“What’s your favorite?”
“Shrimp scampi.”
Jose laughed. “Is my daughter feeding you her extra spicy food? She always said if a man can’t stand the heat, he can’t be in her space.”
He looked over to see Adriana flush. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
31
Do No Wrong
“You did well,” Adriana said when they were back at her place. She invited him up so they could talk.
“I passed?” he asked.
“You know damn well you did,” she said. She should be happy over it, but part of her was a little nervous too.
The first guy her father meets and quizzes aced it like Wyatt probably did all his entrance exams for medical school.
He was smart. He was good looking. He was charming.
He’d won her father over and had Maggie almost swooning every time he talked about his own family or mother.
The guy could do no wrong tonight.
Normally that was a sign for her to run in the opposite direction yet she’d seen plenty of his flaws.
Or had she?
Yeah. He wasn’t perfect. His family even said so. Rumors and gossip surrounding him at work said it too. Even if half of it was exaggerated it still had some truth to it.
“Well, I tried,” he said. “Your father isn’t that big of a man, but he was mighty intimidating. In the beginning I wasn’t sure if you got your temper from him.”
“Temper?” she asked. “I don’t have a temper.”
“Says the woman who just drew her tiny figure up and crossed her arms. If laser beams could come out of your eyes, I’d be fried just now.”
“My father hardly ever gets mad. Even when my mother pulled her shit for years, he was always the calm understanding one.”
“Could have had me fooled tonight. So you get your temper from your mother?”
“I try not to compare myself to her much if I can avoid it, but in this case, you could say I do. The difference is I can admit when I’m wrong, which it seems I have to do a lot with you. That comes from my father.”
“Then can I ask if he was like that with me tonight because I’m the first guy you brought to him or is it because of your last relationship?”
“Probably a mixture of both,” she said. “Either way, it went well. And Maggie didn’t burn your belly with my father’s favorite dishes.”
He smiled and reached for her. “I thought for sure I was going to be running to the bathroom all night before I found out what your favorite meal was. I can make that, you know. It’s one of the few things I can do other than grill. Though I’m not sure I could make it as well as Maggie. She’s a great cook.”
“She is,” she said. “My father struck gold with her and I’m glad for that. He deserves to be happy.”
“So do you,” he said, reaching for her and pulling her into his big strong arms. She never thought she’d be one for being held but found with Wyatt she craved it like she did the spicy food she loved so much. “Now you just need to decide if you think you should be.”
“What does that mean?” she asked, looking up at him.
“That I feel at times you punish yourself and I’m not sure the reason for it.”
He was able to read too much into her and it was way too scary. “I told you. I don’t want to be like my mother. Being the other woman, even though I wasn’t aware of it, it put me in her category. She even said she’d been the other woman before. She defended my ex at one point and said I needed to know the whole story. I don’t need to know the story. He cheated. He lied. End of story.”
“That’s right. He did those things. And when you found out, you ended it by the sounds of it. You did the right thing.”
She snorted. “Not everyone thought that way. And we are getting off the topic.” She still hadn’t told him Spencer was a doctor where she worked. Wyatt didn’t need to know those details. It didn’t matter at this point or so she convinced herself.
“I’ll let you change the subject because I’m in too good of a mood over the fact I passed the parent test. First time too.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I think you could pass meeting anyone the first time. It’s the way you are.”
“I didn’t the first time I met you. You kicked me to the curb. Had my colleagues and my cousin busting my ass I struck out when I said I hadn’t even gotten to bat. Hell, you pretty much ripped the bat from my hands and threw a helmet at me. I was almost too afraid to try again.”
She laughed at him. He really did have a way about him to make people smile. “It’s not all about playing jokes on people. It’s who you are that makes people happy or smile. Just like you did now. It’s a talent, not necessarily a flaw.”
“Can you tell my family that?” he asked. “They’ve got it right up there at the top of the list as a flaw along with taking nothing serious except my job and drinking coffee that makes people gag.”
“The coffee one is true,” she said back and ran her hands up and down his back. “I’m going to take something serious right now.”
“You take a lot seriously. I’m trying to loosen you up.”
“I’m loose,” she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him to the couch. “Want me to show you?”
“I always want you to show me things. I did good enough to get in your pants.”
She shook her head remembering him asking that on the drive over to her father’s. “I’m going to get in your pants.”
“Even better,” he said.
Her hands went to the button of his shorts,
