Single Mom's Protector - Complete Series

by Nella Tyler

  We made small talk the rest of the way to my parents’ place, and I felt myself getting more and more excited. Everyone in my family was going to meet Patrick, and I couldn’t imagine any of them not falling completely in love with him the way that I had. I wanted to see the looks on my siblings’ faces, the way my parents would approve of him immediately. I couldn’t wait for midnight to come, when I could give Patrick the first kiss of the New Year, and then we could call Landon together.

  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?”

  “That’s in the past Noah.” I sighed. I took a sip of my champagne and shook my head. “I haven’t even thought about you for years.”

  “You do realize that just makes you even hotter,” Noah told me, grinning again. “Not that you don’t already look stunning tonight.”

  “It’s not going to work, Noah. I’m in love with Patrick.”

  “Your mom didn’t even know for sure if he was a real person; you can’t have been dating him for that long.” Noah reached out and touched my arm. “You can at least hear me out, can’t you?”

  I took a deep breath and another sip of champagne. “You have fifteen minutes,” I told him.

  “I’ve been doing really well—really well,” Noah said, pouring himself a glass of champagne as well. “You’d be proud of me, Mack.”

  “I’m glad you’re doing well,” I said, without any real enthusiasm.

  “You remember how I wanted to start my own business? I managed to save up and I’ve got a really great app I’m developing.”

  “That’s great.” I said, and smiled as brightly I could manage, hoping that I could get out of the conversation as soon as possible.

  But in spite of the obvious signs, Noah didn’t seem to care; he started chatting about his life, asking about mine, and as I drank more of the champagne I began to relax. “I’ve really missed you, you know,” Noah told me at one point. “Come on, Mack—you have to admit that you and I had some good times together.”

  “We did,” I said.

  “Like that time that we found the hot spring at the campground? Oh man, I was thinking about that just the other day.”

  I shivered, remembering that night with Noah. He started to remind me of other times we’d spent together, and I had to admit that before everything had gone so horrifically wrong between me and Noah, we’d actually had some very good memories. It had made it that much harder for me to break things off with him, even when I’d known that things weren’t ever going to be the way they’d been at the beginning of our relationship.

  Noah had been a good guy at first; he’d been charming and sweet, thoughtful and funny, and I’d been blown away at the fact that he’d actually wanted to date me. Every weekend we’d gone out, and even a few times during the week—and I’d loved the fact that I was dating a guy who could party it up all night and then go to class the next day without missing a beat, even if I couldn’t always match him.

  I kept to the champagne, but Noah switched to whiskey, sipping from a half-full glass with a little ice in it while we talked. I sta
rted to think to myself that at least if my mom had been enough of an idiot to invite a long-time ex-boyfriend of mine, it was nice that we could just talk like this. Obviously enough time had gone past that we could maybe even consider being friends, though when I thought about Patrick in the next room with my parents, I decided I should probably ask his feelings about that first.

  “Oh god—it’s been ages since I thought about Tracy and Ken,” I said, when Noah mentioned he’d spoken to the couple we’d gone on so many double dates with. “Did they ever get married or anything?”

  “They have a kid together,” Noah said, chuckling. “Still not married though. They say that they’re waiting for baby number two, so they can have both a ring bearer and a flower girl.” I laughed and rolled my eyes; it was exactly what I would have expected of the couple.

  Noah started really knocking back his drink, and I started to feel uneasy again. It was too easy to remember just how things had started to go wrong between us; Noah’s partying had gone out of control so many times towards the end of our relationship together that I’d gone from fearing for his safety to fearing for my own.

  “Just as a friend,” I said, gesturing to the glass in his hands as he added more whiskey to it, “you should probably slow down.”

  “I’ve got a great tolerance,” Noah said, shrugging. “And since I’m obviously not going to get you in bed tonight, it’s not like I have to worry about whiskey-dick, right?” He smirked at me, his eyes bleary.

  “I’m sure that I’m not the only single girl in this house right now,” I said; while we’d been talking, I’d seen more and more people coming through, going into the living room to mingle with the rest of the party. “Come on, Noah. Switch to water for a little while so you can make it to midnight, how about that?”

  “I can make it to midnight anyway,” Noah told me with the sleek confidence that I had both loved and hated about him.