I must have it bad for this guy. I hate surprises. He grinned and hopped out to open the door for me and Tiger.

We walked to the front step. Rhett had Tiger sit, and then he rang the doorbell. A moment later a handsome older woman answered the door. “Rhett! Why did you ring the doorbell?” Then she looked at me, and down at Tiger. “What? Oh. Wait, what?”

“Mom, this is my new friend Oscar and my new puppy Tiger. Oscar, this is my mom, Norma.”

Rhett’s mom was already unlocking the doors to let us in. “Come in! Please, call me Norma. Though if you want to call me Mom, I answer to that too.” She smiled at Rhett and he tipped his head in a smile back to her.

“My mother insists I call her Mother, so I would love to call you Mom. Though it will probably take a while for me to remember,” I said, extending for a handshake.

“Oh boy,” Norma, er Mom, said. “Mother, huh?” She took my hand as if she was going to shake it and then she pulled me into a hug.

She was like every kind of mom I imagined and wished my mother would be. “Make yourselves at home!” She steered us toward the formal living room.

She said that, but the living room looked like a showroom. Did anyone ever use this room?

“She uses the room,” Rhett murmured to me. “She just cleans when she gets anxious.”

I know those feels.

Once we were all inside, Norma got on her knees in front of Tiger and looked him over from nose to tail. He endured her exam with good humor, and tried to crawl up onto her lap. “Good looking dalmatian,” she said. “So you said he just fell out of the sky one day?”

“Just about,” Rhett said. “The universe dropped him into my lap, and Oscar is helping me keep him.”

Norma didn’t take her eyes off Tiger. She looked into his eyes and he held her gaze. Finally he rolled over for her and put his legs in the air, hoping for a belly rub. “How’s that?” she asked. “How is Oscar helping you keep him?”

“I’m helping him train Tiger,” I offered.

“And I moved into his guest house!” Rhett supplied.

Norma, I mean, Mom, watched us back and forth.

“I needed a renter,” I explained hastily, heat creeping into my face.

“Landlord said no dog, so I said no more Rhett,” Rhett grinned. Why wasn’t he embarrassed? And why was I?

“Awww,” Norma said. “Well he’s worth it. Aren’t you? Aren’t you?” She ruffled Tiger’s neck and ears and rubbed his exposed belly. “He’s my grand puppy now!” She stopped and looked up at Rhett. “If you got desperate, you and little Tiger could have stayed with me.”

“Aww, Mom,” Rhett said. “I didn’t want to put you out, and before I could even look, this guest house rental fell into my lap too.”

“Sounds like fate,” Norma said, looking at me. She stood up and brushed the dog hair off her pants. “And who am I to argue with fate?”

She slipped her arm into mine and steered me toward the kitchen. “I need to borrow Oscar,” she announced. Then in my ear, “Let’s go sit at the breakfast table and discuss all the things.”

“Mom,” Rhett’s voice dropped with clear warning. This amused me so much I decided to make the most of it.

“I would love to discuss all the things,” I said loudly enough for Rhett to hear me. “What would you like to know? And do you have any old pictures of Rhett I could see?”

I turned and winked at him, which of course Norma missed. This gave me great perverse pleasure. Dude wanted me to meet a hundred people, just like the dog. This is what he got.

“Tell me how you and Rhett met,” Norma said, still driving me through the kitchen. I peeked over my shoulder to see where Rhett was, but he must have been doing something with Tiger. Maybe he was googling me so he could get me back for this visit.

But he’s the one who started it.

“Rhett has never brought someone over here before,” Norma said.

“Never?” I furrowed my brow. “Rhett never brought friends over?”

“Oh,” Norma waved her hand. “Sure he brought friends but I mean friends — like you.”

Ah. Embarrassment flooded over me. Stupid pink cheeks.

“What makes you think I’m a different kind of friend?” I asked.

“Because he looks at you like you are the greatest thing in the room,” Norma said. “I mean, besides his mother and his handsome dog, but I’ve never seen him look at anyone that way. Ever.”

“We aren’t that kind of friend,” I said. “But if he’s willing, I would like to be.” My face burned hotter as I said it.

“That’s my boy,” Norma said. I’d been here ten minutes and I was already her boy.

“Do you have any advice for me?”

She put a hand on her hip. “Be yourself, be persistent, and never take bullshit for an answer.”

This made me laugh out loud. “I already figured those out!”

“Then you don’t need my advice,” Norma said. “But you are adorable, and you can come over any time and we’ll pretend like you do need my advice. Then I can admire your tall, dark and handsome looks. And, we can plot against Rhett!”

“Mom!” Rhett said, from the other room.

“Plot for your benefit, son, of course,” Norma said. “Always for your benefit.”

Norma sat me down at the kitchen bar and poured me a glass of orange juice. Seriously, this place was out of a Saturday morning commercial, or something.

“Mom!” Rhett called from down the hall. “You turned my room into a yoga studio?”

Norma laughed. “You weren’t going to move back in, right?”

He came into the kitchen, shaking his head. “You just offered me and Tiger to move in here!”

“But did you?” she smirked. “Here, sit down by your nice friend and have some orange juice.”

Rhett snorted, laughing, and grabbed his mom in a hug. “Mom, you are looking really fit. Do I need to stand guard on the porch?”

“Of course not,” his mom said. “I can take care of myself, but I’ll let you know if anything changes.”

I watched all this, trying to keep the surprise off my face. I tried to envision talking with my mother like this. My mother ran meetings and took donors to lunch. She was no slouch, but she wasn’t…fun either.

I sighed, and sipped my orange juice. Why was I such a fucking misfit?

“Speaking of yoga, you boys should try it sometime,” Norma said.

“I did try it, remember?” Rhett said. “You kept trying to set me up with the instructor. Turns out he’s one of the guys I work with at the station! Thank god I figured out who he was before things got awkward!”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” Norma waved her hand in the air, dismissing the past. She turned to me. “Obviously Rhett was waiting for someone else,” and then, oh my god, she winked at me.

This weird mixture of pleasure and mortification swirled through me, and I felt like how a puppy must when they wag their tail, hide, and pee on the floor all at the same time.

Fortunately I confined my reaction to halfway steadying my hand and drinking my orange juice. The glass could hide my face while I recovered.

We weren’t even dating, so this was extra embarrassing.

Rhett watched my reaction and then said to his mother, “Mom, leave him alone. We’re just friends, he’s my landlord and he’s helping me train Tiger.”

My heart dropped in a free fall and landed with a thud at the bottom of my stomach.

He turned to me, “And she wonders why I never bring anyone over here!”

“Oscar must be pretty great if you did,” Norma said. “That’s all I mean.”

Now I really was embarrassed. And I didn’t even know why. I’m the one who told Rhett our kiss couldn’t mean anything. Did I expect him to tell his mother I was his new boyfriend?

What was wrong with me?

“Are you okay,” Rhett said. “You look at little queasy.” He tipped his head sideways and scrutinized me.

I looked up at the ceiling and worked on my orange juice. Food was the best prop ever. “I’ll be okay,” I managed. “I think I just need to get some air.”  I pushed my stool back and stood. Norma took my glass and put it in the dishwasher, and looked back up at me, concerned.

“Oscar tells me that Tiger needs to meet one hundred people,” Rhett said. “So we should be on our way. I just figured you could be the first one.”

Norma clapped her hands together. “What fun! Okay, where are you going next?”

“I think the fire station,” Rhett said. “Technically Tiger has already been there but I want to show off his skills, and there will be different guys there today.”

I swallowed and nodded. “Good idea, we can take him to all the places he’ll most likely visit, and branch out from there.”

“It was nice to meet you, Norma. Er…mom,” I said.

“Let’s get you outside,” Rhett said.

I stumbled out, and leaned up against the truck. “Go get your puppy and give your mom a proper goodbye,” I said.

Later, the three of us rumbled down the road toward town. “Are you okay?” Rhett said. “You took a sudden turn back there.”

“I think I need to eat,” I said. “Can we stop for food before the station?”

Rhett looked down at Tiger laying on the seat between us, his head between his paws. “Uh, sure. He can meet people in a restaurant, right?”

Oh yeah, we have a puppy with us. I rubbed my temples. Did I eat breakfast? Or lunch? I didn’t. If Sarah didn’t come over on the regular, would I ever eat? I’m not sure.

“The Bay Leaf Cafe will let me bring him, I think. I’ve seen leashed dogs in the patio seating.” Rhett gave me a quick look. “Part overlooks the park or our table can be in the shade. Have you ever been there?”

“No, but it sounds perfect.” I leaned my head against the window and watched the scenery go by. This town was out of a movie or something. Long stretches of road ribboned over the landscape with ditches overgrown with flowers and asparagus. Big weeping willows lined the way. Horses and cows grazed in pastures dotted with old and new barns. Then closer to town cute neighborhoods sprang up with houses ranging from the mid 1800s to postwar bungalows to midcentury modern ramblers. Nana loved these kinds of restorations, even if the town was too rural for her tastes.

“Did you want me to tell my mom we were dating?” Rhett said.

My thoughts interrupted completely, I jumped back to the here and now. My heart pounded and mortification flooded through me. “Why would I want you to say that. We aren’t dating, right?”

“That’s what I thought,” Rhett said. “I mean, last night you said this didn’t mean anything, and even if it did…it would be really early to tell my mom, right?”

I laughed. He was right. I shook my head. “Yes, that would be seriously weird, and be something you’d do if you wanted to chase someone away, right?”

Rhett laughed, a short cough of a laugh. “Exactly, and while we aren’t dating, I don’t want to chase you away either.”

“But you wanted me to meet your mother?” My courage was returning, now that my embarrassment and shame had given way to logic and the light of day. Sometimes you just had to talk about stuff.

I always forget that part.

Rhett laughed again and rubbed the back of his head with his free hand, and looked out over the road as he drove. “Yeah, you said Tiger needed to meet a hundred people, and he hadn’t met my mom yet. It seemed like a good idea.”

When he put it that way it made sense. You’d think I’d never dated anyone before. That last breakup turned me around, I think.

“Your mom is pretty cool. I’m glad I met her,” I offered. I meant it.

Rhett smiled wistfully. “Yeah, she’s a good lady. I guess I wanted you to meet her too.” He glanced at me, a stricken look on his face.  “I hope it wasn’t weird. I didn’t think that through.”

“I think,” I said, slowly choosing my words. “I think things only need to be as weird as you make them. We don’t make it weird, it’s not weird. I mean, you brought friends over to the house to meet your parents before, right?”

“Exactly.” Rhett nodded. “Exactly.”

We drove in silence for a while. I slid my hand over Tiger’s velvet head and stroked his warm little form. I remembered what his mom said about him never bringing anyone over “like me,” but I didn’t need to bring that up. I wanted to enjoy the moment, and stop analyzing it.

It was already confirmed he was perpetually single. I needed to be the same way. Whatever this was or would be, both of us staying perpetually single was a good idea all around. I’d just try not to think about the fact that he had a reputation, but only kissed me and left me. It would be ridiculous to be upset about that.