Chapter 19

As Joshua pulled into his parents' driveway, he looked at Avery seated in the passenger seat. Taking a deep breath, he told her, "You know... we could just skip this now and grab the next flight to Vegas."

Avery tilted her head slightly and grinned. " As appealing as that sounds we're not going to give your dad the satisfaction of running us off. Besides your mom went to all this trouble, it's the least we can do."

"You're right." He reached over and put his hand on her knee. "But if dad does start acting up, we're out of here."

"I'm not worried. I can handle your dad." In truth, she was far more worried about making a good impression on Josh's mother than she was about dealing with father.

Nathan, meanwhile, was looking out the window and watching their every move. He'd decided to play it cool tonight. He'd been married long enough to know it wouldn't be wise to start anything while his wife was around. Besides, he wanted to see for himself if his wife's feelings about this were right.

Sarah walked up behind him and tugged his shirt. "No more spying Nathan , they can see you through the window you know."

"Look at them they're like two love struck teenagers. It's disgusting. They can't even see where they're walking."

Sarah rolled her eyes at her husband and smiled at her son. She watched Josh walk around to the passenger side of the car and open the door for Avery. He draped his arm around her as they made their way up the walk way.She was thrilled to see her son in a relationship. He'd never been that serious with a woman before–at least not to their knowledge. Sarah took her husband by the hand and led him away from the window.

When the bell finally rang, Sarah went to answer it. "Hello sweetheart," she said as she gave Joshua a hug. Afterwards, she smiled at Avery and hugged her as well. "I'm so glad you could make it. Come on in. Nathan... Josh and Avery are here."

Sarah escorted them into the living room where Nathan was.

"Joshua." He shook his son's hand. " Haven't seen you around here for a while."

" Well dad, every time I come by you're at work." He raised his brow at his father. "I believe you know Avery."

"Yes of course. Ms. Calloway ,always a pleasure." Nathan shook her hand as well.

"Yes it is." She smiled back.

"Well, shall we move into the dining room?" Sarah asked.

Nathan was a chatter box during most of dinner. Much to Sarah's surprise, she figured he would sit there with a scowl on his face.

" So Avery, you studied at Oxford... what made you decide to stay here now and finish your schooling?"

"Well I just felt like I had the experience I needed of being on my own, as much on my own as I could be with agents around me constantly... and I wanted to be with my family when I found out I was pregnant." Avery knew he was trying to nail her. Her mother had mentioned his opinion of her past when they had been discussing tonight's likely happenings.

"Oh that's right, that's why you came back... Well, let's just hope you two are smarter about those things now."

His grin, Avery thought, was pure evil. "Well, Mr. Templeton, we all know that nothing is 100 percent effective and I believe that any child is a blessing, whether planned or not. It wouldn't bother me in the least and it's definitely nothing to be ashamed of. We aren't living in the stone age after all."

Nathan simply nodded. "Point taken... What are your plans for staying in Washington?"

"Well I'm going to finish my last semester at Georgetown and apply for law school for when I graduate."

"Taking after your mother I see." Nathan replied

"And my father. But yeah, she's a tough act to follow. I could only wish to have the career she has had."

"I bet you do..."

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Mac walked into her bedroom and seeing Rod inside their closet, she walked up behind him, put her hand on his back and kissed his cheek.

"Hey you're up here early," Rod said, caught off guard by her presence.

"We have company tonight, remember?" Mac pulled out a light blue blouse holding it up for Rod's opinion.

"Don't remind me...Why don't you try black?" He held out the sleeve of another of her blouses.

Mac smiled. "Smart ass! This isn't a funeral you know. Just try and relax, get to know Josh. You might actually like him."

"Like him? I don't even trust him. How do we know he isn't hiding something? Maybe he isn't a doctor at all. You know Mac, I think you should check into that." Rod was totally serious.

"Right. I'll just call the FBI and have a background check done on him. Prove that he's some spy or some ex- con... Really Rod, this is Nathan's son we're talking about. He's worked in some of the most prestigious hospitals, graduated from Harvard... and get this, he plays golf. Yeah... that really screams ex-con/total bad boy to me."

Seeing his expression, she went to him and caressed his cheek. " Look it'll be okay tonight, you might even enjoy it."

"Yeah... like a root canal or being stuck in an elevator with Nora for three hours," he mumbled as Mac retreated into the bathroom.

"I heard that" she shouted.

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"Okay remember what I told you Amy?" Horace was sitting in the living room with Amy. The two of them always had the same plan when a new guy was dating one of their sisters. Horace would sneak her some candy if she would keep any eye on the new couple.

"Yeah, I remember. But I want Oreo's for this."

"Don't worry, got them all ready for you." They shook on it and Amy walked off just as Rod was walking in.

"What are you giving her for spying on them tonight?" Rod asked his son. He was no fool. He knew exactly what Horace was doing. Rod himself used to do the same with his own sisters.

"Oreo's. Get's her every time."

Rod laughed and Mr. Waverley walked in with Josh.

"Right this way Dr. Templeton." Mr. Waverley said ushering Josh into the room.

"Thank you." Josh walked up to Rod and extended his hand for a hand shake. "Mr. Calloway thank you for inviting me tonight."

"Well it was all my wife's doing."

Josh nodded awkwardly.

"You know Horace?"

"Yes I do..." He shook Horace's hand as well. "I've heard a lot about you from your sister."

"Really?"

"Yeah... you're into baseball right? Me, too. I used to play in High school and still do on weekends with some old college buddies."

"Yeah... but I'm more into basketball now."

Josh was saved from having to respond to Horace's put down by the entrance of the Calloway women.

"Hey have you been here long?" Avery greeted him with a quick kiss.

"No, actually I just got here." Josh smiled and put his hand on the small of her back . He wasn't going to allow Rod and Horace's cold shoulder treatment intimidate him.

"You know Rebecca and Mom, of course... and this is Amy and my grandmother, Kate."

"Madame President," Josh said shaking Mac's hand, "thank you for inviting me tonight." Josh turned to Kate, "Mrs. Allen it's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"I can say the same for you young man. I've heard quite a bit about you."

"Good things I hope."

"So far so good," she smiled.

The majority of dinner went fairly well. Mac and Kate asked him some questions about studying at Harvard and why he had decided to become an obstetrician. However, it all changed during desert.

"So Joshua, how is it exactly that you met my daughter?" Rod asked. " Avery was in school, how exactly was it that the two of you crossed paths?"

"Well a colleague of mine and I were giving a lecture at Oxford and we happened to run into Avery and a few of her friends in the campus coffee shop."

Avery took over to help make it a bit clearer. "You remember Emily, dad. You met her when you came to visit me. She was pre-med and recognized both Josh and his colleague and struck up a conversation with them. Josh's colleague invited us to come to one of the benefits for the hospital and after that it turned into a social thing. You know, groups of us all meeting for dinner or things like that."

"Right," Joshua interjected. "We had seen one another at functions here in Washington but we didn't really get acquainted until we all became friends in England. And even then Avery barely paid any attention to me," he joked.

"She's always a bit stuck up with new people," Rebecca added with a smile.

"I am not. We just were in different situations with different people. Once we got to know one another on a one on one basis things changed."

"Obviously." Becca grinned at her sister.

"So Josh, are you planning on staying here or going back to England any time soon?" Rod was hoping to catch something suspicious with one of his questions, but so far this guy seemed to have all the right answers and he hated to admit it but he seemed legit.

"Oh no, sir." Josh knew exactly where Rod was going this. "I love my job here at the hospital and with everything I love right here in Washington I have no reason to go back." He grinned and squeezed Avery's hand under the table.

Mac gave Rod a look that only he noticed and he decided to back off.

"Well, if the interrogation is over I'd like to give Josh a tour. If that's okay, mom?"

Mac smiled. "Was this an interrogation ? We aren't really that bad."

"No ma'am, not at all. Dinner with my parents was more nerve wracking than tonight."

"Well, we won't torture you both any more. Go ahead we'll see you later."

Josh and Avery excused themselves and left the room.

"Can I go watch cartoons?" Amy asked knowing now was her chance to snoop.

"Yeah sweetie, go ahead." Rod smiled.

As she ran off, Mac turned to Horace and raised her brow. "What did you bribe her with tonight?"

"What?" Horace put on his best shocked face. "Mom, why do you think I bribed her with anything? She's just going to watch cartoons."

"Right and last time when I brought someone home she was just going to go do her home work and ended up on the other side of my door with a glass held up to it," Rebecca said. " Wonder where she got that idea from..."

" Oh come on, she's not doing any real harm." Rod defended.

"Ah so you're in on it too? Really Rod, you could have a been a little less obvious with your questions."

"My questions were legitimate. I was curious... just like you were about all the boring facts."

"Really he seems like a nice young man. Doesn't even seem like he's Nathan Templeton's son. Just be happy she didn't bring someone home with tattoos and piercing's all over ." Kate said to her son-in-law.

"Those things I could handle."

"Right , I'm sure." Mac rolled her eyes.

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"This is the movie theater," Avery told Josh. "We actually hang out here quite a bit. It's kind of a tradition. When we were little we would have movie night every Friday. Mom and Dad would order us pizza and make popcorn and us kids got to choose one movie that we could watch together. So now, even if Mom and Dad can't do it with us, we like to do it every now and then for Amy. Of course, movie nights usually lead to popcorn fights, but that's the best part."

Josh noticed her wistful smile. "You guys sound like a rowdy bunch," he told her as he wrapped his arms around her waist. He loved it when she shared details of her family with him. She always lit up when talking about her childhood and her siblings.

"Oh yeah... people always come sit by us because they'll never get bored." She put her arms around his neck and he bent his head down to meet her lips. They fell back onto one of the recliners in the room and began kissing passionately. It didn't last long.

"Ahem..." Amy coughed, standing in front of them.

The two pulled apart and shot up stunned. "Amy what are you doing down here?" Avery asked adjusting herself.

"I wanted to watch cartoons. Were you guy's making out? I heard about it in school." She smiled mischievously.

Avery rolled her eyes. " Amy, since when do you watch cartoons down here?"

"Um... since today. Does kissing feel funny? Cuz it looked weird." She stood in front of the pair, her arms crossed.

"You're too young to know about kissing. Who put you up to this, Dad , Horace?" Amy just shrugged. "Alright. Whatever they bribed you with how about I let you play with my make-up if you go away."

An evil grin appeared on Amy's face. "Deal!" She squealed, before running off.

Avery began to laugh and put her head on Josh's shoulder.

"Welcome to the family, honey."