Meagan walked up and helped my mother set the table. “That’s wonderful! Isn’t it, Gray?”
I wanted to yell out no, but I was almost positive my mother would frown on that so I forced a smile. “Yeah, how old are they?”
James flashed a proud smile across his face. “Sandy is twenty-six, and Rick is twenty-two.”
With a quick nod, I grabbed a handful of cheese and headed toward the door. “I’m gonna see how your chicken is doing.”
James laughed and stepped out of the way as I headed outside. I hadn’t bothered putting on a jacket.
The cold air felt good as it hit my face. I lifted the grill and cursed.
The chicken was of course fine since James had recently checked on them. I needed a few moments to collect my thoughts. Everything with my mother and James seemed to be happening all too fast. Truth be told, she needed to find love again and if James was the guy, then I’d try like hell to be supportive.
The back door opened and I turned to see Meagan. “Hey, James’s kids are here, you want to come back in and out of the freezing cold?”
Taking in a deep breath, I tried to not let any of it bother me. “Yeah,” I mumbled as I walked up to Meagan.
Reaching up on her toes, she kissed my lips. “I’m sorry. I know this is all so fast and you weren’t expecting it. Just remember your mom is happy and that’s all that matters.”
I knew she was right and I pulled her into my arms. “I’d be lost without you, do you know that?”
With a wiggle of her eyebrows, Meagan replied, “You can show me later when we get back to your place.”
My eyes closed as I exhaled a breath while thinking about being with Meagan again.
“Come on, let’s go met Sandy and Ricky.”
With a moan, I shook my head. “They sound like they should be from the movie Grease.”
Meagan giggled as she lightly hit my chest. “Stop it.”
Less than a minute later, Meagan and I were being introduced to James’s kids. Ricky was tall, about six two and built pretty big. He was attending college in Denver and had come home for the week to meet my mother. By the look on his face, I’d say he was just as surprised as I was to find out about all of this.
Sandy was for sure not from Grease. She wore tight jeans and a shirt so tight and low cut, I was sure her tits were going to fall out just from me shaking her hand. I tried desperately to stay focused on her nose. That felt like the only safe zone to look at.
“So, Grayson, what do you do for a living?” Sandy asked as she flashed me a fuck-me smile.
“Gray, you can just call me Gray. I work for the Durango Police Department.”
Sandy widened her eyes. “Is that so? What do you do there?”
“He’s a detective,” my mother responded as I glanced over to her. “Sorry sweetheart, I’m just so proud of you I have to brag.”
“It’s okay, Mom.”
I couldn’t help but notice the way Sandy was staring at me. I’ve had lots of women eye fuck me before, but this was different and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Meagan was helping my mother pull out food as they brought it into the formal dining room. I decided to ignore Sandy and talked to Ricky.
“So, Rick, what are you going to school for?”
“History major. Trying to decide if I want to go into law like dad here, or maybe take it in another direction.”
My eyes lifted as I looked over to James. So he was a lawyer? That was good; at least he could take care of himself.
“Like what other kind of direction?”
Ricky glanced over to his father and then back at me with a weak smile. “I haven’t decided yet.”
Huh. Interesting. Sounds like Ricky is being pushed into law school and he might want to do something different. That reminded me of Mitchell. I still needed to talk to Meagan about him.
“James, will you go grab the steaks, I think we’re about ready to eat,” my mother said as she smiled and motioned for everyone to sit down. “Meg, sit down. I’ve got the rest of this.”
Meagan smiled and headed over to where I was about to sit.
I pulled out a chair and began to sit down when Sandy took the seat next to me. Meagan tried not to show her look of shock as she moved and took the seat on the other side of me. Turning to say something to Meagan, Sandy talked.
“So, how did you get to move up for a promotion so fast? You must not have done a lot of patrol work before moving up.”
“I did a few months on patrol but tested high on my state licensing test, and well, they needed more detectives.”
“Wow. Impressive how far you’ve come.”
My eyes narrowed as I looked at her with a confused look on my face. With a wink, she leaned forward and talked to Meagan.
“Meagan, how did you and Grayson . . . sorry . . . Gray, meet?”
With a smile, Meagan took my hand in hers. “My best friend is married to Gray’s cousin, Noah. They live in Texas.”
Sandy leaned back in her chair and took a sip of her water. “What a small world isn’t it?”