Given Time

?36?

Maggie softly smiles as she runs her hands over her bump. "We were thinking of Theo. It was the name of Jackson's grandfather."

"Awe, that's sweet. It's a nice dedication to him."

"Yeah," she says happily. "Jackson was quite close to him, so it means a lot to him."

I nod my head in understanding and then take a sip of my virgin Pinãcolada. When I place my drink back on my armrest, my mom comes over and takes the chair opposite me.

"So, Victoria. What do you think of my son and your daughter dating? I almost had a heart attack when Tanner informed me of the good news," Mrs. Cole chortles as she tucks her black hair behind her ear.

I roll my eyes. Here we go again.

My mom laughs back and swirls her wine in her hand. "It sure was a surprise to me, seeing as they hated each other's guts for as long as I can remember. But they seem cute together."

"They do, don't they?" Mrs. Cole gushes as she sips on her almost empty glass of wine. "Though, I've always secretly hoped they would come to their senses."

I feel my cheeks heat from their statements, and the three women notice and tease me for it, making me blush even harder.

The men look over briefly, probably wondering what they are finding so funny. Luckily for me, they're just out of earshot, so I have fewer people to add to this discussion.

"It's not that big of a deal," I mumble into my drink even though I know it is a big deal. Tanner and I have come a long way.

Maggie reassuringly pats my hand as my mom and hers continue to talk about my relationship with Tanner. I smile gratefully at her and turn my head in the direction of Tanner. I instantly notice that his blue eyes are watching me intensely. I bite my lip and feel my heart skip as I continue to look at him. My mom's question comes flooding back to me as I watch him. 'Do you love him?'.

Yes. Yes, I do.

Tanner takes a swig from his beer bottle without taking his eyes off of me, asking so many silent questions. I smile at him, letting him know that everything is okay.

"Look at them. They can't keep their eyes off each other," Mrs. Cole jokes, interrupting my private thoughts.

I break my connection with Tanner and shake my head, abashed. "Leave me alone. I'm happy."

"Good," Mrs. Cole finalizes gladly before moving onto a much safer topic about my time at Berkeley.

We spend the next twenty minutes talking about each of our own experiences of college while we wait for the food to be ready.

As my mom wraps up talking about how she once got locked out of her residences after missing curfew due to attending a gig, my dad shouts that food is ready.

"Great, I'm starving," Maggie says enthusiastically as she claps her hands together.

I watch as she slowly heaves herself from the chair with Mrs. Cole's help and waddles across the pool house, making a beeline for the food.

"That's cravings for you," Mrs. Cole laughs as she walks after Maggie.

My mom waits for me to get out of my chair and then hooks her arm around mine as we walk across the room.

"I never knew you got locked out of your building. What happened after?" I ask, intrigued.

My mom grins. "I had to spend the night on a bench. The worst part was that halfway through the night, it started to rain, so I had to stand under a tree until it stopped."

"No way!" I laugh.

"It's not my finest moment," she admits.

I hug closer into my mom as we continue to walk. From what she's said tonight, I never knew my mom was such a rebel.

When I arrive at the barbecue, Tanner hands me a plate and pulls me to the side to wait for the grill to become free of people.

"I hope my mom didn't interrogate you too much," he whispers into my hair.

I lightly shake my head. "Nothing more than I assumed. Who knew our relationship would be such a hot topic?" I joke.

"Hmm. Me too," he responds dryly, rolling his eyes.

"I am happy that they know, though. I don't think I'd like pretending that nothing is going on," I say reassuringly.

His eyes glint with humor. "Baby, I think they'd figure it out anyway. You can't keep your eyes off me."

I scoff. "As if. Anyway, you're the one who can't keep their hands to yourself," I jest back, referring to his hand that is fixed in the back pocket of my blue jeans.

He squeezes my ass. "Can you blame me? You have a perky ass. And believe me, if we weren't surrounded by our family right now, I'd be doing a lot more with my hands." He says huskily in my ear.

I swallow hard as his words send a jolt of pleasure down to my sex. Now is definitely not the time to be turned on by him.

"Behave," I gently warn him as I extract his hand from my back pocket.

"Okay. I will for now," he says boyishly as he heads to the grill.

I bite on my lower lip as I watch him load his plate with food. Why do I have a feeling that by the end of tonight, Tanner will find some way to get me alone.

What do you think of Leah's mom having 'the talk' with her? Have any of you had an awkward experience like this?

Thank you for reading! Please vote ⭐ and comment ❤️. These little stars mean a lot.

xoxo