The closest she’d come to having a family was when she’d been with Callie and her parents. Even then, she’d always been aware that she was an outsider. She’d never quite fit in. This close-knit Italian clan would take one look at her and realize she was not the right woman for Mike—not warm enough, not nice enough, not loving enough. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
“Linds?” he asked, as if sensing her tension. He leaned close to whisper, “It’ll be fine. They’re obnoxious but they’re also pretty great.”
Licking her lips and nodding, she let him pull out her chair then sat down. Mike introduced her to his cousins and their wives, and all four of them immediately tried to make her comfortable, just chatting and including her in their conversations. She listened quietly for a little while, though she waited for them to make her the full focus of their attention.
It didn’t take long.
“So, Lindsey, Mike says you met on the ferry?” said Noelle, Mark’s wife, who’d said she worked for a children’s charity organization in Chicago.
“Yes, on the day I first moved to the island.” She blew out a hard breath. “It was absolutely miserable, and he pretty much stopped me from leaping overboard.”
“I know, right?” said Izzie, who had one of those big, sexy personalities that drew the eyes of everyone in the room. Her formfitting shirt and tight cropped pants emphasized a va-va-voom figure, but she seemed so down to earth that Lindsey couldn’t help but like her. “I thought I was going to be sick all the way over.”
“And it’s beautiful out,” Mike interjected. “You should have come over on a stormy day in April.”
“Thanks but no thanks,” his cousin’s wife said.
Noelle’s turn to ask the next question. “And you’re substitute teaching for your friend, whose baby is in the hospital?”
Lindsey cast a quick glance at Mike. Obviously he’d been talking about her to his family. A lot.
He shrugged sheepishly, a sexy grin on his face. Oh, lord, a woman could forgive the man anything when he gave her that smile.
“Yes, I am.”
“How’s the baby doing?”
“Beautifully,” she said, probably sounding as relieved as she felt after each conversation she had with Callie. “The doctors say they’re going to let him come home next week. Callie and her husband are beyond thrilled.”
And she was thrilled for them. She had gotten together with Billy last week, and realized why Callie was so crazy about him. It was quite obvious that he adored Callie, and that made him good enough in Lindsey’s book.
She’d also taken the ferry over to visit Callie, Billy and the baby at the hospital. The young couple was stressed to the limits of any parents’ endurance, but they were still so hopeful for the future and so trusting that their son would be all right. Whenever she thought about her life, and the choices she’d made, she was reminded that she would never regret this small sacrifice that helped set her friends’ minds at ease.
Of course, how could she ever regret it when it had brought Mike into her world?
“What I want to know,” Nick said with a half smirk, “is how on earth did this ugly SOB ever talk you into going out with him?”
Her back stiffened. The others laughed, and she realized this good-natured joshing was all routine to them. Mike rolled his eyes, taking no offense. It was all just part of the family dynamic.
“Actually, it sort of started when he came to my door in an official capacity.” Pasting an innocent expression on her face, she glanced at Mike. “Remember?”
“Oh, yeah,” he told her, those brown eyes twinkling. “Lindsey dropped something in the municipal parking lot and caused quite a stir when a teenager found it.”
“What did you drop?” asked Izzie, looking titillated. “It wasn’t your underwear, was it?”
She laughed out loud. “Of course not. How would I drop my underwear in a public parking lot?”
“My wife is capable of dropping her underwear in many places.”
Izzie reached across the table and punched Nick in the shoulder. He grinned, apparently well used to it.
“It was just a book.”
Mike looked around the crowded diner, which was so loud it was hard to hear the person next to you, much less somebody at the next table. Still, to be safe, he leaned in and lowered his voice. “A very steamy book.”
“I love romance novels,” said Noelle with a happy sigh.
“Not that kind,” Lindsey said. Heat rose in her face and she wished she’d never started this conversation. “It was, uh, a copy of the Kama Sutra,” she admitted.