Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68369 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68369 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
I’d made a complete idiot of myself, but whatever. Shay had been a champ about it.
“By the way, Darius and his hubby made it too,” Ryan said.
Oh shit. That was even more nerve-racking.
“I thought their daughter was sick,” I answered.
“Elise and my wife will watch the kids.” He shrugged. “On that note, you might get to see two sides of Darius today.” He was warning me, wasn’t he? Oh God, it was a warning. “My brother was born skeptical of the world in general—and even though he trusts me with his life, he’s…”
“He wants to see for himself,” I deduced.
He nodded with a dip of his chin. “But once you get past the society-hatin’ hermit in him, you’ll see a good dad with a shitty sense of humor, a great brother, and someone who will always rub it in your face when he’s right. Especially if you try to climb your own roof without a ladder.”
I coughed, torn between wanting to laugh and run away and hide.
That was a very specific scenario.
“Just pretend to enjoy his dad jokes, and he’ll warm up in no time.”
Well—hold on a minute. “I love dad jokes.”
“Yeah, just like that.” He gestured his to-go mug at me.
I huffed. Dad jokes were the best, simplest form of brilliance. I’d fight anyone who disagreed.
He checked his watch. “They should be here any minute.”
Christ.
I took a breath, my stomach twisting with frazzled nerves.
I could do this. Maybe. Mary and James Quinn. Ethan Quinn. Willow Quinn. Darius and…
“What’s Darius’s husband’s name?” I asked.
“Gray.”
Right. Gray Quinn. Ryan had mentioned that Gray would be the easiest one to get to know, along with Elise and Lias. And those two wouldn’t be here today. The hope was for me to visit them around the holidays when I could take time off.
I swallowed nervously. “Um, do I hug them…? Shake hands?”
I was glad Ryan didn’t laugh at me.
“Ma won’t give you an option,” he said. “She’ll hug you. Pop…” He weighed his response with a pensive look on his face. “You know what? I think he will bring out his two-handshake for this. He’ll shake your hand, add a second for effect, and say very little.”
Heh. Good to know.
“Ethan is a mystery,” he went on. “The past few years, he’s been going through a transformation. He’s warmed up a lot, and he’s way nicer than the douchecanoe attitude he adopted in his thirties when he started stressing out about his age.”
Maybe I should take notes…
“Willow will not hug you,” he added. “She will, however, spend the entire time staring at you, only looking away when you try to make eye contact.” He smiled a little, but it wasn’t the happiest of smiles. “This will be rough for her. Jake was her anchor.”
I swallowed and felt my eyes sting already. “And Darius and Gray?”
“Oh, Gray’s a hugger like me,” he said. “If I wanna piss off my brother, I casually throw out that he married a man who’s essentially a younger version of me.”
I was too nervous to chuckle, but I wouldn’t mind being a fly on that wall. They seemed to banter a lot in that family. A lot of good-natured ribbing. I liked that. I’d wanted it for as long as I could remember.
It also had the tendency to make me bitter at times. I mean, my mom had been my world, but even back then, nobody had cared much about family. I’d had my grandparents. That was it. At age seven, I’d started calling my uncle Drunkle Billy, and he’d rarely been welcome at dinners. Aunt Laura hadn’t been a permanent fixture in my life until Mom got sick… I had no cousins.
My mom didn’t live in my head anymore. I’d forgotten her voice, which made me feel guilty. But it was just so damn hard to reconcile her reasoning for not telling me about my dad. I mean, she’d been sick for months before she’d passed. Instead of helping me secure an apartment I could only afford for a few months, she should’ve helped me reach out to the Quinns. But no, she’d just left me to find the information on my own.
I’d been a coward for too long. I didn’t wanna be like her.
I couldn’t unlove my own mom or erase all the great times we’d shared; I was just going down a completely different path now, and she was gone.
“Here we go.”
I looked up and followed Ryan’s gaze, and my stomach dropped at the sight of the two cabs that had pulled in at the plaza. I recognized Ethan first, ’cause I’d seen him the most on Insta. The Quinn dudes were all tall, like six-three or so, and they stood out. In this case, Ethan and Darius. That had to be Gray next to him; they were holding hands until Darius helped what I assumed was his mother out of the other car.