, “You’re the asshole that Em works with?”

Oh my God! Why hadn’t she thought of that? Of course she would have mentioned Brant by name to her mother when she was raging about him. The thought had never occurred to her that her mother would make the connection. On the plane ride into Pensacola, she and Brant had decided to say that they had been introduced by a mutual friend. That wasn’t technically a lie. The lady from Human Resources had introduced them when Emma was hired. Now that whole story was useless. As they stood there gaping at each other, her mother suddenly pulled Brant back into her arms, slapping him on the back while laughing hysterically. “I love it! I should have known all of that arguing was just some kind of foreplay between you two.”

“Mom,” she groaned. This was just getting worse and worse. She needed to shut her mother up before this escalated further. “It’s all kind of new between us, so we haven’t really told anyone yet.”

Her mother finally released Brant again and gave them both a wink. “Ahhh, gotcha. Well, come on, you two, let’s grab your bags and head home. Your father is firing up the grill tonight.”

“I think we both need to shower before dinner. Could you drop us at our hotel first? They’re supposed to have our rental car there.”

Her mother gave a shake of her head. “No hotels, honey. You know that’s not how we roll. The house has plenty of room. I have your room already made up for you two. Your father and I are hip to how things are now. Robyn and Boston can’t wait to see you.”

She was scrambling to come up with an argument to get them out of the hell that her mother was proposing when Brant did something that completely floored her. He put an arm around her mother, saying, “That sounds wonderful, Kat. I can’t wait to meet the rest of the family.”

Emma shot him a look that would have felled a lesser man. He only smiled at her in return. “Right, honey? I know you want to spend as much time as possible with your family while we’re here.”

That was it. He had officially lost his freaking mind. Was he just trying to get to her for some reason or had he not thought this through? She had to wonder if he even understood that her mom was planning to put them both in a room together for several days. Her room was a good size, but it had a queen-size bed and that was it. Giving him an evil smile, she decided that if he could live with sleeping on the floor all weekend, then who was she to argue?

That’s right, honey. Game on.

She was more than a little pissed at him anyway. When he picked her up at the hotel, he had made no mention of what had happened between them that morning. She kept waiting for him to broach the topic, but nada, nothing. It wasn’t as if she’d thought he would come back and declare his love, but come on, shouldn’t they at least talk about it? Was such an earth-shattering experience that easily dismissed for him? Not wanting him to see how much his actions were bothering her, she reverted to what she knew best: sarcasm. If he could act like nothing ever happened, then so could she. Just because he had given her the best orgasm of her life didn’t mean she had to lose her head. She could do casual one-nighters, right?

A few steps ahead of her, Brant continued to talk to her mother like they were old friends.

“Mom, we need to at least stop and pick up our rental car.”

“I’ve got that covered, too. Your father gave your old car a once-over and you can use it while you’re here. It will be good for the thing to get some use.” Just as Emma started to argue, it suddenly hit her. Yeah, Brant would be horrified by her old car. She could picture his muscular frame folding into her purple Mustang. Not that it thrilled her to drive it either. What was once a cool car back in high school was now considered a vintage Barney reject. Still, she could handle some embarrassment if it bothered Mr. Freshly Pressed even a little.

She smiled sweetly at Brant’s questioning look before turning back to her mother. “That’s a great idea. I’ll cancel our rental car.” Soon they were settled into her mother’s black Tahoe and she had insisted that Brant take the front seat. He could continue the bonding that he had going on more easily from there. As they approached her childhood home of Pensacola Beach on the Santa Rosa Island, she felt the same old familiar pang. When her friend Madison had decided to attend college at the University of South Carolina, Emma had let her talk her into applying there as well. As luck would have it, they were both accepted and Emma had moved from her home in Florida to South Carolina. Her parents had not been thrilled, which had made her that much more determined to spread her wings. She had mostly lost touch with Madison after graduation. The last she heard, she was in Georgia. Her parents had urged her to move back home, but she enjoyed her independence too much and, quite frankly, long periods of time around her mother were exhausting. South Carolina kept her close to the ocean that she loved, but allowed her the much needed privacy that she had never had growing up with a loving but meddling mother.

When they pulled into the driveway, Emma smiled. The big two-story house looked the same as she remembered. It was comfortable and roomy with a full basement, three-car garage and an infinity pool out back. Some people took living on the coast for granted, but she had always felt like she was on an extended vacation. No matter how bad the day, a good swim in the ocean always made things better. Her father had actually built their house along with many others in the area. He was a highly sought-after builder who didn’t believe in constructing the same house twice. If you asked for a house like your neighbor’s, he would refuse. Something had to be different. He said that no two people had the same personality, so why should two houses be identical?