“I honestly don’t know. I haven’t brought a woman home to meet my mom since college.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I’m not.”

“What if she sees through us? I mean, we need a plan.” I was starting to get nervous.

“Like an escape plan?” he asked with a grin, and I narrowed my eyes at him. “One where you fake an emergency and bail?”

“No, not like that.” I let out a slight laugh. “Women ask a lot of questions. We live for details. She’s going to want to know how we met, how you asked me out, how we started dating.” I started running off a list of things that I’d want to know if it were my son bringing home someone new for the first time.

Joseph stepped back into the tiny bathroom, his body pressing against mine, and I willed my heart to stop pounding against my chest, scared that he might be able to feel it.

“We’ll get our stories straight in the car ride over.”

God, he smelled good. And those lips. I wanted to know what they felt like, what they tasted like, and how they kissed.

My voice got lost in my throat, so I nodded my answer instead.

“Hello? Sutton? Where are you?” Kayla’s voice broke our mutual trance, and Joseph practically fell out of the bathroom door and into the narrow hallway right as Kayla appeared. “Why are you two in the bathroom together?”

“Your boss was trying to intimidate me,” I said before wondering where those words had come from.

“I bet he was,” she said, wagging her eyebrows.

“If I didn’t come back here, she’d never finish getting ready,” Joseph added, and I put the finishing touches on my makeup before declaring that I was done.

“Where are you guys going?” Kayla asked, her face pinched together, as if she hadn’t expected us to have another fake date so soon.

“Apparently, his mother wants to see us,” I said, choking on the words.

“She what?” Kayla whirled around and faced Joseph. “Joseph! You’re throwing Sutton into the lion’s den already? Your mother is going to eat her alive.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I said, suddenly worried that I was going to sweat through my shirt.

“You’ve been out one time!” she practically screamed. “I’m telling you, that woman has superpowers.”

“Sutton will be fine,” Joseph said. “See you tomorrow, Kayla.”

He placed his hand on my lower back as I walked out of the bathroom and down the hall. I turned around, meeting Kayla’s eyes, and I knew she sensed what I was feeling without me needing to say it.

I was in trouble.

I was going to fall for this man, and we both knew it.

That was, if I made it through the night with his mother.