Running Into Love

by Aurora Rose Reynolds

“Do you want coffee, babe?” I ask, and she smiles at me over her shoulder.

  “Yes, please.”

  “Wow, this is really happening . . . You’re really in a relationship,” Allison mutters from my side, and I turn to look at her, seeing a smirk on her face.

  “Don’t start.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She grins as she pulls a bottle out and heads for the couch to take a seat next to Fawn. My family has been giving me a hard time for the last couple of years about finding someone to settle down with, but I’ve always ignored them. After I ended things with Heather, I refused to settle for another woman who didn’t really give a shit about me, what I wanted, or what I needed. Until Fawn came along, I thought it would be next to impossible to find that woman, so I know my family is surprised.

  “I have the perfect plan,” Katie says as she comes through the front door with my family following her. “We can all have Thanksgiving together, since we are all here.”

  “Mom,” Fawn says from the couch, but Katie ignores her and looks at my mom, who is nodding like a loon.

  “I think it’s a great idea. The more the merrier,” my mom agrees, huddling in the kitchen and whispering with Katie.

  “It will be fine, baby,” I state, handing Fawn her cup of coffee as Ruby comes over to take Emma from her. “Baby, I’d like you to meet Emma’s mom, Ruby, and her dad, my brother Cole,” I introduce them as Fawn stands to greet each of them with a hug.

  “It’s nice to meet you.” Fawn smiles, and I tuck her under my arm.

  “You’re the pizza girl,” Ruby says, and I look at Fawn, wondering what she’s talking about.

  “Um, yeah.” She blushes. “Thank you for the birthday cake—it was delicious.”

  “You’re welcome. I’m glad you liked it.” Ruby grins, then steps aside, whispering to Cole as my dad pushes his way in front of Lucas and Eva.

  “Dad, Fawn. Fawn, my dad, David,” I say as Dad picks her up off the ground in a bear hug.

  “Nice to meet you, girl,” Dad says, and Fawn laughs.

  “Nice to meet you, too, sir.”

  “Don’t sir me. That title is better for my boss’s boss,” Dad says, then looks at me. “You did good, boyo.” Shaking my head at him, I grin, then watch him move to the kitchen when my mom calls him over.

  “Baby, my brother Lucas and his wife, Eva. Their daughter is Madeline,” I say, and Fawn hugs Eva, who does not return the hug.

  Eva lets out a huff as Lucas pulls Fawn into a hug next, muttering, “They like to save the best for last,” before letting her go, gaining a glare from his wife, which he ignores.

  “Nice to meet you guys.” Fawn smiles as I wrap my hand around her waist.

  “Now, seriously, what the hell are you doing with this uptight asshole?” Lucas asks, looking between the two of us.

  “He’s not so bad,” Fawn says looking up at me.

  I dip my head and place a kiss to her forehead, then pull away when Libby comes through the front door, stating loudly, “I vote that only one apartment has the game playing and the other one is free rein.”

  “I want to watch the parade,” Madeline says, taking a seat on the couch—she’s holding a cookie that she got from god knows where.

  “We’re only a few blocks from the parade. We should go see it in person,” Libby says, and Madeline’s face lights up.

  “I’d like to get out of here for a while,” Eva says, looking at Libby. Eva wanting to get out of here isn’t a surprise—she’s not the most friendly person, and I seriously wonder what the hell my brother is still doing married to her.

  “I’ll go with the girls,” Lucas says, then adds, “or with anyone else who wants to come along.”

  “Do you want to go, baby?” I ask Fawn, and she shakes her head no.

  “Not really unless you want to. I went last year, and it was a little too much for me.”

  “That’s cool, we can stay.”

  “You can go,” she says softly, and I shake my head no.

  “I’m going to go next door and see who else wants to come out with us,” Libby says as my cell starts to ring.

  Giving Fawn a quick kiss, I pull my phone out of my pocket, seeing it’s my partner, Wesley. “I gotta take this, baby,” I say quietly, and she nods as I put the phone to my ear and move to my bedroom.

  “What’s up?” I ask as soon as the door is shut behind me.

  “Just seeing if you wanted to get a bite to eat later. I know you’re on your own today.”

  “Actually, my whole family—and Fawn’s—just showed up with bags upon bags of food,” I say. Wesley’s been giving me shit about Fawn for the last few weeks, asking if I needed any help with her since I was having a hard time pinning her down.

  “Lucky bastard,” he grumbles, and I grin.

  “Why don’t you come over here for dinner?”

  “Nah, I don’t want to impose.”

  “You’re not imposing. We’ll have plenty of food, and I’d like you to meet Fawn.”

  “All right, I’ll be there.”

  “That wasn’t hard,” I mutter and hear him laugh before he hangs up. Shoving my cell back in my pocket, I leave the room, finding Fawn in the kitchen.

  “Do you have to leave?” she asks as soon as she sees me.

  “No, but my partner, Wesley, is gonna stop by for dinner.”

  “Where is his family today?” she asks quietly, and I move into her, wrapping my hand around her hip, then sliding it around her back to pull her closer.

  “Seattle. He moved here a little over a year ago, so he’s on his own.”

  “Oh,” she says softly, moving her fingers up to run along my jaw. “In that case, I’m glad everyone showed up with food. I’d hate for him to be alone, too.”

  “You’ll like him,” I state softly when I see that her eyes have filled with worry, and she nods, then looks past me. “You doing okay with all of this?”

  “Yeah, unless you get called into work, I’ll be okay.”

  “If I get called in, I’m taking you with me,” I say, and she laughs, dropping her forehead to my chest. I wrap my arms around her and place my lips to her hair, breathing in the scent of berries that always seems to surround her.

  “Fawn, are you ready to cook your first turkey?” Katie asks, breaking into the moment. Fawn pulls away to look at her mom, who’s poking her head in the door.

  “Do I have a choice?” she asks, and her mom rolls her eyes. “Apparently not. I guess we’re playing Russian roulette with everyone’s lives today,” she mutters, and I laugh, throwing my head back, then drop my mouth to hers and whisper against her lips.

  “You got this, baby. If you need me, I’ll be here watching the game,” I say, and she frowns at my smile.

  “This is the first time in my life I wish I could say I wanted to watch football,” she grumbles right before I kiss her once more, then let her go, wondering how the hell it’s possible that I’m already falling in love with her. She throws a smile at me over her shoulder before she leaves, making me realize it’s just her.

  Chapter 11

  WHERE ARE THE GIBLETS? WHAT THE HELL ARE GIBLETS?

  FAWN

  “Who’s going to cut the turkey?” Mom asks, looking between Levi’s mom and me. I shrug, taking a sip of beer, which I normally hate, but I need alcohol to get through today and there is no wine in the house.

  “I think Levi should cut it since he’s the man of the house,” Lisa says, smiling at me, and I fight the urge to roll my eyes at her the way I would if my mom had just said the same thing. My reaction to her isn’t a surprise—after spending the day with Levi’s mom and mine I’ve realized why they were such great friends. They have the same personality, neither of them understands the meaning of boundaries, and they are both crazy as hell. I mean, they’re even wearing similar outrageous Thanksgiving-themed sweaters with sparkles and bedazzles.

  “Oh, I love it, Levi and Fawn’s first Thanksgiving together. This is just t
oo perfect.” My mom claps as she looks at me, smiling.

  “Mom,” I warn—not that she’s paying me any mind. No, she’s been like this all day. Which means she’s in make-believe mom heaven, where Levi and I are past the point of dating and onto the baby-making part of our relationship and I’m planning on giving her ten grandkids.

  “This is just so exciting,” Lisa gushes, looking at me. “You are so much better than Levi’s ex-fiancée. Ugh, I hated that girl.”

  Um, what? I feel my eyes get wide, and my heart skips a beat as I stare at her.

  “Levi was engaged?” My mom voices my question, and I wait with my fist clenched for the answer as I study Lisa, who is suddenly looking anywhere but at me.

  “It was years ago,” she says, waving it off like it’s not a big deal when it most definitely is. Or in my head it is. In reality it shouldn’t even matter, since I didn’t even know him then and am just getting to know him now. “Let’s not think about that right now.”

  “Right,” I agree quietly, knowing that’s all I’m going to be able to think about for the rest of the day.

  “Now where are the giblets?” she asks, looking around.

  “I don’t know, what do they look like?” I look around myself, wondering what the heck giblets are.

  “They were in a bag inside the turkey,” she says, and my head flies in her direction.

  “There was something inside the turkey?” I ask, and both sets of mom eyes land on me.

  “You didn’t find them when you were stuffing the turkey?” Mom asks, and I shake my head no.

  “Oh dear,” Lisa whispers, and I look through the clear glass door on the oven at the turkey inside—a turkey I stuffed myself, a turkey I’ve been basting off and on all day—and know instantly I messed up. Big. “Don’t worry, it’s fine.” She waves once more, and I can tell she’s fighting back a smile.

  “You’ve been cooking the turkey with the bag of giblets inside it,” Mom says, fighting back her own smile.

  “This isn’t funny.” I shake my head at the two of them as they smile at each other.

  “It’s a little bit funny, sweetheart.”

  I glare at them as they start to laugh. “I’ve ruined Thanksgiving. I can barely make mac and cheese, and you two thought I should be the one in charge of cooking the turkey.”

  “Don’t worry, Levi can cook,” Lisa says through her laughter. “You won’t starve with my son around.”

  “I tried to teach my girls to cook, but they never wanted to learn.” Mom smiles, and I look at the ceiling. She never tried to teach us to cook—she secretly liked us depending on her for sustenance.

  “I’ll just take out the stuffing and get the bag out of it. Maybe it won’t be so bad,” I mutter to myself when the two women who were supposed to be teaching me to cook the damn turkey start to laugh again. “I don’t even know why you think this is so funny,” I growl, digging through a drawer for a spoon to scoop out the stuffing.

  “What’s going on?” Levi startles me as he comes into the kitchen, and I feel my face heat. I wonder if his ex-fiancée did all the dumb things I can’t seem to stop doing. I doubt she did—she was probably perfect in every way.

  “Nothing. Your Fawn is just funny,” Lisa says softly as Levi gets close to me, wraps his hand around my waist, and places a soft kiss to my forehead.

  “What’d she do?” he questions, with a smile on his face that says, She’s always doing stupid shit, so what did she do this time?

  “Nothing,” I cut in before they can tell him about my latest disaster. “Do you need another beer?” The guys have been over at his place most of the day watching the game, only coming over now and again to get food and beer that they stocked in my fridge while everyone else was watching the parade and walking around in Times Square, since Madeline has never been to the city before.

  “Nah, just coming to check on my girl. You’ve been out of my sight too long,” he says quietly, and my stomach fills with butterflies. He really is always making me dizzy, and I don’t know what to do with that or him, which makes me start to panic a little.

  “What time is Wesley getting here?” Lisa asks, and Levi thankfully pulls his eyes from me to look at his mom.

  “Any time now.”

  “Good. We’re going to need you guys to start getting everything set up. I know you have those foldout tables in your storage, so go on over and tell your dad and brothers to help you get them,” she says as she pulls him away from me and starts to shove him out of the kitchen.

  “Trying to get rid of me?” he jokes. His eyes lock on mine and narrow slightly, like he sees something he doesn’t like. Pulling my gaze from his, I pretend to look through the drawers for something.

  “Yes,” Lisa huffs right before I hear the door close.

  “You okay, honey?” Mom asks, and I close the drawer and smile at her.

  “Yep, totally okay, just gonna scoop out the turkey and hope I can salvage it,” I say, then go about doing just that while secretly wondering why the hell a guy like Levi is with a girl like me. I don’t have long to think about it. Levi returns and introduces me to Wesley, then they start to set up the tables, and before I know, it we’re sitting down to eat.

  “This turkey is delicious,” Wesley says, and I take my eyes off my plate, where I have been pushing around my food for the last twenty minutes, to look at him. He really is a nice guy—and he’s hot. Superhot. Not as good-looking as Levi, but he’s definitely not hard on the eyes, with sun-kissed golden skin, dark hair, blue eyes, and full lips that would look feminine if it wasn’t for his sharp jaw.

  “Thanks,” I say, giving him a smile that he returns. Dinner is awkward, but not for my family or anyone else, really. No, it’s just awkward for me, because almost since the moment everyone came back from watching the parade, Lucas’s wife, Eva, has been talking about Levi’s ex-fiancée, Heather, who is apparently amazing—and moving into the city in a few weeks to work for some magazine. I thought when I met Eva this morning that she was nice, but it turns out I was wrong—very wrong. She’s catty and a total bitch, and I seriously don’t get why Lucas is with her when he seems so down-to-earth and sweet. Plus, the way he is with his daughter is adorable.

  “Should I give Heather your new number?” Eva asks, and I feel Levi tense next to me as my own body goes rigid.

  “Why on earth would Levi want to talk to her?” Cole asks. Ruby puts her hand on top of his on the table.

  “Just drop it,” Lucas says quietly, and Eva looks at him.

  “What? I was just wondering. She’s going to be new to the city, just like he was, and it would be nice if she had someone to show her around,” she says, and Levi’s hand that has been on my thigh since the moment we sat down tightens, like he’s afraid I’m going to get up and take off. Which I might.

  “I don’t want to speak to her. I don’t want anything to do with her,” Levi states in a low, deep rumble, and I can tell he’s trying to keep control over his tone.

  “I just . . . You two were good friends before you got together,” Eva says, looking at him. I bite my lip because his hold on me has tightened almost painfully.

  “Eva, now is not the time for this discussion,” Lisa, who is glaring at Eva, states. Pulling my eyes from them, I look around at my family, who are spaced throughout the tables, and feel my face heat when I realize they all have their eyes on me with varying looks of anger and pity. I don’t know what to do in this situation, but I do know that if I open my mouth and say what I want to say to Eva, Levi and his family will probably never speak to me again.

  “Fine.” She lets out a little huff before picking at the minuscule amount of food she put on her plate. Dropping my eyes to my own plate, I try to eat, but every bite tastes like cardboard and I have to force it down.

  “So, Fawn, Levi said you’re a teacher. What grade do you teach?” Ruby asks, and I reluctantly look at her.

  “Fifth grade. Most of my students are ten and eleven,” I say, attempting
to smile.

  “I wanted to be a teacher, but then Allison and I got into baking, one thing led to another, and our baked goods took off, so I dropped out of college to open a bakery with my sister.”

  “Well, the cake you made for my birthday was delicious, so I think you made the right move,” I say, meaning that, and she smiles softly.

  “Thanks.”

  “So how did you guys end up dating brothers?” I’ve wanted to ask since the moment I found out she and Allison are sisters, but I regret asking almost immediately, knowing it’s none of my business and probably sounds rude. “Sorry, ignore me—my filter doesn’t always work.”

  “It’s fine.” She laughs. “I met Cole first when he came into the bakery to put in an order for a cake for his mom’s birthday, and we exchanged numbers that day,” she says.

  “She fell in love with me on the spot,” Cole says, and she smiles at him.

  “I did,” she agrees, then she looks at Cooper and Allison. “Cooper came in to pick up the cake since Cole couldn’t, and that’s when he met Allison.”

  “I thought he was a jerk,” Allison chimes in, and I grin at her. “He was totally arrogant.” She shakes her head, then smiles as he leans over to kiss the side of her head.

  “So how did you two end up together, then?” Libby asks, looking between the two who are very obviously in love.

  “We were forced to be around each other since our siblings were in love, then one thing led to another.”

  “She was secretly in love with me the whole time and just playing hard to get,” Cooper says.

  Allison mutters, “That’s partly true,” with a smile on her face that says it’s really very true.

  “That’s awesome.” I smile at them, then look over at Mac and Libby, who are talking quietly. I can’t make out what they are saying, since they are down at the other end of the table, but I can tell Mac is annoyed. Mac hasn’t been herself since Wesley got here, and I swear there was a moment of recognition when Levi introduced them—not that Mac will tell me if she knows Wesley or not. She’s been a closed book lately, which is really damn annoying, especially since she’s been all up in my business about Levi, though I did overhear Libby asking her about some guy she was seeing or sleeping with. I’m not sure which, since I was trying to listen through the door when they were talking.