“I think I’ve been in love since the first time I saw her,” I mumble, my arms actually aching to get around her, knowing she’s just on the other side of the front door.
Noah ruffles my hair like I’m a two-year-old. “Our boy is all grown up.”
“Fuck off.” I shove him away, but he just laughs and shoves me back.
“You know I’m kidding, right?” Cooper says. “I really like her. She’s, like, made for you.”
I smile because Cooper really is the best of us. One of these days he’s going to meet someone and fall harder than all of us. That’s just the way he’s made. “I know. And she is. She’s…fuck, she’s everything. Now can we go inside? It’s fucking freezing out here.”
“And you want to kiss your girl.”
I grin at him. “And that.”
Just as I go to open the door, Noah’s phone rings.
“Shit,” he mutters when he pulls it out. “It’s the hospital. Gotta take this. I’ll meet you inside.”
As he walks to the other end of the porch, phone pressed to his ear, I push open the front door. The raucous laughter is the first thing we hear. Following it to the living room, my eyes findAmelia immediately. She’s sitting on the sofa, feet kicked up on the coffee table and margarita glass in her hand. She’s laughing at something my mom is saying, her face all lit up, and the rush of love is so sudden and so strong that I’m in front of her even before my brain registers I’m moving.
“Hi!” She laughs as I take her glass from her and set it on the coffee table, then grab her hand and pull her up. I say nothing, just slide a hand around her neck and cover her mouth with mine. The kiss is definitely not parents’ living room appropriate, but when Amelia gasps into my mouth, curling her hands into my sweatshirt as she melts into me, an earthquake could level the damn house and I would still be standing right here, kissing her like I can’t breathe without it, because I’m sure I can’t. I pull away only enough to press a kiss to her forehead, inhaling her sunshine scent as she lets out a shaky breath.
“I just knew it.” At Cece’s smug tone, Amelia inhales sharply and whips her head around, her face turning red as she takes in my family sprawled around the room like she forgot they were all there. I grin, taking her seat on the couch and pulling her into my lap.
“Don’t be embarrassed, Mystery Girl,” I murmur into her ear. “Everyone in this room already knows I’m crazy about you.”
Cece nods. “Like I said, I knew it. The second El told me you walked into his classroom last month, I knew exactly how this would go.”
Amelia laughs as my mom grins, her gaze bouncing between the two of us. “I know everything there is to know about my boys, and what I know is that he was crazy about you from the second you met on that plane.”
“I knew too. I hadn’t even known him for five minutes before he was telling me the story of his mystery girl from the plane,” Jo says, laughing.
“I didn’t know but I sure do now. That kiss was the stuff my romance author dreams are made of. Hi,” says the girl on the other side of Jo I’m just noticing for the first time now. “I’m Hannah Evans, and that was some serious swoon. I think you might even have your brother beat in that department.”
Jordan scoffs, lifting Jo up from her spot on the couch and sitting down, cuddling her up in his lap. “As if, Hans.”
Jo leans her head up and grins at him. “J, you know you’re the only Wyles brother to get my heart racing, but the way El just stormed in and went for it?” She fans herself. “So hot.”
Jordan scowls then grasps Jo’s chin, tipping her head back and bringing his mouth to hers in a searing kiss. When they finally break apart, Jo has a dazed look in her eyes that makes Jordan smirk. “That’s what I thought.”
“I have never been prouder in my entire life,” my mom says, clapping her hands together and grinning maniacally. “I mean, I knew I was a good mom, but seeing the two of you just now? Jesus, I really undersold it.”
“They kissed girls, Mom. They didn’t cure cancer,” Cooper says, flopping down in a chair.
My mom eyes him. “And when do you think you’ll be bringing someone home to kiss in my living room? I’m not getting any younger, you know. I’d like to see all my boys settled before I die.”
“Oh, don’t you worry about that, Pammy,” Cece says. “Cooper’s time is coming.”
Cooper just rolls his eyes. “You’ll never die, Mom. You’re going to live forever and then nag us from the afterlife. And it’s a fucking miracle I could get away from my computer for an entire weekday evening. I’m too busy for a relationship.”
“That’s what you think,” Cece mumbles.
“Okay, but Cece is a little spooky, right?” Amelia whispers to me.
I kiss the sensitive spot behind her ear and tighten my arms around her, loving how she settles deeper into my hold. “Totally spooky. She’s always been that way. No one can explain it; she just knows everything, and she’s always right.”
“What’s going on in here?” We all turn at my dad’s voice. He’s leaning against the doorway to the living room, broad smile on his face as he takes in the scene, his eyes lighting up with love when they land on my mom.
“Hi, honey,” my mom says, patting the seat next to her. “Come hang with us. It was girls only for a while, but then my sons decided to crash the party.”
