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She smiled. “Thanks. I hope so. They have to get past it sometime.”
“Jennifer will come through for you. She seems like a strong woman.”
“She has to be to put up with my dumbass brother.”
We both laughed at her sister humor, which probably had more truth to it than anybody wanted to admit.
I put my hand over hers. “From what I see out there, everyone loves Adam. This is going great.”
“You think so?”
“Absolutely,” I assured her.
She gave me a hug. “Thank you.”
“It’ll be okay. You’ll see.”
She nodded.
When Josh reappeared, I pulled myself away from Kelly. “What did your dad want?”
His jaw twitched. “Dad never leaves without work. It was just a little corporate business.”
I maneuvered him off to the side. “Do you think Dennis chickened out?”
“I doubt it. Maybe he has to psych himself up for this—either that or get liquored up first.”
I nodded around. “He could do that here.”
“Yeah, that’s what has me worried. Maybe I should call him.”
I reached for his forearm and nodded toward his father. “Your dad and Adam seem fine. Dennis has to work this out himself.” I smirked. “Jennifer won’t let him skip out.”
Josh nodded. “Okay. I’ll give him twenty more minutes. Then I’m going to kick his ass.”
“What do you think of Adam?” I asked.
“I like him, but more importantly, I haven’t ever seen Kelly this happy, and her vote is the one that counts.”
His saying that made me proud to be with him.
If there was any bad blood between the two families, you couldn’t tell it by the way they treated Adam. He circulated around the room with ease and got a universally warm reception.
A few minutes later, the girls and I took Kelly aside to admire her ring. It was stunning. But then, to me, almost every engagement ring looked magnificent, half because they made the wearers so happy. Mom had told me more than once that it was something I could look forward to someday, and I hoped she was right.
After enough time bothering Kelly, Serena guided the group of us over to her date to show off Duke and his tattoos. She made him give us explanations of the inspirations for them.
Oohs andaahs spilled forth as he went from tat to tat. Serena made a point of running her fingers over each one, and the look it pulled out of the big man showed he was putty under her touch.
Kelly broke away to pass appetizers around to soak up some of the bubbly, and I helped with a tray of tiny wieners with barbecue sauce.
As I sipped my champagne and accepted another compliment from one of the women, I realized there hadn’t been any reason to fear this family gathering. The Bensons and their significant others were a welcoming bunch, each one taking a moment to make me feel at ease as the new addition to the group. Despite the fact that they traveled in private jets, everyone here struck me as very down to earth, without any of the pretense I’d feared.
And actually, getting engaged to Kelly made Adam new to the family as well. After hearing stories of the previous rivalry with his family, the way the Bensons accepted him was surprising, and heartwarming.
I followed Kelly, and we joined Ashley and Adam who were talking shop with FBI acronyms and case names I couldn’t understand.
“Did I interrupt something?” Kelly asked when they abruptly stopped speaking.
