Sealed With A Slap

Chapter 2-2

Erin was impressed with all the man candy. Andie didn’t tell her she had so many attractive men in her family. Then again, Andie didn’t tell her much besides the fact that she was pregnant and no one knew.

Erin wanted to be nice. She really liked Andie. But of all the people for Andie to be related to…him? Mr. Sexy Voice. With the attitude and the smile that faded when he recognized her.

“You? What are you doing here?”

Erin choked on the hello on the tip of her tongue. The one for Andie’s brother. One of the many people in her life who knew nothing about her secret pregnancy.

Not that that was the biggest problem at the moment. Oh, no. That was definitely the fact that Erin was staring at the man who sent her running with tears in her eyes last time she saw him.

“Wait, you two know each other?” Andie asked. She swung a smirk to Erin. “You didn’t tell me you knew Sean.”

Erin shook her head, but Sean answered first. “She tried to tell me how to raise Emily.”

“Ooh,” Andie said, her face pinched like she just ate a lemon.

“It wasn’t like that,” Erin defended.

Sean leaned back and crossed his arms. “Really? Because I’m pretty sure most people would say interrupting a private conversation I was having with my daughter to share your opinion about how I should handle it was exactly that.”

Erin huffed. “I wasn’t trying to tell you how to raise her. I was trying to help. A lot of parents don’t realize how damaging their statements are to their children. I’m sure you’re a good father, but having a teenage daughter isn’t easy on anyone, especially a single dad.”

Sean’s eyebrows dove for his hair. His lips pinched, much the same as his sister’s did moments before. His jaw ticked with the stress of grinding his teeth together.

Erin refused to feel bad about what she said. It was the truth. Single dads were the worst when it came to raising teenage daughters. They were either too easy on them because they were afraid of tears or too hard on them because they remembered what it was like to be a teenage boy. It resulted in far too many teen girls with no clue how to think for themselves.

“I might be the only parent Emily has, but I’m far from a single dad. Between Andie and the rest of our family, Emily has more than her fair share of parents hanging around,” Sean ground out.

Erin opened her mouth to retort that kids needed to know who was in charge and who they should talk to and too many parental figures was almost as bad as not enough, but she stopped herself. Emily wasn’t one of her patients. Sean didn’t really want to hear what she had to say. And she was destroying any chance she had at a relationship with Andie if she continued to argue with her brother.

“I’m sure you’re right,” she said instead, ignoring her instincts and preserving her integrity. She was seconds away from yelling at the man who definitely didn’t want to hear it.

Surprise registered on his face before a cocky grin took over.

Erin clamped her eyes shut so they didn’t roll out of her head. She squeezed her fists and sucked in a deep breath then looked at him again. He was a real piece of work.

“I know my kid. You don’t. I appreciate that you’re trying to help, but please don’t tell me how to be a parent,” Sean said, his eyes narrowed.

Erin nodded once and pressed her lips together.

Sean glared at her a few more seconds, then focused on Andie. “Did you see Emily come through here?”

Seriously? He lost his kid? It took everything in Erin not to light into him, but she stayed quiet. He was the parent, and she wasn’t. She was going to let it go.

At least, she was going to try.

Andie shook her head, her dark waves tumbling over her shoulders. “She hasn’t come out here. Last I saw her was when you two walked back to The Drunken Grape.”

Sean glanced around the foyer, his eyes straying upstairs. He dragged in a breath then nodded and went back to the lunch.

Erin watched him walk away, admitting to herself that was definitely his best side. Leaving, with a sexy a*s for her to watch as he walked off. His jeans fit just right, cupping around his glutes and highlighting firm thighs and strong calves. She could watch him walk away all day. Happily.

“He’s single, you know,” Andie said after a few seconds. “And he’s really a good guy.”

Erin jerked her gaze away and forced a grin for her new friend. She had to tread lightly. She couldn’t tell Andie there’s no way in hell she’d ever date a guy who was so stubborn and self-righteous without insulting her brother. Was it even possible?

“Thanks, but I’m not looking for a relationship right now.”

Andie quirked an eyebrow at her and shuffled some papers on the desk. “I didn’t say marry him. Just that he’s single. His wife died right after Emily was born. Colon cancer. She found out when she was pregnant and never told Sean. She refused to terminate her pregnancy to have treatment and ended up too far gone when Emily was born.”

Well, f**k. Just when Erin thought she could hold on to her mad, Andie had to tug at her heartstrings and make her feel badly for Sean. He had a reason to be a surly a*s. It didn’t take a psychologist to figure out that he had more than his share of resentment.

“Wow. That sucks,” was all she said, hoping it was enough.

Andie nodded. “Yeah. He was only eighteen when Emily was born. I lived with him for a year so he wasn’t alone with a newborn. We’ve all helped out any way we can. Until last spring, Emily was the only kid here.”

“And another one is coming soon,” Erin said softly.

“This will be the fourth around here. Emily and Summer, my cousin Zach’s daughter, both turn thirteen this year, and my cousin Alyssa had a baby in August.”

“It’s a busy place.”

Andie nodded. “Yeah. It’s good.” Her face melted into an expression of fear. Before Erin could say or do anything, Andie shook her head. “I don’t know how I’m going to do all this.”

“I thought you said you have a boyfriend. Won’t he help?”

“He will, but I just… It’s terrifying.”

Erin nodded. She understood all too well. She knew better than to share her sorry tale with a pregnant woman, but she understood exactly how scared Andie was. She was happy Andie trusted her, but it was a lot of pressure. Especially when Erin truly believed Andie’s family would rally around her and support her. With the sole exception of Sean, everyone else she met was kind and supportive, even if they were a little opinionated and nosy. In the best way.

A shuffling of feet drew Erin’s attention to the back where the party was in full swing. Andie’s grandmother, Tina, walked toward them with a grin. “I was hoping you hadn’t run out already,” she said to Erin.

Erin shook her head. “Not yet. I wanted to grab a few minutes with Andie before lunch.”

“Oh, good. You’re staying for lunch. You can sit with me. All my grandkids know all my stories. I need a new audience.”

Erin laughed and followed Tina back to the crowded room that Andie said was almost all family. Erin found herself more than a little jealous. She never had a family like that, even when she had a family. They were loud and got into each other’s business, but it was obvious they all loved each other. Andie had nothing to worry about.

“Why haven’t we seen you around here before?” Tina asked when they were almost to the table.

“I grew up not too far away, but I was living in Ithaca. I just bought a new house in Bereton. I always enjoyed being in a small town.”

“Except for all the nosy people,” Tina said. “They don’t have anything to do except get in everyone else’s business.”

“You’re one of them, Nonna,” a woman said, looking up at Tina with affection.

Tina rolled her eyes and swatted the air. “You’re one to talk. If any of my grandkids has taken after me the most, it’s definitely you, Kristen.”

Kristen grinned. “That’s damn high praise in my book.”

“Yeah, well, not everyone would think so.”

Kristen shook her head. “Then they’re even crazier than we are.”

Tina laughed and pulled out the chair next to Kristen. She nodded to it for Erin to sit. “Sit here. Between the two of us, we’ll get out everything you don’t want anyone to know.”

Erin swallowed a groan and grinned. She hated being the center of attention. Always had. She never understood the people who put their lives out there for the world to evaluate and criticize. Erin did enough of that to herself. She didn’t need perfect strangers telling her how she should live.

“Who are you?” Kristen asked without any hint of shyness at the bold question.

“I’m Erin Carter. I met Andie a few days ago at Turn The Page. We started talking and she invited me here for lunch.”

“Nice. We need more women around. We were surrounded by all men for so long, it’s nice to have new females.”

The man on Kristen’s other side nudged her. “Since when does it bother you to be surrounded by all men?”

Kristen smiled at Erin and rolled her eyes, but they held nothing but affection for the man. She turned her face to his and accepted a kiss. “This is Zane. He owns InZane’s down near Ithaca.”

“Oh, yeah,” Erin said. “I know that place. You do all the lake adventures, don’t you?”

Zane nodded. “We do. And we just entered a partnership with Amavita to do some more from up here next summer using their dock.”

“Very cool. I kept saying I was going to get out this summer but it was too busy. Hopefully next year I can.”

“What do you do?” Kristen asked.

“I’m a child psychologist.”

“Really?” Zane asked.

Erin nodded. She knew most people weren’t all that curious about her job. She dealt with a wide range of kids dealing anything from ADHD to anxiety to loss of a relative and destruction of their family to struggles growing up. She had heard and seen just about everything a kid could go through from the time they started kindergarten to the time they entered high school. Many of her patients were in the middle of a divorce when they started coming to her, but she saw kids in every type of situation.

“That has to be challenging,” Kristen said.

Erin nodded. “It is, but I love what I do. Kids are amazing and having the chance to work with them every day is pretty great. When we’re able to make a change for them, the results are nearly immediate.”

“Like what?” Kristen asked.

“Some kids just need to feel like someone is listening. Being that sounding board for them can alleviate so much stress and pressure. Kids are dealing with things younger than we did growing up and it’s not always easy for them to understand what’s happening. One of the big things I talk to a lot of my patients about is knowing how to stand up for themselves. That’s patients who are dealing with something major and maybe getting picked on but also kids that are just regular kids but struggle to stand up for themselves with their peers and even their parents. When they do it, they are so excited to come in and tell me all about it.”

“That’s really cool. I think we all could have used someone like you when we were growing up,” Kristen said wryly.

Tina snorted. “Oh, please. You never held anything back. I thought your parents were going to lose their minds half the time.”

Kristen grinned. “Maybe, but it would have been nice to have someone to talk to once in a while.”

“What about me?” an attractive guy across from her said. “We’ve been best friends forever.”

“And you’re the best friend a girl could ever have, Ian. But you couldn’t talk to me about getting my period or having boobs or any of the other weird s**t that happens when you’re a girl.”

Ian shuddered. “Nope. Definitely not going there. But we talked about everything else.”

Kristen smirked. “That we did.”

“Do you have your own practice, Erin? Or do you work out of the school?” Tina asked.

“I work with a local practice. We have a relationship with the local schools and the pediatricians in the area so we’re on their lists of recommended psychologists when someone asks for it.”

“Nice. That’s smart,” Kristen said. “We need to do things like that. Maybe the Chamber can start a list. We’re already on the Cayuga Trail.”

“The wine trail?” Erin asked.

Kristen nodded. “We’re trying to expand our reach. That’s how Zane and I met. I was looking into places we could partner with to get in front of new clients. We have the inn and the vineyard and obviously the restaurant and tasting room. We’ve started doing some new events to bring in more people. It’s hard when all the wineries do basically the same thing. There’s not much to distinguish us from each other.”

“Your views are pretty spectacular,” Erin said, looking out the multiple French doors that lined the back of the restaurant. “I’d pay just for that.”

Kristen laughed. “Yeah, we hear that a lot.”

“And I have to admit, I haven’t tasted your wine, but I’m sure it’s amazing.”

“You haven’t had our wine?” Tina gasped. “Someone bring this lady a glass of wine!”

“I have your wine right here, Nonna,” Sean said from right behind Erin.

All her good parts stood up and took notice of his sexy voice and the kindness in it for his grandmother. He reached between them and set the glass down in front of Tina.

Tina smiled up at him. “Be a dear and grab me another glass, Sean. Erin’s never had our wine.”

To his credit, he didn’t make a comment. Just spun to retrieve a second glass.

Tina set the wine in front of Erin. “Try it.”

Erin lifted the glass and grinned, then realized everyone at the table was watching her. So much for not wanting to be the center of attention.

“Did you guys do something to the wine?” she asked with a half laugh.

Kristen put her hand on Erin’s arm and shook her head. “This is our life. We love what we do. And meeting someone who’s never tried Amavita wine is new for us.”

“Who’s never tried Amavita wine?” Andie asked.

“Your new friend. How come you didn’t give her a bottle when she arrived?” Tina asked.

Andie shrugged. “I didn’t realize. I’ll make sure she takes a few bottles home.”

Erin started to protest, but the heads shaking all around her said it was futile to disagree.

She lifted the glass to her lips and took a sip. She enjoyed wine. Ever since she turned twenty-one, she preferred wine to every other kind of alcohol. But one wine was just as good as another for her. She didn’t get involved in the debates between red and white, sweet or dry. She just liked wine. All kinds.

But Amavita wine was different. There was a hint of sweet with the dry white wine she sipped. It added a depth to it that Erin didn’t expect. The fruity burst of flavor surprised her. There was a bit of an oaky flavor, but it was good.

“Try this with it,” Kristen said, lifting a plate with a piece of cheese. “It’s brie. Goes really well with chardonnay.”

Erin ate the cheese, then sipped the wine again and nearly groaned it was so good. “Wow. It was delicious before, but that’s just amazing.”

“Do you drink a lot of wine?” Tina asked.

Erin nodded, taking another sip. “I like wine, but I’ve never gotten attached to any one kind. I always just drink whatever is available.”

“That’s a sin,” Sean said, setting a fresh glass in front of his grandmother. “Everyone should have a favorite. Unless you’re a lush like this one.”

“You’re damn right I am,” Tina said with a grin. “And thank you for the drink.”

Sean nodded and moved to the next table. Erin felt a little better without him sitting there, staring at her and judging her the entire time. She could breathe and enjoy lunch, and maybe stop thinking about how attractive he was when he wasn’t sneering at her.