Chapter 13 #3
“With Andy, he was always freaked out about the idea of me getting pregnant, even though I’m on the pill, so not using condoms was never really a discussion.” She looked at him again. “If his move to Europe hadn’t happened, we would have ended our relationship anyway.”
He frowned, surprised by her confession. “Oh yeah?”
She nodded. “It became very clear to me that although he said he wanted kids, he didn’t.”
“You do? Want kids?”
“Definitely. Having a family is in my three-year plan.”
“So, it’s kids for you in the next three years, huh?”
“I certainly hope so. As you know, I’m twenty-nine. I’d like two, so it needs to happen at some point in the not-too-distant future.”
“That’s logical.”
She nodded. “What about you? Do you want a family?”
He shrugged, finding it interesting that they were having this conversation.
This wasn’t stuff that he talked about at the office.
“I haven’t thought about it much. My niece is cute, but a lot of my co-workers are divorced.
I love my career. I’m almost always on the job.
I’m not entirely sure that a partner and kids fit into that scenario. ”
She nodded. “At least you know that about yourself.”
“For sure.” He moved his arm to glance at his watch.
“Am I keeping you from something?”
“No, not really. I am going to have to cut our night short, though. I need to FaceTime with my mom at some point. I told her I would.”
Lydia stopped dead. “I—Can I meet her?”
He hesitated, not excited about crossing such a big line. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Lyd.”
She frowned. “I think it would be really odd for us to be together for six months, and I’ve never spoken to anyone in your family.”
He clenched his jaw, figuring that she had a fair point. “She can’t know that I’m undercover—that you and I aren’t real.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
He sighed. “You’re going to be the first woman that I’ve ever introduced her to. She’s going to get her hopes up that I might finally be settling down. I’ll undoubtedly never hear the end of it when we ‘break up.’”
She grinned. “I won’t say anything that might give her any sort of hope.”
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.”
Lydia grinned. “It’s nice to meet you, too, Mrs. Corddry.”
“Now, you make sure you call me Bina the next time we talk. My friends call me Bina.”
Lydia nodded. “Okay.”
“All right, Mom. We’ll talk soon.”
“Okay, honey. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
She blew them both kisses, and Ty hung up.
“Fuck,” he muttered as he closed his eyes. He knew that would happen. Knew it.
“Ty, I really like your mom,” Lydia all but gushed. “She’s absolutely beautiful. You have her eyes.”
He looked at her, sending her a small smile. “Thanks.”
“Aw, I hope we can talk to her again,” she said next, clearly as enamored with his mom as his mom had been with her.
If he had any say in the matter, they were going to avoid that at all costs. But now that Lydia was on his mother’s radar, he understood that was highly unlikely. “We’ll have to see.”
His phone dinged with a text. He winced as he read his mom’s message.
She’s PERFECT, honey! What a beauty! Send me a picture of her so I can show your sister.
Reluctantly, he opened his camera roll and selected his favorite picture from their first night on his rooftop deck and sent it off.