This was something she wasn’t ready to admit out loud yet. It was almost embarrassing, but the truth was they’d become official yesterday, and already he’d brought her to meet his mom today. The frightening speed in which this “relationship” was getting serious was coming from both sides. She’d have to keep that in mind as her wary heart feared her feelings for him were light-years ahead of where they should be.

“So did she grill you good?” Hector asked as they stepped out into the yard.

“It wasn’t too bad.” Charlee smiled then laughed at the astounded look on his face. “It wasn’t.” she insisted. “But your timing was, as usual, perfect.”

He slowed down and peered at her now. “Really? You know you’re still gonna have to answer that question eventually.” He stopped, leaning in and kissing her softly. “Only I’ll be the one doing the asking,” lowering his voice to a whisper, he pulled her close to him, “because I really want to know.”

“Get a room!”

Both Charlee and Hector turned to a smug-looking Gio as the rest of the gang laughed. Charlee glanced back at Hector, who wasn’t laughing. “I usually use that one on him and Bianca.” He smirked now. “I’m sure he’s been dying for a chance to use it on me.”

They started toward the patio table where all his friends sat except for Abel and Noah, who were over by the grill. Ironically, seeing the women with Gio at the table, knowing these were the people closest to Hector—the very ones she’d been reading about all this time online and now it appeared she may be joining their group—made her even more nervous than meeting his mom.

After meeting them all, Charlee sat and chatted with the girls who picked both her and Hector’s brain about the U.S. chess team. They all seemed genuinely sweet and very curious about her relationship with Hector.

“Okay, you have to tell us how this happened, because there is no way Hector would be bringing a girl to meet his mom unless he was serious,” Roni said, leaning on her arms against the table as soon as Hector walked away when the guys called him over to the grill.

“Yeah,” Nellie sat back, taking a sip of her beer. “I wasn’t aware either of the Ayala brothers did serious.”

All three women stared at her. Roni and Bianca’s eyes were full of anxious curiosity while Nellie seemed a little on the skeptical side.

As usual, hating to be the center of attention, Charlee felt her face warm. “Well, it was and it wasn’t sudden.” She had to smile at the confusion in their faces.

Explaining quickly and briefly how they’d known each other for over a month now and how things had been a bit complicated, she told them how she, too, hadn’t thought he did the exclusive thing. “In fact, he sort of made that clear early on, and then, I don’t know. He called me yesterday out of the blue and said he wanted to talk to me.”

She gave them a very brief rundown of the agreement they’d come to yesterday then smiled. “And here we are.”

“Well, good for you,” Bianca said. “You stuck to your guns and forced him to give into things your way.” She turned to Roni and Nellie. “For all his talk of never inviting any girls to a friendly gathering or even the Friday Night fights because they might get the wrong idea, I knew he’d give in eventually.”

Charlee wasn’t sure she liked the use of the word forced. Clearly, Hector had made up his own mind. She’d forced nothing on him. But she focused on Bianca’s last statement now. Hector told her about the girl at the fight the night of the keg party, the girl he said had been the only other girl he’d ever even come close to having a relationship with. He’d been concerned that Charlee might not be over Danny—someone that as far as he knew she hadn’t been in touch with in over a year. It never even occurred to her to ask if maybe he still had feelings for this girl. The fight he’d invited her to, after all, had only been a few weeks ago. And according to Bianca, unless he wasn’t concerned about girls jumping to conclusions, he’d never invite any of them to even a fight. Not only had he invited this girl but he had her sit up front with him.

Pushing the thought aside, she concentrated on the conversation, glad that the curiosity had moved from Charlee and Hector to Nellie’s love life.

A few hours later, Charlee said her goodbyes to everyone. The only one she hadn’t said goodbye to was Abel, who was busy on the phone off to the side of the yard. He got off the phone just as Hector and Charlee had begun to walk off toward the side gate.

“I’m in,” Abel announced, walking back toward the group.

“In what?” Hector asked what clearly everyone else was wondering since they were all looking at Abel curiously.

“The cruise,” he held up his phone. “My publicist just okayed it. I’m good to go that week.”

Hector laughed. “As if there were ever any doubt.”

Charlee had no idea what Hector meant by that, but as funny as he thought that was, Abel didn’t laugh. As usual, his expression was unreadable. Ignoring Hector’s comment, he slipped his phone in his pocket. “You guys leaving?”

“Yep,” Hector waved.

“Nice seeing you again, Charlee.”

“It was nice see you again too.” Charlee responded, still baffled that she’d so easily and so quickly been accepted into this group of people.

Painless and uncomplicated was what Charlee had been shooting for at most when she decided to do this that morning. But meeting his friends and family so quickly and being completely unprepared had far exceeded her expectations. She hadn’t even had Drew to help her plan her strategy to not screw this up, and she’d gotten through it. In fact, after all the curious questions from both his mother and the girls, Charlee had been able to relax and enjoy the rest of the barbeque. And her pasta salad had been a hit.