Oh, God.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Mom said, beaming. “Come on in.”
“I think I’m going to kill you in your sleep,” I muttered under my breath.
“What was that, Mallory?”
“Nothing. Not a thing. Just a prayer.”
“You don’t pray,” Aunt Grace said, narrowing her eyes at me.
Clearly, she’d never seen me nursing a bottle of wine. Which, incidentally, sounded good right about now.
“Aunt Grace, this is Cameron. Cameron, this is my great aunt Grace.” I waved my hand between the two of them.
Like the gentleman I knew he was, he took her hand and kissed it. “I remember. A pleasure to officially be introduced, Grace.”
Aunt Grace fluttered a hand to her chest. “I think I need to sit down.”
“Oh, Jesus,” Mom snapped. “Cameron, how do you feel about tonight’s date? Are you looking forward to being one of Mallory’s terrible mistakes?”
“Mom!” I gaped at her. “You can’t say that!”
“I can and I did.”
Even Aunt Grace looked shocked.
Cameron, to his credit, didn’t look flustered at all. “Well, I’ve already almost run her over, had her spill coffee all over my desk, and walk around the office barefoot, so we can just add it onto that list of mistakes.”
“You told me to take off my shoes,” I muttered.
“So you wouldn’t break your neck, because I know you’d trip.”
“I would not trip.”
“You tripped over the stapler.”
“I didn’t put it on the floor, so I didn’t know it was there.” I folded my arms and huffed.
He fought a smile.
Mom watched the exchange with a frown. “Do you date all your employees, Cameron? Have you done it before?”
“Good God, no. That would have been incest. We used to share baths every now and then when we were kids, but we stopped that when she punched me in the eye.”
“I’m sorry?”
“My cousin was my assistant before Mallory.”
“Ah. So you waited for the first eligible young lady to come along and take her out.”
“Not entirely. I was holding out for one who doesn’t trip over her own toes, but they appear to be in short order around here.”
Aunt Grace was watching the exchange with her whiskey glass in front of her mouth and a smile behind that. Cameron was matching her, barb for barb, and the best part was that she was insulting with him and he was rolling with it.
“I see. So you settled for Mallory,” Mom said.
“I don’t believe anyone can settle for Mallory. Or around her, actually. There’s a reason I call her Hurricane Mallory.”
Oh, God.
That earned him a cackle from Aunt Grace.
“Hurricane Mallory?” Even Mom looked like she was hiding a smile at that.
“Yep.” He shrugged. “She blows through like a hurricane wherever she goes. She even gave me a list of demands for tonight which blew my plans apart.”
“I didn’t demand anything. I asked if it could be outside, with food, and if I could wear yoga pants.”
“And I see you were serious about the yoga pants.”
I looked down at the plain black leggings that hugged my legs. “I can change if you want me to.”
“Nah, yoga pants work for where we’re going.”
“If it’s a yoga studio, I’m leaving.”
He laughed and shook his head. “Not a yoga studio.” He looked at my mom and smiled. “We really do have to get going now. It was nice chatting with you.”
With that he smiled, leaving my mom’s mouth in a tiny ‘o,’ and guided me to turn around and leave.
Aunt Grace cackled as we headed for the door. “He owned your ass, Helen. I like him. We should keep him.”
“I am so sorry,” I whispered.
“Don’t be. That was kind of fun.” He winked at me, opened the front door, and we left.
***
“Mini golf. Mini golf for a first date?” I asked, looking at the wooden shack on the edge of the amusement park that was a few miles out of town.
“It ticks all your boxes. It’s outside.” He motioned to, well, the outside. “There’s food nearby.” He pointed at the amusement park where a cacophony of delicious scents were riding this way from. “And you can wear yoga pants.” He pointed at my legs, then grinned. “I’m a genius.”
“I wouldn’t say you were a genius,” I said slowly. “But it’s pretty damn inspired.”
“I’ll take it. Do you want to eat first?”
My stomach rumbled. Loudly. “Eat. Definitely. There’s some grease and bad carbs in there calling my name.”
He laughed and wrapped one arm around my shoulders. “Let’s go eat.”
“Aren’t we supposed to be keeping this secret?”
“Mallory, if you wanted to keep this secret, pizza and a movie at my place would have been the smart date.”
Damn it. He was good at arguing. “Fine. By the way, I’m a little impressed with how you handled my mom back there.”
He shrugged one shoulder and paid for us to enter the park. I’d never understood why the golf was separate from the actual theme park itself, but hey.