Page 54 of What Started In Deception

He shook his head, exhaling another long breath, already knowing that his mother was going to love her, no matter what she said. It was hard to deny that Lydia was a perfect package. His mom would be smart enough to see that.

Ty clenched his jaw as he sat next to Lydia on her couch, holding his phone in his hand. He searched for his mother’s contact information, then pressed the video icon, not at all looking forward to the next several minutes. As bad ideas went, this was at the top of his list.

The phone rang twice before his mother’s pretty face filled the screen. “Hi, honey.”

“Hey, Mom.”

Mom’s blue eyes grew wide as she looked at Lydia. “Hello.”

Lydia smiled. “Hello.”

“Mom, I want you to meet Lydia.”

Mom’s eyes were still wide as they moved from him to her again. “Lydia.”

Lydia’s smile was back. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Corddry.”

Mom pressed her hand to her chest. “Is this your—Are you two dating? Please tell me you’re dating.”

“Yeah, we’re dating,” he lied, hating that she was so obviously excited.

“Lydia, you go ahead and take that phone from my son and tell me every little thing about you.”

Lydia laughed, doing as she was told, plucking the phone from his hand. “I’m not sure what you want to know.”

“Anything. Do you live in DC? Do you work with Tyler at the FBI?”

Lydia shook her head, sitting back and getting comfy. “No, I live in Oliver Heights, Virginia. I’m a kindergarten teacher.”

“A kindergarten teacher,” Mom said reverently. “That’s lovely.”

Lydia nodded. “I certainly enjoy it.”

“Well, this is exciting. Tyler, we should add Zoey to the call.”

He leaned closer to Lydia, fitting himself into the shot. “We don’t need to call Zoey. I’m sure you’ll call her as soon as we hang up.”

“You’re right about that.”

Lydia laughed again.

“Mom, how’s work?” he tried, fruitlessly attempting to move their conversation on to a different topic.

“Fine. It’s fine. How long have you two been dating?”

“For a while,” he said. “We’ve been keeping things quiet.”

Mom beamed as her hand ended up on her chest again. “I was starting to worry that this was never going to happen for you, honey. You’re always so busy working. I was afraid you were going to miss out on finding your person.”

He sighed quietly, making sure not to rub at the tension squeezing the back of his neck like he so desperately wanted to. “We’re still taking things slow, Mom. Don’t start planning any weddings.”

“Uh, we’re definitely not there yet,” Lydia chimed in.

“Yet,” Mom said. “I’ll take a ‘yet.’”

He and Lydia exchanged a quick look. “Mom, I just wanted to check in, but I should probably let you go.”

“Okay. Lydia, honey, it’s so nice to meet you. You’ve made this mama very, very happy.”