Page 76 of Love in Overdrive

“I’m currently working at Tot Time, but I have an elementary education degree.”

“Oh, our grandson goes there.” Sara’s eyes sparkled.

That could be where Laney saw this woman, but she didn’t think so.

“Sara, didn’t you say your son works on cars? Delaney has been having some issues with hers. Maybe he could help her out.”

“No, it’s fine. I…” It finally dawned on her that these were the friends of her parents that must have the balding, bucktoothed son they wanted her to meet. Okay, she was being a little harsh, but why else would a decent man be in his thirties without being married or attached?

“Our son was finishing up at the shop when I left. He’ll be here soon. We can ask him when he gets here,” Eric said.

“Oh, goody,” Laney muttered behind her smile, hoping no one heard her. Sawyer’s snicker told her otherwise. She pinched his leg under the table to shut him up.

Sara smiled at my mom, then back at me. Yup. They were part of her mother’s diabolical plans. She needed to escape. She turned to her sister at the next table.

“How was Connor’s hockey game last week? Did he play goalie?” Peewee hockey took first place over being interviewed for a daughter-in-law position.

Her neck kinked as she leaned toward her sister, so she slid her chair back and stood.

“Here he comes,” Sara said.

Here went nothing. Time to meet the latest contestant in her mom’s game of finding Laney a match. Turning, she braced herself for a man with a shining head and gap-toothed smile. Her breath caught.

The man in the dark gray suit advanced.

Holy cow! Her knees shook. Not only because of the striking way he filled out his suit, or his beautiful smile and full head of hair, but because she’d run her fingers through those chestnut locks.

Cade beamed at her as he walked straight to their table. “Laney?”

Questions circled her brain. Had she told him she would be here? Before she could open her mouth to ask, he stood in front of her. He wrapped her in a warm embrace, and his eyes sparkled as he leaned down and kissed her. Right there in front of God, their parents, and everyone.

Staring at him, her jaw dropped. Words froze on her tongue.

“Cade?”

Wait. Laney hadn’t spoken. Had she?

Cade winked at her, then slid to her side while keeping an arm around her waist. “Hi, Mom. Sorry, I’m late.”

Oh, fudge. Everyone at the table stared at them. With each set of eyes on them, Laney’s body temp climbed another degree. Drops of sweat rolled down her back as she looked from one shocked face to the next. All slack jawed… until she got to Sawyer. He grinned like the dog that buried the bone.

Did he know Cade would be here? Laney shot him a questioning look. He just shook his head and coughed, covering his laugh.

Sawyer moved over a seat and offered the chair next to Laney to Cade, who shook her brother’s hand before he held the chair for her. Once she was seated, he sat beside her and placed his arm on the back of her chair. Then he said to her, “This is a wonderful surprise. I didn’t know you would be here.”

“That makes two of us,” she muttered.

Pasting a smile on her lips, she let her gaze drift from face-to-face at the table. The McBrides looked baffled, Sawyer still grinned, her father glared at Cade’s arm on the back of her chair, and her mother was smiling as if she wanted to say, “I told you so.” Not that her mother had anything to do with her and Cade’s involvement.

“So, you two know each other?” Sara asked, but the way she emphasized the word “know”, she already had the answer.

“Mom, I told you about Laney. Remember?”

Laney could see the moment Sara remembered the conversation with her son.

“The girl from the robbery? That was you? I had no idea that Laura’s daughter and the girl from the robbery were one and the same.”

What had he told his parents about her? Laney eyed him, but he looked so darned happy she couldn’t bring herself to ask.