Then he asked for Wyatt to come too. She went from worrying there was something wrong with him to worrying that he was going to grill her new boyfriend.
“You can ask him though, right?” her father said. “If he can’t do it tonight, then we can do a night that he is available.”
Which just proved her point that this had more to do about Wyatt. “What’s this all about?”
“I’d like to meet the man you are spending time with. I may hear good things about him from Maggie—which is via his mother—or you. But I want to make that judgment on my own.”
“You never did before,” she argued.
“You haven’t lived around here. And when I’d come to visit you, you either were single or it didn’t work out with our schedules. You live here now and I can make the time.”
“Are you trying to protect me?” she asked.
“Of course. You’re my little girl. If I had been living in San Diego I would have gone right over to Spencer’s place in front of his wife and let him know what I thought of his lying cheating ass.”
Her father never showed that much of a temper when his own wife cheated on him. “That would have only made matters worse.”
“I don’t care. It’s a father’s right. I’m taking my rights back. It’s not like your mother backed you when you needed it.”
“Not in that situation. But I don’t need backing either.”
“Whether you do or not doesn’t matter. You’ll ask him and let me know, right?”
“I’ll send him a text now, but I might not hear from him until the end of the day. That could affect what Maggie makes.”
“You know she always makes enough for ten people, not two.”
Which meant there was no getting out of this regardless of the night. “I’ll text him as soon as I hang up. And I need to go now and get back to work.”
“Let me know,” her father said. “If not tonight, then another night this week.”
She hung up with her father and sent a text off to Wyatt, then went to wait for the OR to be ready for her next surgery.
Before she went into the room, her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out to see Wyatt’s response. Of course he’d love to meet her father. Why had she thought otherwise?
“Why do you seem nervous?” he asked her three hours later. “I’m the one that should be nervous and I’m not. He’s not going to open the door with a gun in his hand or anything, is he?”
She looked over and saw the sparkle in his eyes, the grin on his face. He was driving and she was in the passenger seat, her legs shaking up and down.
“I’m not nervous.”
“Then there are ants in your shorts. I’d like to change places with them. Do you think I can get in your shorts after dinner tonight or are you worried I won’t want to? Or maybe you won’t want me to because I’ll fail some test your dad might have. I’m good at tests. I’m pretty smart you know.” He lowered his voice. “I’m a doctor. We’re known for being smart.”’
“Ha ha,” she said. “No test that I’m aware of. You’re the first person my father has met since high school.”
“Now I feel honored.”
“It’s not meant for you to be. He’s being protective when he never used to be. I don’t know how he’ll be. Just a fair warning.”
“I can take the heat. I ate your breakfast and survived.”
She laughed. She had to. “Be prepared. You might be getting more of the same tonight.”
He winced this time and she laughed even harder. “We’ll have to stop at the store for antacids again then. I had to bum them off of Jade before we golfed.”
“Are you joking or serious?” She really wasn’t sure.
“Serious. Dead serious. I even chugged a glass of milk while you were in the shower.”
“And you never said a word to me.”
“You already called me a wuss. But I’m letting you know I lived to talk about it. I can do it again if your father wants to meet me.”
“That might be one of the sweetest things I’ve ever heard.”
* * *
It was a good thing he was buttering her up now because the truth was he was slightly nervous to meet Adriana’s father.
He never met a woman’s father before. Not in a setting like this.
Sure, he’d dated over the years but nothing serious enough to get to this level.
And he could tell Adriana would have preferred he had plans, but the truth was, he wanted to meet her family. She’d met his and he wanted her to know that this wasn’t all fun and games to him.
They’d been dating for a month, which was longer than he normally had with a woman. In his eyes, this was more than he’d had before and if the next step was meeting her parents, he was all in.
He pulled into the driveway of the ranch house and got out. They weren’t even to the top step of the porch before the door was opened and he got his first glimpse of Jose Lopez.
The man was average height, dark hair and eyes like his daughter. He wasn’t overweight to the point of being obese, but you could tell he must like his wife’s cooking.
“Adriana, sweetie,” Jose said, holding his arms out, and his daughter went right in for the hug. Oh yeah, he had to win the man over.
“Dad, this is Wyatt Fierce. Wyatt, my father, Jose.”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Lopez.”
“Just Jose will do. Unless you want me to call you Dr. Fierce.”
“No,” he said. “No one does. Even if they did, I’m just Wyatt to you.”
“Good to know,” Jose said. “Come on in. Maggie is finishing up dinner. She’s making Adriana’s favorite tonight.”
He
