“I didn’t know what to wear,” she said hesitantly, and he realized he’d been standing there silently staring at her like an idiot, probably with his mouth hanging open like the fish on the wall at O’Malley’s. The one that came to life, sang songs, and heckled the customers.
“You look amazing,” he told her honestly, and then he realized he hadn’t told her they were going to a barbecue. Women had dress codes or something for what they wore. She probably wouldn’t have wanted to get so dressed up for a barbecue, but he’d be damned if he’d regret it. She looked like his own personal dream of the perfect woman, come to life just for him.
And he was ambushing her with dinner with his family.
He was an idiot. The fish was smarter than him.
“Are you okay?” She was starting to look concerned, and little wonder.
“I’m going to throw myself on your mercy,” he confessed. “I ran out of here so fast the other day that I didn’t get your number, because I was afraid you’d find a reason to say no if I hung around. So I didn’t have a way to call you and tell you we’re actually going to a barbecue.”
She raised one eyebrow as she stepped out and locked the door behind her.
“Yes, I can see the problem. So hard to look up Scruffy’s in the Bordertown phone book or online,” she said dryly.
The dress came down to a few inches above her knees, but there was a little discreet slit up the front that flashed her leg at him as she walked, and it distracted him completely as he opened his car door for her.
“Yeah,” he said, clearing his throat and shoving away all thoughts of pinning her against the car and biting her neck until she moaned. “Yeah, that would have been a great idea, if I’d thought of it. Although honestly I would have been worried that if I called, you’d have had a chance to change your mind.”
She stopped, inches in front of him, and the scent of violets and spring rain teased his senses.
“You’re being very candid, Sean,” she murmured. “Is it sincere or is it meant to disarm me into telling you my secrets, I wonder?”
He blinked. “You have more secrets?”
Brynn started laughing and then slid into the car, flashing an appealing length of bare leg. “Smooth, Sean. Very smooth.”
By the time they finished discussing her day (three dogs, one cat, and a rabbit who’d encountered a skunk) and his day (no progress or news on the arson case), they were pulling up in front of Sean’s family home. Brynn looked around in obvious disbelief at the residential neighborhood and then narrowed her eyes.
“When you said a barbecue, I assumed you meant Bordertown Barbecue, which was already sketchy considering the rumors of the kind of meats they put in their pulled ‘pork,’” she said darkly. “It did not even occur to me that you’d be introducing me to your friends on our first date.”
“I’m not,” he protested.
“Not what?”
“Not introducing you to my friends. Also, I like the sound of ‘first’ date, because it implies there will be a second date,” he said, smiling hopefully. “We don’t have to stay long, but I promised I’d stop by.”
She frowned at him and crossed her arms under her breasts, which did breathtaking things to her cleavage and promptly made him lose his train of thought again. So he quit talking and jumped out of the car, walked around to open her door, and held out his hand.
She met his gaze for a beat before she took his hand, so he didn’t let go of her all the way to the house, just in case.
“You live here?”
“Nope.”
“But you’re not introducing me to your friends?” She slanted a suspicious look at him.
“Nope.” He started to knock on the cheerful red door that he’d given a fresh coat of paint only the month before, but it flew open before his fist could connect.
“Sean! You brought a friend,” his mother said, beaming.
“They’re not friends. They’re my family,” he told Brynn, tightening his grip on her hand.
She smiled up at him and whispered five words through clenched teeth. “I’m going to kill you.”
But she followed his mom into the house, so Sean called it a win. Whether or not he was going to end up dead later, she was all his for now.
EIGHT
Brynn’s stomach clenched into a tangle worse than the one the gum had made in Barty’s fur. She’d swallowed her misgivings and agreed to have dinner with the first man she’d ever met who pushed every single one of her buttons, and now she’d ended up at dinner at his mother’s house. If she hadn’t known about Mrs. O’Malley’s illness, she would have wondered what kind of grown man took a woman home to Mom for their first date. Since she did know, the fact that Sean had brought her here was actually kind of touching. Mrs. O’Malley led her into a spacious family room, comfortably decorated with big, sturdy-looking furniture, lots of plants, and dozens of framed photos of Sean and his brothers at varying ages from babyhood to adulthood.
“Mom, this is Brynn. Brynn, this is my mom,” Sean said, grinning at both of them.
“It’s Kathleen, and you are very welcome to my home.”
“Brynn Carroll. You have a lovely home, Kathleen.”
Kathleen O’Malley was clearly ill. Her skin had thinned to near translucence, and she was far too thin. Wisps of close-cropped white hair feathered across her head as if she’d lost most or all of it recently and it was only just starting to grow back. Her warm smile, however, gave no hint of anything but delight.
“I heard all about you,” she confided, taking Brynn’s hand in her slender fingers. “You saved my dear Bartholomeow from the shame of an unsightly tail.”
Kathleen’s smile let Brynn know she was gently poking fun at her own “emergency.”
“Sean said you were pretty,” she continued, and Brynn felt her face warm up.
“Sean’s kind of pretty himself,” Brynn said, flashing a conspiratorial smile.
A shout of masculine laughter sounded from the entry to the kitchen, and Brynn looked over to see a slightly older, slightly less-rough-edged version of Sean leaning against the archway.
“Oh, he’s pretty all right, but I’m much prettier.”
Sean scowled and put a territorial arm around Brynn’s waist, surprising her. “Back off, Oscar. Brynn’s not interested in self-proclaimed ladies’ men.”
Oscar’s eyes widened. “Well, well. So that’s how it is,” he said quietly. “Interesting.”
Brynn pulled away from Sean and crossed the room to shake Oscar’s hand.
“I’m happy to discuss who and what I’m interested in all by my little old self,” she said lightly, slanting a glance back at Sean.
Oscar held on to her hand for a little bit too long. “It’s very nice to meet you, Brynn Carroll, although you have very bad taste in men,” he said, grinning. “I hope you like steaks.”
“You leave Sean’s girl alone and go outside with your brothers to watch the grill,” Kathleen chided her son. “She’s going to help me with the pies, aren’t you?”
Brynn nodded and then watched, bemused, as Sean and his brother jostled and joked their way out the kitchen door and, presumably, into the backyard. She looked at Kathleen, who was maybe about five foot nothing, and then at the door through which the two big men had departed.
“You had five of them?”
Kathleen blinked and then started laughing, and Brynn flushed as she realized what she’d said.