'No.' She kissed him again. 'I'll thank you right now, no matter what happens. For being so sweet For caring so much.'
His arms tightened. 'For God's sake, Erin. Don't get me all worked up in a public parking lot. It's embarrassing.'
She smiled up through her eyelashes. 'Does it excite you to be thanked, Connor?'
'Yeah.' His voice was belligerent. 'By you, it does. So sue me.'
'Must go along with that hero mentality your brother was talking about,' she murmured. 'I'll remember. For future reference.'
'Let's go. I don't like displaying my hard-on to the whole world.'
The closer they got to her mother's house, the heavier Connor's silence became. 'Are you nervous?' she asked.
He shot her an are-you-kidding look, turned the corner, and parked on her mother's block. They sat for a long, silent moment, and Connor let out a sharp sigh and shoved his door open. 'Let's do it.'
She got out of the car, marched up to him, and wrapped her arms around his waist. 'Connor?'
'Yeah?' He sounded apprehensive.
'Just a detail I'd like to straighten up, before we go any further.'
'Let's hear it.'
'Your two brothers? They're both very good-looking. I might even go so far as to say extremely good-looking. But they are not more good-looking than you.'
A radiant grin chased the tension out of his face, and he leaned his forehead gently against hers. 'You're my girlfriend now,' he said. 'You have to say that kind of stuff. It's part of your job description.'
'Oh, bullshit,' she said. 'You're such a—'
He cut her off with a kiss, pulling her close. She wound her arms around his neck and clung to him, wishing they were a million miles away from all her problems and worries, someplace where she could just wrap herself around his generous heat and strength and power, and soak it up like tropical sunshine. His lips moved over hers, sweet and coaxing and seductive, weakening her knees, making her—
'Erin? Honey? Is that you?'
They jerked apart with a gasp.
Barbara Riggs was standing on the porch in her bathrobe, squinting at them. 'Who's that with you?' She fumbled in the pocket of her bathrobe, pulled out her glasses, and put them on.
'It's me, Mrs. Riggs.' Connor's voice was flat and resigned. 'Connor McCloud.'
'You?' She gaped. 'What are you doing with my daughter?'
Connor sighed. 'I was kissing her, ma'am.'
Barbara picked her way down the leaf-strewn steps in her slippers, her gaze horrified. 'Honey? What is the meaning of this?'
Chapter Seventeen
Connor braced himself to be martyred. His doom was averted when the next-door neighbor's front door popped open and a chubby gray-haired lady came out onto her porch. Her eyes were bright with curiosity. 'Hi, Erin!' she called. 'Well, well! Who's your young man?'
'Hi, Marlene,' Erin said. 'Um… Mom? Could we have this conversation inside the house?'
Barbara Riggs glanced up at her neighbor. 'That might be best,' she said icily. 'Under the circumstances.' She marched toward the house, head high, back straight, just like Erin when she was royally pissed. He followed. His doom was not averted. Just delayed.
He followed Erin's glance into the living room, saw it flinch away. Sure enough, the gutted TV lay there on its back like a dead bug in the gloom. A poker stuck out of its belly, just as Tonia had said. Ouch.
Barbara turned on the kitchen light and folded her arms over her chest. Her mouth was a flat, bloodless line of fury. Even as disheveled and haggard as she was, he could see where Erin's regal air came from.
'Well?' The single word was like a bolt from a crossbow.
He was terribly afraid that that was his cue, but he had no idea what to say. Everything felt like the wrong thing. He was on the verge of just opening his mouth and letting whatever happened to be lying there on top fall out of it, but Erin beat him to the punch.
'We're together, Mom,' she said quietly. 'He's my lover now.'
A blotchy flush mottled the older woman's face. She let out a sharp, high-pitched sound. Her hand flashed out, toward Erin's face.
He caught the slap and held it suspended in midair. Her trembling wrist felt clammy and cold in his grip. 'You don't want to do that, Mrs. Riggs,' he said. 'You can't take it back. And it's not worth it.'
'Don't you dare preach to me. Let go of me.'
'No hitting,' he said.
Her chin jerked up. He decided to take that for an assent and let go. She snatched her hand back. Her eyes were glassy and feverish.
'You've been watching her since she was practically a child,' she spat. 'Waiting for your chance. I saw it in your face, so don't bother to deny it. And now that Ed's out of the way, you think the coast is clear.'
Things couldn't get any worse, so there was no reason not to be brutally honest. 'I would have gone after her anyway,' he admitted. 'That whole bad business was just a delay.'
The flush burned purplish spots into her pallid face. 'Just a delay? You call the ruin of my entire life just a delay? You have the nerve to come into my house and say that to me, after what you did?'
'I did my job, ma'am. I did my duty,' he said, with steely calm. 'Which is more than I can say for your husband.'
'Get out of my house.' Her voice vibrated with fury.
'No, Mom,' Erin said. 'You can't throw him out without throwing me out, too. And you can't throw me out, because I won't let you.'
Barbara's lips trembled with hurt and confusion. 'What has come over you, honey? Are you punishing me for something?'
Erin grabbed her and hugged her tightly. 'No. This is for me, Mom. Just me. For the first time, I am thinking only of myself, and you are going to have to swallow it. Because I've never called in a favor from you in my whole life.'
'But you've always been such a good girl,' Barbara whispered.
'Too good,' Erin said. 'I never misbehaved, I never made you wait up all night, I never put a foot wrong. I'm calling in all those points now, Mom. Remember those good behavior charts you made for us when we were kids? All those gold stars I got? This is my prize. And I picked it out all by myself.'
Barbara's face convulsed. Her arms hung like sticks at her side in Erin's embrace. Slowly, they circled around her daughter's body.
Her eyes flicked up to Connor. He stoically endured it. It was no different than the way the respectable matrons of Endicott Falls had looked at him and his brothers in the old days whenever they came into town. A look that said,
'Some prize,' she said coldly. 'Just how long have you been carrying on with my daughter behind my back?'
Connor thought about it, consulted his watch, and decided that those incendiary, mind-blowing kisses in the airport definitely counted. 'Uh, forty-six hours and twenty-five minutes, ma'am.'
Barbara closed her eyes and shook her head. 'Dear God. Erin. Why didn't you tell me you were taking this man with you to the coast?'
'I didn't know at the time, Mom,' she said gently. 'It was a surprise. He came along to guard me, and this just… happened.'
'Guard you?' Her eyes sharpened. 'From what?'
Connor stared at Erin in disbelief. 'You mean you didn't tell her? No wonder she thinks I'm the Antichrist.'
'Tell me what?' Barbara's voice rose steadily in pitch. 'What in God's name is going on here?'
