55
Iran my hands through my hair and inhaled deeply. This was the first time I would be seeing the family since they’d found out about everything, and I was about as scared-shitless as it was possible to be.
“Hey, it’s going to be fine.” Amaya caught my hand and drew it down by her side. I managed to smile at her and planted a kiss on her cheek.
“Easy for you to say,” I reminded her. “They all think you’re the best thing to ever happen to me.”
“Aren’t I?” she vamped playfully, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Point taken.” I waved her into the house. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
As soon as I took a step over the threshold, my nonna descended on me. When she saw Amaya was there at my side, she slowed a little, and I could see her reconsidering the talk she’d clearly had planned in her head as soon as she’d heard I was back in the house.
“Amaya.” She gave her a quick hug. “So nice to see you. Come on, get something to eat. You look like you could use it.”
I remembered the flowers I was holding and followed my nonna into the kitchen to give them to her. She plucked them from my fingers and went to find a vase to put them in at once.
“This doesn’t make up for everything.” She wagged her finger at me sternly. “But it helps.”
“Glad to hear it.” I breathed a sigh of relief, and Amaya smirked at me, clearly amused that my nonna still had so much sway over me. Nonna arranged the flowers in a vase and then handed Amaya a small platter of food.
“Here, eat,” she ordered. “Need to make sure you’re filled out for the wedding.”
“Didn’t know we’d set on a date yet.” Amaya glanced over at me and cocked an eyebrow, but she clearly wasn’t annoyed. She knew I’d had to say anything I could to keep my nonna from blowing a gasket entirely when she had turned up at the apartment. If that meant handing over some of the wedding planning to her, I was sure Amaya would be all right with that.
“Soon.” Nonna eyed her, and there was a slight warning tone to her voice, as though she was letting Amaya know she was the one in charge of this thing. She turned to head out of the room, and Amaya gave me a look. I had to stifle a chuckle of amusement.
“What was that?” My nonna called, and Amaya caught my hand and squeezed.
“Nothing,” I called back, and I hooked my arm around Amaya’s waist, and we followed her back through to the living room. I stopped dead when I saw who was there waiting for me.
“Dad?” I greeted my father, trying to keep the obvious shock out of my voice. He got to his feet and stuck his hand out to me. I hadn’t seen or heard from him since everything had happened with the reveal of the contract, not since he had come by and told me he was leaving his wife. He looked surprisingly well pulled-together like he’d made a special effort today. Did he know how close he’d come to blowing my entire life apart? It had been him who had sowed the seeds of doubt in my head. Sure, I had been the one to let them sprout, but that didn’t mean I could shake the sense of uneasiness I felt around him, even now.
“Kristo,” he greeted me warmly and did the same for Amaya, giving her a tight hug. He was in a damn good mood for someone who was currently in the middle of another divorce, and I felt as though all of us were waiting for the penny to drop. And then it did.
“Karen,” I cocked an eyebrow as my father’s wife walked into the room. She had a nervy smile on her face like she knew the place she had in this family right now. Amaya exchanged a glance with me, mouth set in a hard line.
“I thought you guys were …?” I trailed off, not wanting to come out and say it when it so clearly wasn’t the case anymore. Dad smiled, and Karen leaned into his side. They were tentative but clearly happy.
“We decided to give things another shot,” Dad replied. I knew there was no point asking for any more than that. He would tell me when he was ready, if ever. I glanced between Karen and him and tried to imagine him giving any of the other wives a second chance like this. There would have been no way in hell. So there must have been something pretty special about this woman, and who the hell was I to question that?
I looked over at the two of them and noticed that the way they were standing seemed to mirror how Amaya and I were with each other. I couldn’t help my chuckle when I noticed that. All this time and distance and space between us and we seemed to have found love at the same time, albeit it with two completely different women. I had no idea what was going on behind the doors of their relationship, but I knew I was happy my father was happy, and that was enough.
“Dinner.” Nonna clapped her hands together and nodded toward the dining room. “Someone give me a hand bringing the food through, and we can eat.”
Amaya and I volunteered to take everything through to the dining room. I was glad for a little time alone with her. I seemed to be craving it any chance I got, drinking in these sweet little moments where she would tap my arm as though reminding me how she felt about me. I couldn’t believe how natural it felt to be near her like this, even now. I’d assumed at some point that novelty would wear off, but for now, I was just enjoying getting her to myself. After all this time feeling like she had one foot out the door, that I could never truly call her my own, it was just the two of us, and I couldn’t have been happier.
Cleo wasn’t coming for dinner, and I, for one, was relieved at that. We would have to start talking again eventually, but I was still too furious at what she’d pulled with the contract to face looking her in the eye without bubbling over with fury for the time being. She needed to learn that she couldn’t pull that shit with me. She might have enjoyed playing the bratty younger sister, but she was a grown-ass adult and stirring up shit this way was going to cause problems in the whole family, problems she should have been keeping her big fat nose away from unless she wanted to stir up drama that we wouldn’t be able to fix with a bunch of flowers.
“So, when do you start planning the wedding?” Nonna asked as we finished up the food and worked on the last of our drinks. I looked over at Amaya and raised my eyebrows. We had been so focused on getting Jolene situated in the house that neither us had spent a whole lot of time thinking about the wedding thus far, even though we were going to need to get on it sooner rather than later. I shrugged and shook my head.
“I have no idea,” I admitted. “I’m sure Amaya has given it more thought than I have.”
“No chance,” she shot back. “Between work and my sister, wedding planning has been the last thing on my mind.”
“I’m sure your grandmother would like a say in this.” My father nodded to his mother, and I looked over at her to see her practically bursting at the seams with a keenness to offer comment on my wedding plans and lack thereof. I chuckled.
“And what exactly do you have in mind?” I wondered. I half-expected her to produce a folder from beneath the table, full of everything she had in mind for the wedding. Instead, she leaned forward, eyes shining, and I could tell she’d been waiting to have this conversation since the moment Cleo and I had turned eighteen. The fact that we’d made her wait so long to deliver had probably been driving her crazy these last few years, but at last, she had the excuse she needed to unleash all this wedding-planning mania on to the world at large.