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I silence her babbling with another soft kiss. “Izzy, I know what you meant, but just to clarify, does this mean you’re willing to give this a shot? Us, together, as a family?”
“I mean don’t sign me up for Wives of the NFL, yet.” There she goes again using words like wife and marriage.
“But I can kiss you in front of everyone?” I say, already working kisses along the slope of her neck. “Rub this in Courtney’s face?”
“Courtney can eat her heart out,” she says, voice growing breathy.
“I’ll never be able to control myself. I won’t be able to focus on football with you in the stands watching. You’re too damn distracting, you know?” I say, kissing her jawline now, as I back her out of the doorway and into the living room.
“Somehow, you’ll manage.”
I pull her into a deep kiss, aiming to make her forget about her silly rules and need for control. I know she’s a meticulous planner, but she’s just going to have to admit that you can’t always plan for love. It happens, and it’s messy, and that’s the beauty of it.
CHAPTER 21
Isabella
“So, I invited Mom and Dad to Rory’s birthday…”
“You did what?” The force with which I jerk back in surprise makes me tear the pink streamers I was in the middle of wrapping around the pillar of Nathan’s back patio. I turn to glare at my brother. “Evan! I guess it’s a good thing you warned me.”
“To be honest, I wasn’t going to,” says my turncoat of a brother. “I was going to just blindside you at the party, tomorrow, so you’d have no choice but to face them, but then I remembered that the last time you were cornered you dropped out of high school and moved to another state…”
I toss a balloon at his head, which he catches and sends floating back toward me. “I hate you.”
“You love me,” he says, securing his one string of streamers to the other pillar.
I move to start attaching the balloons to the streamer-wrapped pillar. I’m aware that we’ve moved mountains in the past few weeks. I went from thinking I’d never see Nathan Sterling again, to setting up our daughter’s birthday party in his backyard. In a way, smoothing the waters with my parents is the only mountain yet to climb, and somehow, it’s scarier than all those that came before.
“How did this happen? I was fine. I’ve been fine all these years, and then Nathan shows up… and now Mom and Dad. It’s like I blinked and everything changed. My daughter is inside reading a bedtime story with her dad… in her room… at his house.”
“You know it could be our house,” Nathan says, appearing right on cue as usual.
“Maybe, it’s just time, Iz. Time for you to be happy,” says Evan. Why do I get the distinct impression that they are ganging up on me? Oh, right, because that’s what they did all through our childhood. This, at least, is familiar territory.
A laugh escapes my throat. “I’m not sure that I know how to do that. Mom and Dad,” I say shooting my brother a pointed look. “Next, I suppose you’re going to tell me you’re dating Jules.”
His face goes blank.
“Evan! God, don’t you have a plane to fly to some remote spot? Dubai? The Arctic? Gibraltar? I think they’re calling… go check.”
Nathan slings an arm around me. “Come on, it’s perfect. He can marry Jules and they can move into your townhouse, and we can all be neighbors. It’s almost like it was—”
“If you say meant to be, I’ll bite you,” I say. He leans in to peck me on the lips and I accept, but I hold my glare steady just so he knows that my acceptance is begrudging.
“Do we need more ice?” I say, my insides squirming as I survey the long buffet table of food in Nathan’s otherwise empty dining room. He had the food catered, and it all looks beautiful, but I can’t help but feel like I’m forgetting something.
Jules rubs circles on my back. “Babe, breathe, okay? The party is going great. The kids are having a great time, the parents are falling over themselves to meet you all over again. There hasn’t been a Courtney sighting in days. You’re doing good.”
I glance at my phone. “Where is Evan? He left for the airport like an hour ago.”
“I thought you weren’t excited to see your parents?” She says taking the bag of ice from my hands and returning it to the freezer.
“I’m not… I just want to be prepared when they get here. It can’t be a surprise.”
The doorbell rings and Jules’s smile widens. “Surprise! You ready?”
I look out the window to the backyard, making sure Rory and the girls’ soccer team are content in the giant bouncy house Nathan hired. Nathan is outside with Kelsey Peters's dad, supervising and I’m sure being asked a million questions about the NFL.
