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“Hey, don’t worry about it. I could tell your family was not happy about her arrival.”
He told me how they all disliked her. We sat in his room while he explained how she and Justin despised each other. He figured if Justin insulted her enough, she’d leave. Sure enough, by the time we went back downstairs, she was gone.
We were all standing around talking when a voice from the doorway said, “Thank God that annoying screech owl decided to take her leave. What in the world possessed that nettlesome creature to decide to torture us on this lovely day?”
Everyone howled with laughter.
Pearce leaned into me and quietly said, “Leave it to Grams.”
“And, Pearce, I am very thankful to our good Lord above that He has finally bestowed better judgement upon you where women are concerned.”
A chortle had Pearce glance at me. He actually had the good graces to blush.
“I would have to agree with you, Grams,” he said as he walked over to escort her into the room. He brought her directly to me and said, “Grams, I would love to introduce you to someone very special.”
“I already know who she is, dear.” Turning to me, she said, “Alexia, I am mighty pleased to make your acquaintance. I have heard way too much about you from Lisbeth. She talks incessantly about you. Now do me a favor, honey. Please let us make our own gossip so I have something to brag to Lisbeth about!”
Pearce was quick on his feet with this one, but I wasn’t quite ready for him to say this out loud. “Well, Grams, you can tell Lisbeth you heard this here first. Tell her that Alexia and I are in love.”
I nearly fell through the floor. I had just taken a sip of my Bellini and instantly started to sputter.
“Good lawd, Pearce, are you trying to declare your love and intentions or are you trying to kill the poor child?” Avery asked.
Pearce had already grabbed my glass out of my hand and patted my back asking me if I was okay. I was still sputtering, trying to recover from a combination of choking and embarrassment.
“Pearce, where are your manners? Will you escort the girl away from here so she can collect herself? I declare!”
Avery glared at Pearce as he practically dragged me out of the room and into a smaller sitting room across the hall. He closed the door behind us, sat down, and pulled me onto his lap.
“Christ, I’m sorry, Alexia. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
I finally recovered from the choking spell and looked at him. He was really concerned about the whole incident, which, when I put it all into perspective, was purely funny.
I grabbed his shirt and laid the biggest kiss on him the man had ever seen. His arms went around me as he leaned me over and began kissing me in return. My hands were in his hair, on his back, all over him. He was damn sexy and the way he just blurted out to his family that he loved me. How could I not just go all in crazy for him?
I finally pulled back and said, “Thank you, Pearce. For loving me and for not being afraid to say it out loud.” I looked down at my hands, which were clenching his shirt, and then I cleared my throat. “I’ve never felt loved the way I do with you, so thank you for that, but what I really want you to know is that I love you more than I can say. I don’t know how or why this all happened, and I still can hardly believe it has, but I’m ecstatic you came into my life.”
“Honey, you just made me the happiest man alive.”
“I think we need to go back to the party.”
“Yeah, because if we don’t, I can’t promise I’ll behave in here.” He kissed the top of my head, and we were off to rejoin the rest of the family.
We were kidded mercilessly by everyone, including Avery, but we just laughed. Dinner was excellent. Betty cooked a traditional southern New Year’s Day meal of roast pork, hoppin’ john, collards, cornbread, and everything else you could possibly imagine. Right when dessert was being served, a cell phone started ringing and a text alarm went off. I looked at Pearce because I didn’t think he was on call.
“It’s not mine, sweetheart. But you’re surrounded by a bunch of docs. Whose is it?”
“It’s mine,” said Justin. “I gotta go. Looks like a femur.”
Pearce looked at me and said, “He’s an orthopedic surgeon.”
“Oh.”
Then he added, “Andrew’s in his third year of his ENT residency.”
“I see,” I said again, nodding and smiling. Nothing like being in the midst of a bunch of brainiacs.
Pearce’s hand reached for mine under the table and I latched on to his. This small gesture gave me strength when I was insecure about myself. He laced his fingers with mine and settled our hands on my lap.
