“Don’t you dare give me any discounts.”
I sighed. That was exactly what I was going to do.
“Fine. Full price for my . . . mother in . . . accident?”
She had to smother a laugh. “We’re gonna have to come up with a better title than that.”
“I’ll add it to the pile of all the other things to figure out,” I said. “It only grows now. Hey, maybe you could ask Dean.”
“Oh, he doesn’t know I’m here. And he won’t.”
I blinked. “Really?”
“He has a habit of stopping me from doing what I wanna do. And I wasn’t letting him this time.”
I laughed. “You seem to have it all figured out.”
“Sometimes I do, but I do need to get back to my house. It’s quite a long drive and I have one of my last remaining clients tomorrow. I can’t be late for that.”
“So you drove all this way just to see me?”
“I did, and it was a great decision.”
Now I had to work not to tear up. Thankfully, I managed to keep it together while we finished.
Virginia paid and left me her number before heading out. When she was gone, I played over our time together, hoping I’d made a good first impression.
That was when my phone when off.
Dean
How is your day going?
I didn’t expect him to check in ... but then again, I didn’t know what I expected from him anymore. He was younger. He was a playboy. Yet he’d handled parts of this with more maturity than I’d expected.
I met your mom.
Dean
Did she seriously come into town? I should have known she would do something like that.
She did. She’s sweet.
She is until you get on her bad side. But that’s more of a me thing. Is she still in town?
She just left. I think she has a client tomorrow so she can’t stay.
She’s probably admiring the town square. I’m gonna try to shove some money in her car. If you hear screaming, I got caught.
I laughed and put my phone away. I liked this side of him. He was both playful and nice. It was a far cry from the man I’d run into on the streets of Knoxville.
A moment later, I had another text from him.
Dean
Mission accomplished. I’m so glad she takes forever to do things.
Have you eaten anything?