Built to Last by Aurora Rey

Author:Aurora Rey [Rey, Aurora]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
ISBN: 9781626395534
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2016-04-12T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Joss didn’t want to admit it, but she was nervous. Since it was dinner with her parents, and she did that every week, it made no sense. It wasn’t like she was hoping for her parents’ approval. Or blessing. Or whatever.

She stopped pacing when Olivia emerged from the bedroom. She was wearing a dress—she almost always wore a dress—that looked nice, but not too nice, like she was trying too hard. That was good. “You look great. Are you nervous?”

Olivia smiled. “Not really. Should I be?”

“No.”

“Are you?” Olivia narrowed her eyes.

“Am I what?”

“Are you nervous to have me meet your parents?”

“No.” It came out like more of a question than a statement, and Joss fought the urge to cringe.

“You are. Why are you nervous? Are you afraid they won’t like me?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Then what?” Hands on hips. Joss had come to find the gesture both cute and kind of sexy. In the moment, it was simply unnerving.

“It’s just, well, I’ve never dated a client before, so there’s that. Plus, I think they’re probably different from your family.” Joss started to wish she hadn’t brought it up in the first place.

Olivia laughed. “God, I hope so.”

“I’m serious.”

“I am, too. I mean, I love my family, but there’s a reason I moved a thousand miles away. We have practically nothing in common.” Joss thought about the little she knew of Olivia’s family. Both parents lawyers, sister married to a doctor. Joss wasn’t sure what made her more uncomfortable—the number of degrees they’d earned or the amount of money they had.

It wasn’t that Joss was embarrassed by her family. In fact, she felt quite the opposite. It was more a worry that they wouldn’t have anything to talk about. Olivia would make some esoteric joke that no one got, then everything would be weird and uncomfortable for the rest of the day. It was a ridiculous fear. Her family didn’t believe in weird and uncomfortable. And Olivia had yet to act like the snooty professor Joss thought her to be when they first met. Joss let that fact sink in. Olivia had turned out to be nothing short of charming. If anyone wound up feeling awkward in this situation, it would be Joss. “You’re right. Everything is going to be fine.”

Olivia looked at her skeptically. “Is it me you’re trying to convince? Or yourself?”

Joss rolled her eyes. “Clearly you’re fine enough to make fun of me, so I’ll take that as my answer.”

Olivia shook her head, but then put a hand on Joss’s arm. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to make light of something that is stressing you out. What can I do?”

It was silly to be worked up in the first place, wasn’t it? Just because she hadn’t brought a woman home in a couple of years. Just because she hadn’t dated a client ever. Just because her family, instead of being judgmental, found the whole thing…what? Amusing, maybe? She hadn’t even planned on introducing Olivia to her parents. But then her mother had asked and Ben and Daphne wouldn’t let it go.

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