Page 47 of Matched By Mistake
She didn’t dwell on it as she started to make her grandmother’s seven-layer dip recipe and made an emergency run to the liquor store. She was making sangria and beer margaritas to serve at dinner. When she got back to her house, the music was blaring from the patio and the fountain at the end of the pool was on.
Jericho had changed the bulb in one of the lights on the trellis that she’d mentioned was out and she stood in the kitchen watching her man dancing and singing as he worked in the backyard.
Her heart sort of slowed down as she watched him, and the realization that she’d been hiding from herself finally dawned.
She loved him.
She wasn’t going to be able to act like she didn’t. It didn’t matter that she’d only known him for a few short weeks. She knew her heart. What she’d thought was love with Randall hadn’t been because it was nothing like this.
Jericho glanced up and caught her watching him. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and had on a pair of low-slung bathing suit trunks. He put his hands on his hips, shoulders back. “Like what you see?”
“You know it, baby,” she said. He was sweaty from the work he was doing; his hair was mussed, and he wasn’t perfect, but to her... She’d never seen a man she was more attracted to. This was what she’d been missing in her engagement to Randall. This was probably what she’d never understood about her parents’ dynamic. But here it was the truth about love and emotion.
Love didn’t look for perfection or the easy path. If their parents hated each other tonight, Maggie knew she wasn’t going to not love Jericho. It would make their life together harder but she knew deep in her soul that they would be together.
Jericho rushed her and scooped her off her feet with his arms around her hips, lifting her and spinning her around as he rubbed his sweaty face against her neck. “Kiss me.”
She did, putting her hands in his damp hair and kissing him long and deep. He carried her into the house and they made love in the shower. She kept her love unspoken as they got dressed and readied themselves for their parents’ arrival, but it was hard.
He caught her smiling at him more than once and he sighed. “Woman, we can’t keep our parents waiting while I make love to you again.”
“We won’t. But later...”
“Oh, definitely later,” he said.
They went back downstairs dressed and ready to entertain. “I’m nervous.”
“Me, too,” Jericho said. “Silly, right? We both know our own parents.”
“That’s why I’m nervous. I mean Dad took a minute to warm up to you and you aren’t Winters Industries.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking,” he said. “Whatever happens tonight, I’m not walking away from you.”
She turned from the hall mirror where she’d been putting on her lipstick, and looked at him. “Me, either.”
He nodded and the doorbell rang before they could say anything else. She took a deep breath and finished putting her lipstick on, then set the stick in the basket on the hall table before going to open the door.
His parents arrived first. Joseph and Camille hugged them both. His mom had brought potato salad, which Jericho had warned her was his favorite and that he’d eat all of it if not closely guarded.
She led them out to the patio and poured them drinks before the doorbell rang again.
Jericho came with her to answer it. He squeezed her hand as she opened the door. She suspected he was thinking what she was. This was it. The moment they knew if the feud would die or if they’d have a new one. One, she thought, with her and Jericho on one side and their families on the other.
But their nerves turned out to be for nothing. Her dad was happy to see Jericho, and her mom had relaxed toward him as well. It was a bit tense when they got out on the patio, but Maggie just kept the drinks flowing.
“I’m going to get the side dishes.”
“I’ll help,” both of their moms said at once.
“Great. I could use you both.”
As they went into the kitchen, where there were windows that overlooked the patio and grill area, Maggie noticed her mom watching the men. “Lord, help me, I told Fernando to be on his best behavior...”
“Mom.”
“I did the same, but you know how men are.”
“I do,” Gayle said. “I reminded him that we’re here for the kids.”
