Dirty: The Complete Series (Secret Baby Romance Love Story) (58 page)

I directed him onto my parents’ street and
as we got closer to the house I saw that even though we’d gotten there early,
there were already a few people at the party.
Oh well. It’s not that important. He’ll still get to meet the fam
before everyone starts coming, and it’ll save you the trouble of a few
introductions,
I told myself as Patrick found a place on the street to
park.

“Are you sure you’re going to be warm
enough for the walk to the door?”

“As long as we make it fast, I think I’ll
live,” I said, though as soon as I opened the door I felt the goose bumps break
out on my legs. I took a deep breath and climbed out of the SUV, tugging and
rearranging my dress to make sure it fell the right way. I handed Patrick the
bottle of champagne he had brought in the car, and he kissed me quickly on the
lips before taking my hand. It wasn’t quite enough to keep the chill off of me,
but I still felt a little warm as we walked up the street and then along the
walkway leading to my parents’ front door.

I knocked on the door quickly and then
just opened it and stepped inside. “Hey, everyone!” I called out, leading
Patrick in behind me. He closed the door and I looked around, letting go of his
hand so that I could take my coat off. “If I’d known people were going to come
early I would have spent an hour less getting ready.”

I heard a shout from the living room, and
my parents appeared first, leading my siblings and the few guests who had already
arrived to come and greet me. “Mom, Dad—everyone; this is Patrick, my
boyfriend.” I took Patrick’s hand and tugged him a little closer to me, looking
at everyone to see their approval. I saw Alex, John, Evie, and their spouses;
Evie looked almost envious at the sight of Patrick, and I felt a little gush of
pride at my gorgeous boyfriend. I saw one of the neighbors
 
and one of my mom’s former coworkers, and
smiled at each of them.

Someone else came out of the living room
to join the rest of the party, and I peered closely at the approaching figure.
All at once he stepped into the light and my heart stopped in my chest for just
a moment. I looked at my parents in shock as I recognized who it was, and my
hand must have tightened on Patrick’s because he gave me a quick, concerned
look. My parents had invited someone I hadn’t seen in years; they’d invited my
ex-boyfriend Noah—the first guy I’d ever fallen in love with seriously, when
I’d started at college.

Chapter Six – Patrick

I was nervous enough when we got to Mack’s
parents’ house. When she started introducing me to everyone, I started to feel
at ease; but when I felt her hand tighten on mine and saw the look of shock on
her face, I wondered who her parents could have possibly invited that would make
her look almost afraid. “You’re our daughter’s new boyfriend,” an older man
said, coming up to me. I let go of Mack’s hand and took stock of the guy; after
a moment or two I could tell that he was definitely Mackenzie’s dad—there was
something similar in the face, in the hair.

“I hope so,” I said, grinning wryly. “I
guess that depends on how well I do tonight.” The man laughed and I shook his
hand, holding the bottle of champagne up to offer it to him. “I figured you
would have plenty of drinks on hand to toast the New Year, but I didn’t want to
show up empty-handed to meet Mackenzie’s parents.” A woman who looked even more
like Mack than her father stepped up and took the bottle from me.

“That was so thoughtful!” she gave me her
hand and I shook it as well. “I’m Mack’s mom, Kate; and this is her father,
David.”

“Pleased to meet you both,” I said,
nodding. “As Mack already said, my name is Patrick.” I looked over at the woman
I loved; she hadn’t quite recovered from whatever had shocked her, but she was
pretending to be okay, talking to one of the other women gathered in the
entryway. “Is there someone here Mack wasn’t expecting to see? She looks
stunned.”

“That…” Kate looked a little embarrassed,
glancing away from me at a tall, slim guy; he’d been the last to come in, and
he was dressed in a rumpled suit, with his dark hair combed back off of his
face, brushing his collar. Kate grimaced and gave me an apologetic smile,
leading me into the living room as everyone started back in that direction.
“I’m really sorry—I made a bad decision this week.”

“Is that so?” I glanced at Mack again; she
was starting to lose the flustered, flushed look, but I wanted to ask her what
was wrong nonetheless.

“I’ll have to apologize to Mack later,”
Kate said, sighing. She licked her lips, looking nervous for a moment. “I hate
to say anything bad about my daughter, but I thought that maybe she had made
you up.”

“Made me up?”

 
Kate smiled wryly. “Her father and I have been
kind of pushy about her settling down; maybe she’s mentioned it to you?” I
chuckled. Mack had mentioned her parents’ interest in her love life on a couple
of occasions, and I’d suspected that she was trying to play it down—especially
after what my sister had said about women trying not to scare men off.

“She said something about that, yes,” I
confirmed.

“Well, we kind of thought—and obviously
now we feel like idiots—but we thought that maybe she’d made up some new guy
she was dating.” Kate pressed her lips together, looking almost as mortified as
Mack had looked. “So I thought it might be a good idea to try and guarantee her
a midnight kiss.” Kate shrugged, still looking embarrassed but starting to
regain her composure. “I called one of her exes to catch up during the holidays
and found out that he was single.”

I’m not sure if staring at Mack’s mother
in shock was the best thing to do, but her level of meddling stunned me. I
couldn’t believe that even if they had assumed that their daughter had been
lying about meeting someone new, they would go so far as to invite someone
without her permission—someone who, I would think, Mack would almost certainly
not want to see.
People are always exes
for a reason,
I thought, glancing around until I saw the guy. “

That seems a little…” I couldn’t finish
the sentence in any way that wouldn’t have sounded judgmental.

“Obviously it was a mistake,” Kate said,
shrugging again and trying to smile. “But we’ve been worried about her being
single for so long.” She took a deep breath. “Of course, since you’re real, and
you’re here, I’m sure Noah will just find someone else to get his midnight kiss
from.”

“Tell us about yourself Patrick,” Mack’s
father said, walking up with a glass in either hand. “I hope you’re okay with
whiskey and coke—I ordered for you.” I shrugged and took the glass that he
offered me, taking a quick sip. I still couldn’t quite believe that Mack’s
parents had thought it would be a good idea to invite her ex to their party.

“I have a beautiful, five-year-old son
named Landon,” I said, trying to put the awkwardness of the situation behind
me.

“That’s wonderful!” Kate said, sipping a
glass of champagne. “Did something happen between you and Landon’s mother?”

“She passed away,” I said, taking another
quick sip of the cocktail Mack’s father had brought me. “Joanne found out that
she had cancer shortly after she got pregnant, and delayed treatment until
after she’d delivered Landon. She passed away when he was a few months old.”

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Kate said,
sighing. “It must be difficult for you, raising your son alone.”

“It’s very rewarding,” I said, starting to
relax a little bit. “I don’t get as much time with him as I want—I have to
work, after all—but every minute I have with him is precious to me.”

I managed to find a few moments to snag a
bite to eat while I chatted with Mack’s parents, answering their questions
about my work, about my lifestyle. I relaxed more and more, reminding myself
that I knew for a fact that Mack was in love with me, and that the fact that
her parents were asking so many questions meant that they were interested in
getting to know me. It was awkward for Mack’s ex to be at the party, but I
didn’t have any doubts about who she would rather be with of anyone in the
room.

The doorbell rang and Mack’s parents went
off, leaving the living room to answer it and greet their new arrivals. I
looked around for Mack and realized that somewhere along the line, she’d
disappeared. I spotted the woman she’d been talking to when her parents
cornered me and made my way over to her. “Hi,” I said, smiling as warmly as I
could. “I saw you talking with Mack earlier—and you two look so much alike. I
was wondering if you’re her sister Evie?”

“I am!” The woman beamed at me, raising
her champagne glass. “I wanted to introduce myself before, but I saw you were
getting the third degree from Mom and Dad, so I hung back.”

“I came prepared,” I told her, chuckling.
“I figured that Mack’s family would want to know as much as possible about the
new boyfriend.” I looked around again and failed to find Mackenzie. “You don’t
happen to know where she went, do you?”

“I’m not sure,” Evie said, frowning
slightly. “She’ll probably turn up in a few minutes; maybe Mom wanted her to
take the next round of appetizers out of the oven or something.” Evie’s face
cleared. “Mack said you have an absolutely wonderful little boy? I have kids,
too. Mack is just amazing with them.” I settled in to talk with Evie while I
waited for Mack to reappear, reminding myself that it wasn’t like she was going
to leave the party altogether; I had a claim for a kiss with her in a few
hours, and I was sure I’d run into her again before that.

Chapter Seven - Mackenzie

When my parents took Patrick aside to
start talking to him, I found my way to Evie’s side and immediately started
venting—as quietly as possible—about how horrifying it was to show up to a
party with my new boyfriend only to find my old boyfriend attending the same
party.

“Mom invited him,” Evie told me lowly as
we stuck close to the food table.

“I can’t believe her,” I said, my stomach
twisting around in knots inside of me. I kept looking around, seeing Patrick
talking to my mom, seeing Dad join them, everyone except for me and Evie
apparently clueless that anything was wrong.

“You’d think he’d know better than to take
the invitation,” Evie had pointed out, “considering how things ended between
the two of you.”

“You’d think, wouldn’t you?” I poured
myself a glass of champagne and knocked half of it back right away. My gaze
fell on Noah and the anger just rose up in me hotter and faster. “I’m going to
talk to him.”

“Is that a great idea?” Evie looked at me
doubtfully. “Just avoid him. Go save your new boyfriend from Mom and Dad.” We
argued about it for two or three minutes; but just as I was starting to decide
that Evie was right and that I shouldn’t even dignify Noah’s presence with any
attention from me, the subject of our conversation appeared.

Noah looked good in the suit he’d worn,
even if it was a little on the rumpled side. When he popped up at my elbow,
smiling and looking just as confident as ever, I wanted to slap him right away;
but I took a deep breath.

“I knew you’d be surprised to see me,”
Noah said, snagging one of the bacon-wrapped dates from the platter in front of
us.

“Surprised isn’t the word,” I told him
lowly.

“Don’t get tetchy, Mack,” Noah said,
reaching out and touching my arm. “I just wanted to catch up a little bit.” I
looked around; Patrick was still talking to my parents.

“What do you need to catch up on? We
aren’t even friends anymore.”

“Can’t a guy change?”

Noah gave me a sleek, charming smile. My
cheeks burned and I could feel the anger rising up inside of me again.
Don’t make a scene. Just because he decided
to be an asshole doesn’t mean you should humiliate yourself any more.

“Come on,” I said, grabbing at his arm and
pulling him along with me as I hurried out of the room. I brought him into the
kitchen where we’d at least have a little bit of privacy.

“Oooh, I was hoping I’d get a kiss at
midnight, but if you want a little preview…”

“No Noah,” I said, my whole body going hot
with anger and embarrassment. “I came in here to ask what the hell you were
thinking coming to this party!”

“Your mom said you hadn’t been dating
anyone for a while, and I thought it might be a good time to revisit what we
had together,” Noah said with a shrug.

“I am obviously dating someone right now,”
I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “And how could you think that in a
million years I’d want to see you again?” Noah and I had broken up five years
before; it had taken me months and months to finally get over him.

“I’d hoped you might remember the good
times,” Noah said, giving me that charming smile again. “Yeah, sure—things
ended poorly. But that was five years ago, Mackie.”

“Which makes it even weirder that you
would come here,” I said, my arms tightening across my chest.

“Hey—all I wanted was to reconnect, maybe
talk about the way things were, and have a good night with one of the most
beautiful women I’ve ever known,” Noah said. He took my glass from me and found
one of the stray bottles of champagne hanging around to fill it. “You have to
admit that we had some good times, right?”