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“Thanks for giving me ride,” Cathy says as she climbs into the cab of Tyler’s truck.
“It’s fine, I wasn’t doing much today anyway,” Tyler replies as he dials down the music in the car. “Did they say how long it was going to take to get it fixed?”
“I can pick it up tomorrow,” Cathy tells him as she checks her phone. Her truck had been acting up in the last few days and one quick look from Dani was enough to determine that the alignment was out of sorts. Dani would have gladly fixed it if she had the equipment available, but alas a trip to the shop had been necessary. Tyler had volunteered to pick up Cathy after his stop at the tractor supply store while Kate stayed back to get some work done. “Not too expensive either, I went to school with the owner.”
“Hey, there’s always a bright side,” he says enthusiastically. “I’ll take you back when they call tomorrow.”
The drive is completely normal until Cathy starts rummaging around his truck and Tyler is hit by the realization that Kate did get that habit from somewhere and that somewhere was her mother. Cathy opens up the sun visors, looks around the back seat and almost messes with the buttons on the console, but has more restraint than her daughter and leaves the big red button alone. Tyler is thankful for that, he doesn’t want to deal with another ticket for illegal fireworks.
“Kate’s barrels… that’s cute,” Cathy notes when she sees the text written on a piece of tape.
Tyler lets Cathy go through his stuff because he can’t see himself telling her to stop and partially because he finds it a bit funny.
At least that was until Cathy opens the glove compartment and started pulling out stuff. “Really Tyler, autographed pictures of yourself?”
“It’s easier to just have them on hand and ready than to sign stuff on the go sometimes,” Tyler justifies himself.
“Ah, registration papers that are up to date, that’s good.” Cathy reaches into the back of the compartment and pulls out the last thing Tyler ever wanted her to find, a box of condoms. “You have condoms in your car?” Cathy’s tone is teasing, but Tyler is still freaking out in the drivers seat. “There aren’t a lot left, you need to stock up.”
Tyler almost chokes on air as his grip on the wheel tightens. “I mean we don’t use those anymore, I didn’t even remember we had some stashed there.” Once the words are out of his mouth, he regrets opening it in the first place. Why the fuck did I just say that! echoes through his mind, but it’s to late to take the words back. He feels like the dumbest person on the face of the Earth at the moment and prays that Cathy lets this go.
“I didn’t know you already had the talk about kids,” Cathy asks, fully aware that she’s torturing the man beside her.
“In how much trouble am I?” Tyler finally asks, daring to look at his passenger, who is still holding the box of condoms as if it was evidence of a crime.
“In how much trouble do you think you are in?”
“That feels like a trick question ma’am.”
“We’re back to you calling me ma’am, interesting…”
Tyler knows she’s playing him like a violin, but he has no clue how to get himself out of this one. “That box was in there because we used to need them, but now we don’t. We’ve had the talk about having kids, we both agree to wait until Kate is done with her degree so we are using other methods,” he says quickly, hoping that Cathy would be satisfied with his answer and leave the subject alone.
“Why are they in the car though, have you had sex with my daughter in the seat I’m in right now?” Cathy knows she’s enjoying this way too much, she’s not a prude and Kate is an adult so she doesn’t really have a word to say about anything sex related. Not to mention Tyler is a great guy and Cathy knows she’s lucky that he’s there for Kate, no matter what she needs.
“I really don’t want to answer that question.” Tyler knows they are about ten minutes away from her home, but he wishes teleportation existed so he could simply vanish.
“I’ll take that as a yes then,” Cathy laughs as Tyler’s face turns a shade of red that is very similar to the colour of his truck.
The rest of the drive is made in complete silence, one that keeps Tyler on edge while Cathy enjoys it.
***
Kate is sitting at her desk in the barn when Tyler comes back and she can immediately tell that his ride with her mother had been particularly eventful. She waits for him to come give her a kiss, as he always does when he comes back from somewhere, but Tyler just sits in his spot and opens his computer.
“Huh, hi?”
“Your mother found our condoms,” Tyler blurts out and Kate swears he looked in pain as he said it. Still, she doesn’t really know what he’s referencing to as she has never really kept track of where their condoms are. That had been more Tyler’s job.
“What condoms?”
“The ones we kept in the car for those moments… you know what I mean. I told her we weren’t using them anymore.”
“You told my mother we weren’t using condoms,” Kate repeats his statement, trying not to laugh. “I didn’t even know we still had some there.”
Kate remembers clearly the first time they had been in the Ram, alone and Tyler’s hand slid from her knee and up her thigh and suddenly he was pulling over the middle console and into his lap. It took him about five seconds to get her out of her harness and into his lap only to realize once that he’s jeans were unbuttoned that they didn’t have any condoms in the car, they were in his bags at the motel.
The next time they had stopped at a pharmacy, they had bought a specific box just for the Ram to avoid situations like that ever again. Then the condoms as a whole added an extra few seconds until they could have each other so now that she was on birth control, they thankfully no longer needed them.
“Yeah me either! Also, you really are your mother’s daughter because she decided to check out every single thing in my truck. I know where you get that from now.”
“I’m sure she found it hilarious honey, you don’t need to panic about this,” Kate reassures him, not wanting to make light of the situation, but still she would have loved to seen that conversation happen.
“Yeah ‘cause having to sit in the car where we’ve had sex so many times while she asks me about it was really funny,” Tyler retorts and looks back at his computer. He’s never going to regret having sex with the love of his life in the place he loves the most in the world, but he’s certainly going to regret not throwing that stupid box away.
Tyler tries to focus back on his computer screen, attempts to work the caption on a particular clip where it was so windy it’s impossible to hear what he’s saying, but he can feel Kate’s eyes on him.
“You didn’t even kiss me when you came back,” Kate complains and her voice is a lot closer than Tyler thought so he jumps a little bit. Kate is standing right next to him and she takes his computer from his lap, sets it on the table behind her and takes its place. “Don’t tell me that one little car ride with my mom scared you enough that you won’t even kiss me?”
Tyler knows that she’s teasing him, she definitely shift her weight forward on purpose and he grabs her by the waist so she sits still. He gives her a warning look, but still lets her kiss him because he can never deny her anything.
Kate cards a hand through his soft her, stopping at the back of his neck so she can hold him right where she wants him and she knows she’s won when one his hands slides from her hipbone and under her shirt.
“Do y’all keep condoms in my barn too?” Cathy’s voice cuts in and Kate would probably have fallen off the chair if Tyler hadn’t been holding onto her so tightly.
“Christ,” Tyler mutters and he’s glad in a way that Kate is still on him because she’s hiding not only how red his face is, but also how incredibly hard he is at the moment.
“Mama, can’t you knock?” Kate’s pretty sure they’ve used up all the condoms that had been stashed in the barn, but makes a mental note to check the drawer of her desk just to be sure.
“On my own barn door?” Cathy has a shovel in her hand and Tyler wonders for a second if it’s to hide his body after she kills him. “For that comment why don’t you come and help me with dinner?”
Kate slides of his lap and Tyler has to hold in a groan as she does so and before he knows it, he’s alone and very unsatisfied in the barn.
***
“You know he’s going to have nightmares about today,” Kate jokes as she starts peeling the potatoes her mom handed her. “Like he’s not going to let me near him for the entire week we’re here.”
“Please we both know the two of you can’t keep your hands to yourselves,” Cathy teases her daughter, knowing first hand how affectionate the couple is.
“Mama, come on,” Kate laughs, ignoring the truthful nature of her mom’s comment. “He’s traumatized now. You broke my boyfriend.”
Cathy puts down the bottle spices and turns to look at her daughter. “You know I was only having fun right? I’ll apologize to him. I like him too much for him to leave. He’s stuck with me.”
“No, he’s going to be fine,” Kate laughs shaking her head at her mom’s comments. “I’m glad you like him.”
They work together in the kitchen in a comfortable silence until Cathy figures she might use this last opportunity to get one last word in.
“Tyler said you aren’t using condoms anymore, I hope that doesn’t mean you’re using the pull-out method.”
Kate almost cuts her finger off as she drops her knife. “Mom!”
“What? I’m ready to be a grandma just so you know.”
“This is not happening to me right now.”