Hot Rocks

shoulder so he could keep a hand on Laine and reach for his wine. “I don’t think it’s fair to put your grandchildren in the mix. It’s not like Luke went out specially and picked them out to suit you. Stay,” he said in a hushed aside to Laine, then transferred the phone to his other hand when he released her.
    “Yeah, I’m still in Maryland. On a job, Mama.” He paused, listening, while Laine puttered around the kitchen looking for something to do. “No, I don’t get tired of hotels and eating in restaurants. No, I’m not sitting here chained to my nasty computer and working too hard. What am I doing? Actually, I’m two-timing you with a sexy redhead I picked up the other day. There’s talk of whipped cream later.”
    Laine’s shocked gasp only had him crossing his feet at the ankles.
    “I am not making it up. Why should I? She’s right here. Want to talk to her?” He tipped the phone slightly away from his ear. “She says I’m embarrassing you. Am I?”
    “Yes.”
    “Guess you’re right about that, Mama. Her name’s Laine, and she’s the prettiest thing I’ve seen in my life. How do you feel about redheaded grandchildren?”
    He winced, held the phone out a good six inches. Across the room, Laine could hear the exclamations but couldn’t tell the tone of them.
    “No problem. I’ve got another eardrum. Yeah, I’m crazy in love with her. I will. Of course I will. She won’t. As soon as . . . We will . Mama, take a breath, will you? Yes, she makes me very happy. Really? I want you to hang up and call Luke right now. Tell him he’s been shuffled into second place, and I’m your favorite son. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Okay. I love you, too. Bye.”
    He clicked off, stuck the phone back in his pocket. “I’m her favorite son. That’ll burn Luke’s ass. Anyway, I’m supposed to tell you that she can’t wait to meet you, and we have to come down to Savannah ASAP so she can meet you, and can have a little engagement party for us. Which in Marlene-speak means a couple hundred of her closest friends and family. You’re not allowed to change your mind about me. And she’d like it very much if you’d call her tomorrow when she’s calmed down so you can have a nice chat.”
    “Oh my God.”
    “She’s prepared to love you because I do. Plus she’s thrilled that I’m going to settle down and get married. Then there’s you having the good sense to see what a prize I am. You’ve got a big leg up with Marlene.”
    “I feel a little sick.”
    “Here.” He pulled his phone out again. “Call your mama, then you can tell her and put me on the spot. We’ll be even.”
    She stared at the phone, stared at him. “This is real.”
    “Damn right.”
    “You really want to marry me.”
    “We’re past the want to. I’m going to marry you. You don’t follow through on this, Marlene will hunt you down and make your life a living hell.”
    She laughed, took two running strides, then jumped into his arms. Hooked her legs around his waist and covered his mouth with hers. “I’ve always wanted to visit Savannah.” She took the phone out of his hand, laid it on the counter behind him.
    “What about your mother?”
    “I’ll call her later. There’s a two-hour time difference, you know. So if I call her in two hours, it’s really the same thing as calling her now. That way we can do something else for two hours.”
    Since she was chewing on the lobe of his ear, he had a pretty good idea what the something else would be. Hitching her to a steadier position, he started out of the room. “What about those evening chores?”
    “Let’s be irresponsible.”
    “I like your thinking.”
    She ran her tongue down his throat, up again. “Can you make it all the way upstairs?”
    “Honey, the way I’m feeling, I could make it all the way to New Jersey.”
    She bounced lightly as he started up the stairs. “We forgot the whipped cream.”
    “Save it for later.”
    She reached down to tug his shirt out of his waistband. “Big talk.” Her hands snuck under the shirt, ran up the hard plane of his chest. “Mmm, I love your body. I noticed it right away.”
    “May I say, ditto.”
    “But it wasn’t the kicker.”
    “What was?” he asked and turned into the bedroom.
    “Your eyes. They looked into mine, and my tongue went thick, my brain went stupid. I thought . . . oh, yum, yum, yum.” She kept legs and arms hooked tight around him when he tumbled them into bed. “Then when you asked me to