Their waiter brought their appetizer, along with bread, and Tucker and Aubry dug in.

“Did your parents encourage you along that path?”

She nodded while pouring oil and vinegar onto a plate, then selected a slice of bread for dipping. “Absolutely. Though my uncle—not the one we were hunting for that night I met you, by the way. Uncle Davis is my mother’s brother. This is my other uncle, my father’s brother. Anyway, slightly off topic there. My Uncle Oliver thought it was awful of me to even consider not following in my father’s footsteps. Since I’m the only heir, he said, it was my responsibility to carry on the Ross legacy. My uncle never married or had children, so he told me the continuation of our dynasty falls to me.”

“Ouch. That’s a pretty heavy burden to place on someone’s shoulders.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s good your parents encouraged you to do what you were meant to do, even if that means deviating from the family path.”

“Yes. And I love them for it. If even once they had asked me to get my degree in business or finance so I could carry on the family name at Ross Enterprises, I’d have done it.”

“Really?”

“Of course. They mean everything to me. I’d do whatever it took to make them happy, especially if carrying on the family name and business was vital to them. Fortunately, it never came to that. Dad is so proud that I’m becoming a doctor.”

“That’s great.”

“I assume your dad is the same way.”

“Yeah. He wouldn’t have cared if any of us boys had gone into sports at all, as long as we did something productive with our lives, and we were happy doing it.”

She speared some of the toasted ravioli and took a taste. “Mmm. This is good. Take a bite.”

She put another ravioli on her fork, waving it in front of him. He grasped her wrist, then slid the fork into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed.

“You’re right. It’s good.”

Aubry hadn’t wanted to even go to dinner with Tucker, let alone find herself relaxing and having such an intense conversation about families with him. Maybe it was the two glasses of wine, but she felt calm and settled.

Or maybe it was because he’d sincerely apologized right away, and then he’d proceeded to charm her with his honesty and his candor about his life and his family. She’d been out on dates before with men who’d done nothing but scratched the surface. She already knew more about Tucker in the short period of time she’d known him than she knew about a lot of guys she’d dated for months.

“When’s your next game?” she asked.

“We have five more games at home, so a decent home stretch. Then we’re on the road to Chicago after that.”

“How do you feel about all the travel?”

“It’s part of the job.” He picked up another ravioli, only this time he fed it to her. She smiled when he slipped the fork between her lips. The action was so intimate, she felt the tug in her lower belly, especially when their gazes met and held. A collision of sensation, between the delicious food, the nice buzz from the wine, and the man who confused her and definitely attracted her.

The waiter brought their dinner. She was already full, but the tempting aromas renewed her appetite. She had the champagne chicken, while Tucker had the veal. They swapped tastes of each other’s food. It was delicious, a decadent delight to her senses.

“Tell me about your bad day,” Tucker said as they were finishing up. “We’ve talked enough about me.”

“It wasn’t that bad, really. My attending physician was a little rough on me for not being sensitive to a patient’s needs.”

He leveled his gaze on hers. “What happened?”

She found herself elaborating in great detail about the child and her mother. She explained how tense the situation had been, how Chen had smoothed things over and how out of her element she’d appeared to her boss.

He nodded. “Rough situation. I’m sure you were handling it just fine, but it’s hard with little kids, ya know? Even at the best of times they can be a handful. And because the kid was already upset, there was probably nothing you could have done to calm her. Your boss was just the lucky second party to come in and make things all better.”

She crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. “Really. And what makes you the expert on kids.”

“Trust me, I’m no expert. But I have siblings. In addition to three brothers, I also have a little sister. When my sister, Mia, was younger, she’d scream her head off about something and one of us or Dad would try to comfort her, and nothing would help. Then Mom would come in, whisper some soft words, and that would be the end of her tirade.”

“Oh, well that’s the mom effect. All mothers have that calming influence.”

He laughed. “You’d think that, wouldn’t you, but that didn’t always work on Mia. Because the very next instance it would be Mom trying to calm her down, and Dad would be the one walking in the room, saying a few ‘aww, poor baby’s to her, and poof. Tears gone.”

“Hmm. So maybe there is some point to what you’re saying.”

“I’m tellin’ ya, it’s like magic. It’s like the first person on the scene is invisible. And the second person has that special voice that does the trick. I don’t know what it is, but it seems to work. It even happened with me and a couple of my brothers. Barrett and I got into fights all the time. One time he was irritating the shit out of me and I’d had enough, so I hauled off and punched him in the face. He went down, hard, and started bawling like a baby. Grant was nearby so he came in and got a towel for Barrett’s bloody nose and tried to get him to stop crying.”