I was so far gone I didn’t even consider a future without her.
I’d prove that to her eventually.
Given time.
She was still learning how to trust again.
We’d get there.
“I would love to be part of your family, Jules.”
Jules – 2 months
“Stop fidgeting,” I told him, swatting his hand away from the button he had been messing with at his wrist.
He was nervous.
It was so bizarre, for him at least, that it was hard to wrap my head around it.
I understood, of course, this was always supposed to be a somewhat nerve-racking experience.
Meeting the family.
But he had met my family!
He knew my mom and sister and father.
He had even met my grandmother before she passed on.
And, what’s more, my family liked him.
But he was nervous. He had spent longer in front of the mirror than I had, screwing around with his hair that was slowly growing back in, but not quickly enough for my liking. I missed his long hair. I had fantasized so often about running my fingers through it. I wanted to be able to experience that finally.
“I promise they will love the surprise.”
Maybe that was unfair of me.
I was sort of… springing him on them.
I hadn’t even told Gemma about us being a thing.
I had wanted to have just a little time with just us, before I got them all involved, had to handle all their questions.
But it was time.
Mom was getting suspicious.
I think she thought I was developing a drinking problem or something because whenever she asked where I was, I fibbed and said I was out on the town with Miller. And since she knew Miller liked to have a good time that included Jägerbombs and tequila shots, she had sort of come to her own conclusions.
Hell, even if she hated Kai, she would be relieved I was just with him instead.
We walked up the driveway that my mother had lined with bales of hay because she was one of those moms who was heavy into decorating for each holiday or season. Scarecrows flanked either side of the front steps. Fake pumpkins lined the path leading to it. And she was only halfway into her decorating.
“I love this house,” I declared as we made our way up to the colonial – white with black shutters, as it had always been. There was a tire swing in an old oak in the front yard even though Gemma and I hadn’t used it in almost a decade.
“It’s the kind of house you want,” he informed me. Not guessed or questioned. Informed. “It’s all over your Pinterest vision board,” he told me. “Colonials and golden retrievers.”
“And natural home cleaners. Even though Finn would flay me if he heard that.”
As we talked, his body seemed to relax.
That was until I opened the door without knocking because, well, this wasn’t my house anymore, but it would always be home, and dragged him down the hall toward the kitchen where the voices were coming from. Voices that stopped abruptly at the sight of us standing there. Holding hands. Leaning into each other.
Gemma’s mouth fell open. Comically open. Eyes huge.
My father’s brows rose.
It was only my mother who spoke, shocking the both of us.
“Well freaking finally,” she declared, waving the wooden spoon around in the air. “I was sure I would have to hire a damn skywriter to inform you two that you were both into each other, and needed to get your heads out of your rears and act on it.”
“Honey, I don’t think a skywriter could do all that,” my father informed her, always a bit too logical to understand sarcasm.
“The sky is endless, Mitch. He could fit it,” she told him, eyes smiling as much as her lips were. “Kai, I am so happy to finally have you in the family,” she told him, moving across the room to throw her arms around him.
I moved back a step, looking at them, finding a second later that I was so glad I did. Or I might have missed it. The longing in Kai’s eyes. The joy at their acceptance.
“Now,” Mom said, pulling away to put her hands on his shoulders. “Let’s talk about grandbabies!”
“Mom!” I hissed.
“We’re not talking to you,” she informed me as she led Kai away.
Gemma took the opportunity to bounce over to me, hands grabbing mine, squeezing hard.
“He’s the one, Julie-Bean,” she told me with some authority. Like she had known it all along. Maybe she had.
I felt my lips curl up, looking over at Kai who seemed to sense it, casting a smile over his shoulder at me.
“Yeah, he is.”
Kai – 1 year
Now this, this was what she had always dreamed her wedding would look like.
Indoors.
In the winter.
Snow falling lazily, big, fat flakes outside the floor-to-ceiling windows lining the reception hall she had mooned over. The tables were draped in champagne finery. The chairs all matched. And there wasn’t a damn thing in sight that could be called ‘rustic.’