She narrows her eyes at me. “Who says I want to spend quality time with you? Maybe I just like hanging around Charlie.”
“My palm is itching to put you in your place right now, but I can’t be doing those things in front of Charlie.”
Pepper laughs at me and leans back on the bed. She crosses one slim leg over the other and puts her hands behind her head. She stares up at the ceiling and says in a voice filled with faux wonder. “Wow. A real date with Legend Bay. I don’t know if I’m ready for such a thing.”
I can’t help but snort.
Charlie is finished with her bottle and I pull it from her mouth. I rearrange her so that her tummy is to my chest and I pat her for a burp.
“Promise me you’ll wear something sexy,” I tell Pepper, referring back to our discussion of our first date.
“I make no such promises,” she purrs, but then with a mischievous smile she taunts me in a silky voice, “but I guarantee you will have a smile on your face before you go to sleep.”
Laughing, I push up out of the chair and walk back and forth across the hotel room while I wait for Charlie to burp. “You’ll be smiling too. Guarantee it.”
“Then I’ll go on a date with you,” she concludes with a satisfied nod of her head.
Charlie gives a little burp and I pull my chin inward to look down at her. She’s got a little bit of formula coming back up. I don’t have a rag with me so I just wipe it off with my thumb.
“My parents are coming in next week to meet Charlie,” I tell her Pepper. I’ve asked her on a date and she’s said yes. Might as well plug ahead. “It’s only going to be for one night. My dad’s going to make it a working trip and trade the Phoenix route with another pilot.”
“That’s nice,” Pepper says. “I know your mom has got to be anxious to meet her first granddaughter.”
That’s an understatement. I have to send my mom at least twenty pictures a day of Charlie or else she won’t let me rest. My dad, on the other hand, I’m not quite sure how he feels about this whole thing. Normally, when we talk, we kind of do it as a group phone call and mom dominates much of the conversation.
“Will you have dinner with us that night?” I ask her.
“Sure,” she says hesitantly. “I mean, do you want me to meet your parents?”
I shoot her an exasperated look. “Well, you are my favorite nanny after all.”
She purses her lips and rolls her eyes. “I just mean…Do you want to set up any type of expectation with them?”
“What do you mean?”
Pepper shrugs. “I don’t know. I just feel like you and your parents are all in overload. Your introducing their new granddaughter who is quite a surprise to everyone. Do you really want to throw a girlfriend in on top of that?”
Charlie lets out another burp and then yawns. I’ll need to change her diaper before she falls back asleep, but I want to finish this conversation first.
I walk over to the edge of the bed and sit on it. Pepper pushes up and scoots closer to me. I look her dead in the eye. “Let’s just make this clear. You are my girlfriend. You and I are sleeping together, we talk, we share secrets, and we like to hang out. Neither one of us is doing this with other people. That makes us dating. Not only that, you have been an integral part of Charlie’s life since she came to me. That means you have been an integral part of my life. So, yes, I want you to meet my parents.”
Pepper doesn’t say anything for a moment but then she leans in and her eyes drift over to Charlie. She tilts her head and places her lips on Charlie’s shoulder, giving it a soft kiss. When she looks back to me she says, “Thank you for recognizing how special Charlie is to me. That means more to me than you calling me your girlfriend.”
I’m the one that tilts my head now just enough so I can brush my lips across Pepper’s. “You’re still my girlfriend though, okay?”
“Okay,” she says, and in this moment, all my other worries aren’t worries at all. I feel like everything will be just fine.Chapter 14PepperErik and Blue know how to throw a party. Nearly the entire team—along with spouses, girlfriends, or just friends—descended en masse to ring in the New Year. Luckily, Erik’s house is really big and spread out among the main floor and the basement entertainment area, so it doesn’t seem overly crowded. There’s even spillover onto the outdoor patio area because even though it’s in the mid-forties at night here, Erik and Blue have set up several tall outdoor heaters to accommodate.