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Matthew just glares at them before walking behind the counter toward me. “Hey, Koda.” He hugs me. “You look good. Glowing.”
“Jesus,” Christopher says, “what is with this glowing thing?”
“It’s love,” Allison says, coming to hug me. “Sorry to interrupt, but we made him promise we would say hello and then leave.”
“Good luck with that,” Karrie says, pulling up a stool next to Zoe. “I love this kitchen.” She looks around. “This house is so cozy.” She takes it all in.
Max makes his way over to me, giving me a side hug before leaving the kitchen with Matthew and heading to the family room with the girls. His voice gets animated when they don’t come to him. “Where are my hugs and kisses?”
“How’re you doing?” Christopher says when he finally stands beside me, putting his arm over my shoulders. “Is your hair on fire yet?”
“You know that feeling you get when you think you’re going to throw up?” I look up at him, and he nods. “I’m like past that and grabbing a bucket to puke in.” He throws his head back and laughs.
“Good thing you love me, then,” he says, and I bite down on my lip. “I’m going to make sure the girls are okay.” He bends to kiss my lips.
I watch him walk away from me into the living room with the guys. “Are you okay?” someone asks from beside me, and I didn’t even notice that Caroline moved.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I assure her. “I just wanted to make a good impression.”
“Good impression.” She throws her head back and laughs, and I see that the other girls are not even noticing our conversation. “You’re kidding, right?”
“I don’t understand,” I ask, furrowing my brow.
“Koda. You made a good impression the minute we met you.”
“Yes,” I say, “but that was?—”
“Was that not you also?” She laughs when she asks the question. “You’re the same person we met all those years ago, just with a different hat.
“You know, when I met Justin’s family, I was living in a one-bedroom apartment in the worst neighborhood. I had drug dealers living right outside my door.” I stare at her. “And then, they are them.” She points with her hand at the group of people just lounging in my house.
Christopher sits on the floor next to Max, who is stretched out, pushing Matthew’s shoulder, who is also sitting on the floor. “So you may not be the person you were all those years ago, but you’re you.” She smiles big. “And you love my son, so it’s a good impression right off the bat.”
“I do, you know,” I confirm softly. “Which I’m sure many people will think is weird. Hell, I even fought it for the longest time. But he’s him, and he’s perfect, and he’s kind, and he’s just…”
“I know,” she agrees, looking over at her husband. “He’s exactly like his father, so I know what you mean.”
“Are we going to eat or what?” Matthew shouts from the family room. “Should we go out or order in?”
“It’s too cold to go out,” Justin says. “We should just order food here and watch the game.”
“We should do Chinese,” Karrie suggests. “Dumplings.”
“Whatever you want.” Matthew looks at her with a smirk on his face.
“We should order sushi also,” Allison adds. “Max, can we have sushi?”
“Anything, angel,” he says, and his look is pure love.
“Oh,” Caroline says, “we should order pizza also.”
“That works,” Justin agrees.
“The last time we were here, we had the best butter chicken,” Zoe remembers, looking at Viktor.
“Dear God,” I say under my breath, and Caroline looks at me. “I’m going to have leftovers for a month.”
“Welcome to the family, Dakota.” She squeezes my hand before she walks away while everyone places different orders on different phones.
