Derrick had handled Isabel just right. He hadn’t offered a challenge, which she would have gone after like a dog after a meaty bone. Instead he played oblivious. Each time her mother tried to move closer and touch him, he shoved a playbook in her hands or gesticulated wildly about a past game.
He started to wind down when Dylan whispered in her ear, “That’s my cue.”
Dylan entered and knocked his brother in the arm. “There you are. Dinner’s almost ready.”
“Oh good. I think I was starting to bore Isabel with our old football stats.”
Dylan raised a brow. “Which game?”
Derrick started all over again. This time he and Dylan nodded and laughed as they reminisced, leaving her mother completely out of the loop. Ingenious.
Isabel’s practiced pout turned into an honest scowl. “Well, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I’m going to wash up for dinner.”
Sydney hurried back down the carpeted hallway. She took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and joined James, Hailey and Barbara in the dining room.
Isabel soon entered and sat down next to Sydney, who sat next to Derrick. Throughout the meal, Isabel remained mostly quiet. Back to her polite, charming self, trying to lull the hapless males into believing her harmless.
Derrick caught Sydney’s attention when Isabel turned to reply to James. He winked, and she knew it would be all right. Her lover had no intention of falling prey to her mother. One worry put to rest at least.
But when Derrick turned the table-talk to Sydney, she didn’t like it in the slightest. He complimented her business sense and laughingly told them what a hard time she’d given him—one he’d earned. She tensed, expecting to hear it any time soon. All day long he’d been throwing it around, using the word in nearly every sentence. So much for a reprieve at the family dinner.
“It’s no wonder I love her. Red hair does lead to a fiery temperament.” He winked at Isabel, who nodded absently.
Ack. The L word again. And in front of his family. A challenge she had every intention of meeting.
Chapter Eleven
Derrick grinned at her with a wicked look in his eye. Oh, she was so going to make him pay later.
“Did you say love?” Barbara just had to rub it in.
Derrick opened his mouth to reply when Isabel interrupted with, “True. But at least the red hair is real. No bottled color on the Fields women.”
Her mother, at least, remained true to form. If the conversation didn’t involve her, she didn’t care.
Sydney expected Derrick to say something back to her mother, but he just smiled and told everyone how he’d ridden the Vortex with Sydney at the fair, and neither of them had thrown up.
“Nice, Derrick.” Gage frowned. “I’m eating, dude.”
“Baby,” Derrick and Dylan said as one.
Hailey tried to smother a smile.
Barbara shook her head. “You should see these three at our family breakfasts.” She shot Derrick a sly glance. “I’m surprised we haven’t seen you at one before now, Sydney. You’re more than invited, with or without Derrick.”
Derrick sighed. “With, Mom. You’re not helping.”
James grinned. “From what I hear, you never need help.”
Gage snorted. “That’s only because his dates usually have less between their ears than they have in their…” He paused and took a quick sip of water. “In other places.”
“Not Sydney. She’s got everything I want everywhere it counts.” Derrick put an arm around her shoulder and tugged on her hair. “But she gets it honestly, right Isabel?”
Her mother nodded.
“So speaks a man in love,” Hailey teased. The traitor.
“What I’d like to know is why you guys seem so interested in that football game. Who’s playing?” Sydney deliberately changed the subject.
Dylan saved her by taunting Derrick about his pick to win. Then James and Gage joined it. It seemed one needed testosterone to truly enjoy the game.
“Me?” Hailey shrugged. “I just watch it for the tight butts and shoulder pads.”
“Me too,” Sydney and Barbara said at the same time.
The women laughed while the men ignored them in favor of stats and jibes about winners and losers.
After dinner, the Warren men, as one, cleared the table. James tried to help, but Dylan shot him a nasty look and took his plate into the kitchen.
“I guess that’s what I get for hating the Bears.” James didn’t look too upset. “Barbara, how about I make some coffee?”
“That would be nice.” Barbara seemed miffed with him, but Sydney couldn’t have said why. Then again, she was still in shock that Derrick had told everyone he loved her. His family, the people who meant more to him than anything, and he’d confessed his affection in front of one and all.
She should have felt more uncomfortable. But instead she wanted to shout and do a happy dance. She felt the way she did when she nailed a sale. As if she’d accomplished something vital.
Hailey socked her in the arm.
“Ow. What was that for?”
“Don’t fight it,” her friend murmured. “He’s the Warren twin that never loses.”
“Yeah?” Sydney sneered. “Well, I don’t see my mother entering therapy anytime soon. So there’s a loss right there.”
“The night is young, my naïve young friend.” Hailey sighed. “You poor kid. I hope you didn’t bet anything you don’t want to lose.”
Sydney refrained from saying anything more when Barbara and Isabel sat across from them on the couch, surrounding the coffee table.
Somehow, between the coffee James brought them, the cake Derrick and Dylan placed on the coffee table, and the chocolates Gage delivered and left, conversation veered from clothing and Isabel’s incredible fashion sense to travel and then to men.
Before Sydney knew it, her mother was crying about her latest conquest, and how she didn’t know if she should commit to marrying for the seventh time or not. This, after hitting on not just Derrick but James as well.
Sydney shared a look with Hailey, who whispered, “What can I say? The woman is good.” They stared in awe at Barbara.
“Why don’t we take this somewhere more private, Isabel?” Barbara offered kindly.
Sydney’s mother left with Barbara and disappeared behind a closed door.
The men appeared as if by magic.
“She has an office she uses here sometimes,” Dylan offered.
“Just waiting for Mom to work her mojo,” Derrick said with a huge grin. “We didn’t want to interrupt.”
“And the game wasn’t quite over,” James said dryly. “We caught the end in the kitchen. Bears are going to suck this year.”
“You suck,” Dylan snapped.
“Nice comeback, Dr. Warren.” Gage laughed.
“Dickhead.” Dylan looked down his nose at his younger brother, and even Sydney had to laugh.
“Don’t you just love…” Derrick looked right at her “…when Dylan uses his snotty doctor voice to talk like a regular guy? No offense, James.”
James rolled his eyes. “None taken.”
Gage and Derrick shared a grin.
“Could you be any more immature?” Sydney asked.
“I could. But why bother, when I love just being here next to you?”
The others grinned. Everyone had to know he was rubbing her nose in the big love bowl.
“Derrick—”
“I love when you say my name like that.” He sighed.
“How about some coffee?” She tried to change the subject.
The others watched them back and forth, like watching a tennis match.