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‘So you’re him.’ Her tone of voice and expression gave nothing away.

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘And you convinced Ange to be your date.’

‘Yeah.’ He looked at Angela, watching her when he answered. ‘She very kindly and graciously agreed to give me another chance. She’s pretty amazing.’

The smile that spread across Angela’s face lit up his world.

‘Yes she is.’ Her comment snapped him back into the room. ‘And you’ll do well to remember that.’ She looked Rick up and down again — he had to fight the urge to squirm. ‘I’ve heard a lot about you. Most of it a lot less bad than I would have expected, given how you quite literally crashed your way into our lives.’

‘Mum, please don’t.’ He felt Angela’s fingers tighten around his, and he looked down in surprise. The last thing he’d expected was for her to defend him.

‘I really am very sorry about that, Mrs Turner. And I am doing my best to turn over a new leaf.’

‘Are you really?’

He nodded earnestly, not breaking eye contact.

‘Mum, please . . .’

After a long moment, the older woman smiled, the expression incredibly similar to Angela’s. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to start anything. I just wanted to tell you how lovely you look, and to meet your young man.’ She held out her hand.

He took it gratefully. ‘Ri—Ryan Finnegan, ma’am.’

If she noticed the hesitation, she didn’t comment. ‘Cathy.’

As soon as his hand was released, Angela threw her arms around her mum. ‘Thanks, Mum.’

‘Have fun tonight. And you—’ she pinned a look on him ‘—I’ve always thought Angela had a beautiful smile.’

‘I won’t argue with you there. And it’s easy to see where she got it from.’

‘Hmm. Very slick.’

‘I was trying more for charming,’ he admitted.

‘My point was I’ve always thought my daughter looked prettiest when she’s smiling, so you better do your best to make sure she doesn’t have a reason not to.’

‘Muuuuum,’ Angela complained.

‘Whaaaat?’ Cathy responded in the same tone, forcing him to bite back a grin. ‘I only said you had a beautiful smile. Anyway, you’ll have to excuse me, I was headed to the bar when you came in, and just wanted to say “hello”. Have fun tonight.’

‘Thanks.’ Angela kissed her mum on the cheek, giving her a brief hug before sliding her hand back into his. ‘You too.’

‘Why do I feel like I’ve just been through some sort of test?’ He waited until he was sure Cathy was out of earshot.

‘Probably because you have.’ She smiled gently. ‘But if it helps, I’m pretty sure you passed.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah, with flying colours.’

‘Well, that’s a relief.’ What he didn’t add was that most of the relief was based on the fact that Angela clearly approved. Her opinion mattered so much to him. It would be easy to be scared of how much he cared about what she thought — far more than anyone else in his life. Of course, he cared about his parents’ and sister’s opinions — but they loved him no matter what. Even through his more stupid moments they still loved him — even if his sister Imogen had made it clear that she didn’t always like him. But Angela . . . he really, really did care about her opinion — it was worth more to him than ten thousand likes.

And when he thought about that — the idea that her opinion was worth more to him than the people who kept Maverick in business, it bothered him a lot less than it should. Especially when her hand was warm in his, and she smiled at him like that.

‘So, how does it feel to be the centre of attention?’