If I didn’t ask, then I couldn’t be hurt.
Old habits that needed to be broken.
I took my box of pies and set them down on the driveway. Then, not knowing what else to do, I got down on one knee and took Nora’s hand.
“Nick,” she growled.
“No, I’m formally doing this. Will you, Nora Barnes, live with me in sin?” I smiled up at her, and, based on the way she was twisting her lips, she didn’t think my joke was very funny.
And neither did I, when the front door opened and a crowd of family gathered. Some of them started screaming and jumping up and down.
“Is he proposing?” Roy barked.
“He’s proposing!” Birdie cried.
“The fuck? They just started dating.” Liam said.
“This is so gross. I can’t watch.” Will said.
“Oh my gosh! Are you getting married? Nora, if you’re going to run, do it now!” Vanessa yelled.
I hopped back up to my feet and shook my head. “No, no, no. I’m not proposing!” I held up my hands. “See? No ring.”
“He was just asking me to live with him,” Nora told her parents, my parents, our siblings. My half-brother’s dad and my mostly grandmother.
“Live together?” Roy barked. “Without a ring? That’s bullshit.”
Vanessa elbowed him in the ribs. “We lived together before we got married.”
“It’s different,” he protested.
“How?” she asked him.
“Because,” he replied.
“Holy shit, they really are together. This is so weird,” said RJ, Roy’s oldest son. “Dad, I don’t know how I feel about this. Should we, like, beat him up?”
“You can’t beat him up, because then we’d have to take his side and we’re professional hockey players, so you know…you’d lose,” Wyatt calmly explained to RJ.
“RJ,” Nora called out to her brother “No one is beating anyone up. Besides, we brought pie.”
“Pie!” Bethany squealed.
Well, at least someone was excited. “Let’s get this show on the road,” I said, and I picked up the box of pies.
“Yep,” Nora said, walking in behind me. “Oh, and Nick, the answer is yes. I will live with you. Under one condition.”
“What?”
“I’m going to need a little bit more closet space.”
EPILOGUE II
Thanksgiving
One Year Later
Nora
