Piece of My Heart (Fostering Love 4)

So why had I agreed, without thought and with embarrassingly little hesitation, to marry Alex?

I knew how I’d explain it to my aunt and uncle. I loved him. He was sweet and intelligent. He made everything fun. He made me laugh. He made me feel good about myself. He made me feel like I could conquer the world. When he looked at me, I felt it all the way to my bones.

But those weren’t practical reasons, and I was practical.

So why had I agreed?

My stomach twisted with worry.

Then Alex turned his head toward me and gave me a blinding smile. “Want me to give you a piggyback ride?”

“No way,” I replied, my anxiety fading as I squeezed his hand. “I’m worried you won’t be able to make it back to the house on that sore knee.”

“Oh, is that right?” he teased. He let go of my hand and took off at a jog. “The knee’s fine.”

I raced to catch up, but the minute I reached his side, he sped up.

“Are we racing now?” I asked, jokingly shoving at him.

“You can’t catch me,” he sang, putting on a burst of speed.

We ran back to the house, laughing as we slipped and slid on the wet ground. I’d worn a pair of cute rain boots that I’d assumed would work perfectly in the Oregon weather, but on our way to Alex’s childhood hangout, I’d realized they were woefully unsuited to the mud. The rubber bottoms came only about an inch above my foot; the rest of the boot was suede. Whoever marketed suede boots as rain boots surely hadn’t ever actually worn them in the rain.

We reached the back porch out of breath and soaked through to the skin.

“Let’s strip here,” Alex said, pulling off his jacket.

“Excuse me?” I asked, not sure that I’d heard him correctly. There was no way in the world that I was going to strip outside his parents’ house.

“Just the outside layers,” he replied, helping me unzip my coat as my teeth started to chatter.

We quickly took off our boots and went in the back door, which led to the kitchen. We were greeted with the smell of dinner cooking in the oven and the sound of a large group having five different conversations and speaking over one another. We’d been gone so long that Alex’s family had all arrived for dinner, and I was standing there with soaking-wet hair, looking like a drowned rat.

“Why in the world did you keep her out in the rain so long?” Liz scolded, her hands occupied with a pie. She pressed down the edges with her fingertips, not even bothering to watch what she was doing as she eyed our wet hair and clothes.

“I know why,” Bram muttered. Ani smacked his shoulder, then paused and kissed the place she’d swatted.

“I took her out to the old fort,” Alex said, sneaking a piece of sausage off one of the hors d’oeuvre platters.

“Oh, the one I was never allowed to go to?” his cousin Trevor asked. His arm was around a pretty blond woman whom I hadn’t met yet, and I assumed it was his girlfriend, Morgan.

“Evans kids only,” Bram and Alex said at the same time. Bram lifted his beer and saluted Alex with it.

“Then how come she gets to go?” whined Ani jokingly.

“Because they’re getting married,” Trevor joked back with a roll of his eyes.

There was a beat of silence.

“No fucking way,” Ani yelled, her eyes wide.

“Oh, shit,” Trevor mumbled. “Sorry, man.”

“I was going to tell you,” Alex said to Bram, grunting as Ani practically leaped across the room and slammed her body into his hard enough to make him step back. Her arms wrapped around his chest as she jumped up and down, jostling them both. “I was just waiting for you to get here so I could tell ya in person.”

Bram nodded easily, but there was something in his eyes that worried me. Something that passed between them that made me uneasy.

“I didn’t expect this,” Ani said, letting go of Alex so she could move toward me. “But I actually like you, so I’m not going to ask all the is this too soon? questions.” Her arms wrapped around me, and I had no choice but to hug her back.

“Alex,” Dan called, turning our attention to the table where Alex’s dad was sitting with his aunt and uncle. “Your girl’s freezing, son. Maybe get her in a hot shower before all the introductions and announcements?”

“Shit. Sorry, sweets,” Alex said, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

As he led me out of the kitchen, everyone started laughing. I was too embarrassed to turn around, because I just knew that they were laughing at us. But then Liz’s dry voice called over the chuckles, and I felt my lips twitch.

“Son, if you leave those jeans in the laundry room, I’ll try and get that dirt stain off the ass of them.”