Free Finding Chris Evans: The 9-1-1 Edition by Erin Nicholas Page A

without the kissing.”
    Her brothers had handily beat him at skee ball, her nieces had done a double flip on the trampolines while Chris hadn’t even been able to handle one, her two nephews had out-eaten him on the hot dogs and the cake and he’d made her mother laugh. So everyone officially loved him.
    She loved him.
    Crap. She’d been trying to avoid that particular revelation. It had been there in the back of her mind, niggling and teasing her, since he’d first put the apron on in her kitchen last night. But there it was. She was in love with Chris Evans.
    “Hey, you’re blocking the way.”
    Britt twisted her neck to look back at her mother who was climbing up the tube behind them.
    “If you’re going to get frisky, the second storeroom is a lot better choice than this,” Maggie said, crawling into the space at Britt’s feet.
    Chris didn’t act one bit embarrassed, which Britt knew her mother would also love. “Is there caramel corn syrup in there by any chance?” he asked.
    Britt’s eyes widened. Uptight, no-fun Chris Evans had just insinuated that he wanted to get naughty with her and caramel corn syrup to her mother ?
    Maggie laughed. “Well, there’s no such thing, but there is corn syrup in there—which we use for the caramel corn.”
    “That’ll work,” Chris said with a wink.
    Maggie nodded. “But, fair warning, it’s sticky. You might want to just take some home.”
    Britt’s eyes widened even further. Her mother was a free spirit, a spontaneous, fun, silly big kid a lot of the time. But she was still her mother , and she was teasing with Chris about him and Britt having sex with corn syrup?
    “ Mom ,” Britt said, feeling her cheeks heat. “Really?”
    “Oh for sure. You want to be near a shower,” Maggie said. “If you put clothes on over corn syrup, you may never get them back off.”
    “Mother!” Britt said.
    “Oh, Britt, don’t be so uptight,” Maggie said.
    Britt was taken back by that. She was uptight? Her mom didn’t know Chris. “Excuse me?”
    “You think I don’t know you and Chris are sleeping together?” Maggie asked. “It’s there every time you look at each other.”
    Britt felt her face heat further. And here she’d been thinking her mom thought she and Chris were in love. Instead, she was just happy that Britt was getting some. “Mom, I don’t—”
    “And it’s great,” Maggie interrupted. “I haven’t seen you smile this much in a long time. You’re having fun today. Usually you think of this place as work. I love that you’re letting go and just enjoying yourself,” she said. “Clearly getting laid has done exactly what it was supposed to do.”
    Britt knew she shouldn’t be surprised by anything Maggie said or did. If the past two years had taught her anything, it was to expect the unexpected. But her mother had just shocked her.
    “It’s not just getting laid,” Britt said. “It’s not just sex.”
    “Well, even better,” Maggie said. “And all the more reason to use the corn syrup. I wish I’d used corn syrup more back when—”
    “Stop,” Britt said firmly. “I can’t hear this. Especially if ‘your father’ is at all a part of the sentence.”
    She crawled quickly, in spite of her thumb, to the end of the tube. Her mom’s laughter followed her down the slide at the end.
    By the time Chris had slid down behind her, she was frowning. And he was grinning. Big.
    “What are you smiling at?” she asked.
    “You.”
    “What about me?” But she was pretty sure she knew what he was about to say.
    “You have uptight moments too.”
    Yep, that’s what she’d been expecting. “Well, seriously. She’s my mom! And…” She wasn’t sure what else to say to that.
    “And you’re having fun. With me. Because of me.” He looked extremely smug.
    Britt crossed her arms, in part to hide her thumb from her mom who had just come down the slide, and in part because she was feeling a little exposed with Chris.
    “I’m a fun,