Falling Fast

“Wahoo!” Imma shouts, doing the same as her sister.

“Christ,” Carson mutters from my side and I smile, then hear Gia laugh.

Hearing that, my hold on her tightens as I tip my head down to hers and wait for her to look up at me. As soon as her head falls back, I plant a kiss on her lips then lean away an inch to search her eyes. She doesn’t look worried anymore; she looks happy and relaxed, which is a relief. “You want a beer?”

“No she does not. She wants a wine cooler,” Janet says, and Gia and I both look at her. “Then she and I are going to go have some girl time.”

“Can I come, Mommy?” Mizza asks.

“Me too?” Imma adds, looking hopeful.

“Sorry, babies, no men and no kids.”

“That sucks,” Mizza grumbles, crossing her arms over her chest and huffing.

“Wha’d I say about saying sucks?” Cade asks, and her eyes go to her dad and widen.

“Sorry, Daddy,” she murmurs.

“I still need help making the apple pie,” Mom says, and both girls look at her then begin to bombard her with questions about what their jobs will be.

“You ready, girl?” Janet asks, and I feel Gia nod.

“I’ll be on the back deck if you need me,” I tell her, taking another kiss.

“I’ll be okay,” she whispers.

“She’ll be fine.” Janet rolls her eyes at me before going to her husband and getting up on her tiptoes for a kiss. Once she’s got that from him, she walks across to the fridge and grabs two wine coolers. Coming back to Gia, she takes her hand and pulls her along with her out of the room toward the front of the house.

“Should I be worried about that?” I ask Cade, and he shrugs.

“I don’t think so. You know Janet never liked Lisa, so my guess is she’s trying to feel Gia out to make sure she’s good enough for you,” he replies, and I look to where they just were. “They will be fine. Come on. We need to make sure Dad isn’t putting too much damn lighter fluid on the grill again.”

“Right.” I smile, remembering the time he singed half the hair off his face. At the time, it wasn’t funny, but looking back on it now, it’s hilarious.

~**~

Taking a pull from my beer, I watch Gia move inside through the sliding glass door with Mom, Janet, and the girls to go get the pie they made, and vanilla ice cream. Dinner was good, and Gia was relaxed and funny, which made it even better. I could tell my family was falling for her just as quickly as me, which isn’t a surprise. It’s hard not to like her when she’s being sweet with two little girls, helping Mom in the kitchen, or joking with my brothers—something she did easily all evening.

“I like her for you, man,” Carson says, and I pull my eyes from the door to look at him. “She’s sweet, and it doesn’t suck that she’s not hard to look at.”

“I know, and I’d appreciate it if you stop fucking checking her out. And stop flirting with her,” I mutter, and his smile gets bigger and turns into a grin.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this happy or this relaxed,” Cade inserts, and I roll my head on my shoulders.

“Probably because I haven’t been this happy or relaxed in a long fucking time,” I admit. “You know how it was when I thought I would never walk again. From the instant I was shot, it was like I was stuck in that moment. Even when I learned to walk again, I was still living that shit every day. And now…” I pause, running my hand through my hair. “Now it’s like it never happened. She fucking erased that shit for me.”

“Told you,” Dad says, and I look to see him giving me a knowing smile.

“I still need to convince her that she should move here permanently. I won’t feel good about any of this until I know she wants to live here with me. She’s never lived in a town this small before, so I don’t know if she can really be happy here.”

“She hasn’t moved here for good?” Carson asks, and I shake my head.

“She’s still got most of her shit in Chicago, at the place she and her friend rent there. She hasn’t mentioned anything about moving down here for good, and since things between us are so new, I haven’t brought it up to her.”

“You should probably tell her how you feel,” Cade suggests, taking a drink from his own beer.

“I’m going slow. I learned today that she’s never even had a boyfriend before, didn’t even know that’s what we were. She didn’t want to assume this was more than it was, even though she wanted it to be more.”