“I take it, you don’t see them very often?”

“Unfortunately, no. With my schedule at the hospital, I don’t have many days off. And they both work.”

“They must miss you.”

“I miss them too,” she said with a soft smile, and I leaned over, planting a kiss on her cheek. She looked surprised or caught off guard before her hand gripped my chin and her thumb ran across it like she’d done it a thousand times before.

“So, tell me, how’d you two meet? I mean, aside from that dreadful night at the gala.”

“Mother,” I chastised her. Didn’t she promise to put that night aside?

“My apologies,” she said, but she wasn’t even remotely sorry.

She was up to something; I just had no idea what.

Sutton and I began the story we’d practiced on the car ride over. How we had run into each other at a bar one night.

“He was buzzed,” Sutton said, and I wanted to kick her ankle for the lie. “But that’s why he talked to me in the first place.”

“No,” I disagreed but figured it still sounded believable enough. “I knew I recognized her face, but I couldn’t place the where or why.”

“Then, Kayla came over to where I was, and apparently—” she said before I interrupted.

“It all clicked. The little fire starter.” I snapped my fingers, and Sutton growled, smacking my leg.

My mother laughed. She was actually smiling, listening to the two of us spout off this lie. “And then what? You asked her out, or did you make Kayla do the dirty work for you?”

“Kayla,” Sutton said at the same time that I said, “I did.”

We both sucked in a breath.

Sutton’s eyes grew wide, but she quickly recovered. “You did not ask me out that night. You talked to Kayla the next day and sent her home with instructions for me.”

“Instructions?” my mother questioned. “That’s not very romantic, Joseph.”

“She just means that I told Kayla that I wanted her phone number and to make sure she didn’t say no,” I explained.

“Even after the fire incident? I was under the impression that you two didn’t like one another,” my mother pushed. She clearly remembered more about that night than I did.

“That night was a big misunderstanding,” Sutton said. “We’re past it now.”

“I can see that,” my mother said as she reached for her tea once more and took another drink. “Is this thing serious? It must be if you’re making public appearances.”

Sutton’s leg muscles twitched under my grasp, and I gave her a squeeze.

“It’s getting there,” I said.

“It’s still new, but I like where it’s heading.” Sutton gave me a look, and either I misread her completely or I was too damn hopeful for my own good.

“So, I assume you’re planning on bringing her to the Social Month events?” Mother directed that question at me.

“That is the plan,” I agreed.

“And you’re ready for what that will entail, Sutton? I mean, for you personally?” she asked, this time looking straight at Sutton, who I felt tense once again under my grasp.