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“Sure, but I want you to know I’m here for you — day or night— three sixty-five, understand?”
“I do,” she smiled softly, “and I know you mean it. You have no idea how good it feels to know that.”
“Guessing I do, sweetheart, since I feel the same about how you’ve taken to us. The relief I feel to know you forgive me has helped me to heal.”
“Can we both try to put the past behind us and look to the future, Mom? I have no one else in the world apart from you guys. I already know you love me, and I think James and his family are amazing. Marnie and Franco also want to know more about me. Look where I am right now … I’m here,” she said, gesturing around her. “If I hadn’t reached out to Marnie when I did, I could have missed all of this.” I smiled warmly, so thankful she hadn’t.
“Yes, you’re here, which means you are family and family supports one another. So, whenever you are ready, I want to know what the deal is with Ryder.”
Reaching over, Erin squeezed my hand, clearly touched by my gesture of unity and flashed me a smile in return. “Thanks, Mom.”
“For?”
“Not pushing … for letting me go at my pace. I just want to think things through in my head before I make any decisions.”
“You like him that much?”
“What’s not to like? But not enough to be his booty call or under his thumb either.”
I smiled because she had sounded like I had before I met James. “You got this, Erin, and if he can’t see what a catch you are, he’s a fool. Take your time—tell me what you want—whenever you’re ready. Sometimes another perspective can shine a fresh light on things. I may be your mom, but I have the benefit of being a friend as well, since I escaped doling out all those teenage lectures parents prescribe to their kids.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Hey, Erin,” James said, moving around to her side of the table and kissing her cheek. “How’s my third favorite girl in the world?”
“Third favorite?” she and I asked at the same time.
“Yeah, my favorite by a mile has to be my beautiful wife, of course,” he replied. He left her side and kissed me on my cheek. “Then, there’s my wonderful mother … because she gave me life, and finally as you are my wife’s daughter … correct me if I’m wrong but that gives me some fatherly status, does it not?”
Erin’s eyebrows shot up in her hairline. “I suppose it does.” She grinned, looking excited at how he wanted to claim her.
“Good, but we’re not buying you a puppy for Christmas,” he replied, teasing her.
“Look who’s coming,” I mumbled, grinning.
James turned and looked over his shoulder, in time to see that Josh had broken away from their small group of friends and was headed toward us. “And as your father, I forbid you to have anything to do with my randy friend, Josh … the guy’s an animal,” he warned with a chuckle.
“May I have the pleasure of this dance?” he asked, as he made a beeline for Erin.
“You’ll have to ask my father,” Erin replied, chuckling as she fell straight into line with James’ mock warning.
“Okay, where is he at?” Josh asked, frowning and clearly three sheets to the wind drunk.
“Dad? What do you think?” Erin asked James. For a second, I saw James’ Adam’s apple rise and fall in his neck, and I knew her calling him Dad had been a direct hit on his heart. My chest tightened, leaving an ache there because no one deserved a role with that name more than he had.
Josh stared at James and his eyes widened before he frowned. “Aw come on, man, it’s a wedding.”
“Yeah and Tricia and I know better than anyone how carried away people get at weddings.”
“You can talk, look at the both of you. This all started with a wedding, did it not?”
“Exactly, Josh, and there’s no way on this Earth I am going to end up being your father-in-law.” Erin and I cracked up laughing as Erin rose to her feet. “It’s traditional for old men to dance with young pretty girls at weddings, Dad, but Josh you’ll have to remember my parents will be watching you.”
For a few seconds Josh stood in limbo, unsure whether he wanted to dance after that warning or not, but when Sawyer began singing “Call Me Senorita” by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, it appeared to make up his mind. Grabbing Erin’s hand, he tugged her sharply into his chest and spun her around. “This is the perfect ‘getting to know you’ dance.” James almost rose out of his chair, but I placed a hand on his forearm.
“That’s for Erin to work out, not for you. I’m not going to make the same mistakes as my mother, and our daughter …” I chuckled at the use of that term, “… is more than capable of dealing with a man like Josh on her own.”
“I meant what I said, I love him like a brother, but …” he said. I giggled like a schoolgirl because James’ face was a contortion of different emotions as he fought with the thought if Josh and Erin were ever to get together, he could be sure that James would give him hell.
