Half A Million For A Girlfriend, Both Men Belong To Me novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Mom Meets Both

My mother arrived at Beckett's apartment on Sunday at five, carrying a casserole dish with oven mitts and a bundle of sage under one arm.

"Where's the tall one?" she said, before hello.

"Mom, he's not coming as a..."

"I'm not asking what he's coming as. I'm asking where he is."

Dell had made a seating chart for the dinner.

She'd drawn it on a napkin, in four colors, with a little key.

She'd said it was a joke about Autumn.

Then she'd looked sick for a second, and taped it to the fridge anyway.

Mom read it, took the pen out of Dell's hand, and crossed out every name.

"Abby at the end," she said. "The boys across from each other, where I can see their hands."

"Why their hands?" Beckett asked, coming out of the kitchen with a dish towel on his shoulder.

"Because hands don't have manners yet."

The doorbell rang.

Rowan stood in the hall in a charcoal suit with no tie, holding a pie from the bakery near the freight offices and a small black notebook he didn't open.

"Mrs. Curry," he said. "Rowan Ashworth. I've heard a great deal about your tea."

"From who?"

"From my brother's receipts. He expensed forty bags to the personal account."

Mom looked at him for a long time.

Then she lit the sage.

The apartment had a very sensitive smoke detector.

Beckett lunged for it with a chair, and Dell opened every window.

Mom walked a slow circle around Rowan from his collar to his shoes.

He stood perfectly still, hands at his sides, and let her.

"Hm," Mom said.

"Is that good?" Rowan asked.

"You're carrying a closed door with the light on."

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