Page 48 of My Big Fat Shifter Wedding

“You don’t want her to think that you’re somehow not a catch.”

She heaved a sigh. “I’ll never understand how you always know what I’m going to say when I can’t find the words, but yeah.”

“You do the same for me all the time. And trust me, I’ve never had a relationship serious enough where I wanted to introduce the other party to my mother. She knew one of my situationships because she was the daughter of one of her work friends, but that was about it. I promise, she’s going to be absolutely delighted with the caring, drop-dead-gorgeous, funny and insightful woman I’m bringing to meet her.”

“And where is she? Did she show up in another car?”

“Hardy-har, when I said hilarious, I didn’t mean in a self-deprecating way.” I pressed another kiss to her cheek, careful not to ruin her artfully placed foundation. To me, she didn’t need a full face, but I understood I wasn’t the one she wore it for. “But if you like, we can sit here until you’re ready. Or, I can call her and say you’re feeling a little under the weather.”

The entire time I’d known Olivia, she’d never so much as sniffled. Or even had a pulled muscle when she’d started coming to the gym with me. She mostly did cardio, and whenever she tried weights with me, she looked bored.

“I would rather die!”

I believed that.

“Well, hopefully, it won’t come to that.”

She snorted, and that was my signal that the bulk of her anxiety had passed. While she didn’t show it often, I was well aware that my partner sometimes struggled with some severe self-confidence issues and a whole lot of stress around being perfect, or even “good enough.”

The idea that she might be anything less than perfect was absolutely heinous, but clearly, she’d been through enough in her life to establish that as something that she needed to be on the lookout for. I hoped it wasn’t from her family. Because while I was ready to take this step of her meeting my mother, she was clearly not ready to introduce me to hers.

“I mean, if it did come to that, then what kind of nursing home is this place?” Olivia joked and yeah, that confirmed that I’d brought her back from the edge.

I didn’t take it personally that she wasn’t ready to introduce me to all the characters I had heard so much about, but sometimes it made me wonder. Whenever I casually floated the idea, she always came up with an excuse instead of saying outright that we weren’t there yet. Since we were so effortlessly honest with everything else, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was a red flag, a beige flag, or a sign that maybe she was protecting me from something.

I hoped it wasn’t the first one, but I especially hoped it wasn’t the last one. Because if it turned out that Olivia’s family was abusing her, then they would have a world of hurt coming to them.

“It’s actually kind of bougie, believe it or not,” I said, surprised when Olivia started to laugh. It wasn’t a full belly shaking one, but it certainly wasn’t a light chuckle either. “What? What did I say?”

“I’m sorry, but ‘bougie’ is about the last word I expected out of your mouth.”

“Why? Because I’m a straight man in my late thirties or because I look like a lumberjack when I wear flannel?”

Olivia put her hand on my arm gently. “Oh baby, it’s not just when you wear flannel.” She kissed my cheek and opened her car door like she hadn’t inverted what little fashion sense I had.

“What do you mean, it’s not just when I wear flannel?” I asked, hurrying out of the car and following her as she strode across the parking lot with much more confidence.

Note to self, a great way to break Olivia out of a self-critical funk is to have her tease me!

While some partners might not like that dynamic, I could always punish her later in the bedroom, so it was perfectly fine by me.

And by punish her, I mostly meant making her come really hard, which wasn’t really a punishment at all.

“Is it when I wear overalls too?”

“Oh yeah, especially the khaki ones.”

“What? But those are my favorites.”

“Trust me, I am well aware of that.”

“What about when I wear one of my colorful button-downs?”

“Lumberjack at a work party that’s semi-casual but still wants to look business professional.”

“My Hawaiian shirts?”

“Lumberjack on vacation.”