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I’d frozen behind Adrien as soon as the commotion started, my heart hammering in my chest. We were standing in an archway leading (presumably) to a living room, and Adrien’s broad back blocked the majority of my view into the space. Until he stepped aside.
“Everybody, meet my fiancée, Ria.”
Four pairs of wide eyes peered at me as I took a tentative step into the room. Julie was standing beside a big stone fireplace, grinning from ear to ear. She reached out a hand, motioning for me to join her. “Come in, come in. Let’s get you introduced.”
I walked over with my heart in my throat. Julie placed a comforting hand on my back when I reached her, visibly unable to contain her excitement as she motioned to her husband, the former CEO of Cloutier Hotels.
“This is Anthony, my husband.”
“Pleasure to meet you,” I said, shaking his hand.
Anthony was an incredibly handsome man, and he looked so much like Adrien that it almost felt like I was peering into a time machine.
“The pleasure is all mine, Ria. It’s so nice to finally meet you.”
“And this is my daughter, Alice,” Julie said, swerving me to the right.
“Hello.” Alice bounced off of the couch, holding out her hand. She was gorgeous. In her very early twenties from the looks of it, with the same raven hair and green eyes as her brother. “It’s so nice to finally meet you! Adrien’s been so secretive about you that I was seriously starting to suspect you weren’t real. Like I definitely thought he was either dating a dude and being weird about it for some reason, or he was getting sick of all the blind dates that Mom kept insisting—”
“Okay, that’s enough, Alice,” Adrien cut in. Alice giggled and slumped back into her seat on the couch.
I liked her already; and not just because she’d told Adrien he had rocks for brains.
“And last, but certainly not least, this is Robert, my father,” Julie said after throwing her daughter a chiding look.
The older gentleman sitting on the red recliner stood up, using his thick walking cane for support. He was wearing a lime sweater vest that matched his socks, and the lenses of his oval glasses were so thick, they made his eyes look like tiny little almonds. Oh, and he had an African grey perched on his right shoulder.
“Hello,” I said. “It’s nice to meet you, Robert.”
“Ah, call me Gampy. Robert makes me sound like an old man.”
I really didn’t want to. This was already so awkward. “Gampy it is,” I said.
“And this is Maxwell.”
The parrot tilted his head at me curiously, then barked.
“Did he just…” Had he been the one barking this whole time? I’d thought for sure there was a dog in here.
“Some days he likes to pretend he’s a dog,” Alice informed me. “And he gets super sulky if you correct him, so please don’t. Comforting him is a whole process and I can’t do another forty-eight hours of aggressive Eminem.”
“He’s got good taste,” Gampy claimed, his white mustache twitching with pride. “Gets it from me. Lice is just jealous.”
I bit down on my cheek as Adrien laughed.
“Bark. Rap God. Rap God.”
“He talks?” I didn’t know why I was surprised. He was a parrot, of course he talked.
“We’re not playingRap Godat dinner,” Alice told him. “It’s not your music time.”
“You shut up.”
“Manners, Maxwell,” Julie chided as Anthony placed a chuckling kiss on her temple. She was starting to sound slightly exasperated. “We have a guest.”
“Tell me to shut up one more time and I’ll have you spit-roasted right in your cage you little shit. Bet you taste real good with garlic sauce.”
“Alice!” Julie was horrified.
