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"Okay," I agreed, taking a breath so deep it burned, and reached for the coffee. "It might take me a while, but I promise I will be down."
His hand squeezed my thigh reassuring me as all the tension left his jaw and shoulders, letting me know I said the right thing.
"No rush. Trust me, this storming in thing takes a half an hour itself. And I bet my left arm Eli brought the mutt which means he and the girls will be fawning over it. I can show them your chick too if you take too long." He moved to stand up, then turned back, reached down, grabbed me by the back of the neck, and gave me a hard, fast kiss. "Thanks, baby."
With that, making my chest do that weird swelling thing again, he was gone, closing the door behind him, making it clear it was on my own time, that he wasn't rushing me by the sounds from below.
Though, two minutes later when the clan all crowded in downstairs, the closed door did nothing to muffle the loudness of that particular group of people.
"The fuck is that fuzzy little shit?" Was a phrase that had me grinning huge all alone in bed as I finished my coffee.
That fuzzy little shit must have been Nugget.
And all of a sudden, I wasn't worried anymore. I didn't want to put it off. I moved into the bathroom, quickly showered and made myself presentable, slipping into black skinny jeans and a simple white tee, checking my hair one more time, then going to the door to head down, realizing how much I actually wanted to meet them - the people who made Mark who he was. I had a feeling they all had to be pretty freaking amazing to help shape the man he was.
The man I was most definitely starting to fall for.
Nope, that wasn't even right.
I was pretty sure the falling was over, and I had landed.
Smack-dab in the middle of it.
Love.
Oh, God.
That realization had me freezing on the bottom stair, completely unable to force the thoughts away and keep moving.
"Breathe into your stomach," a female voice called out of nowhere, making me jerk and turn to find one of the women from the pictures - blonde, green-eyed, sweet-looking - standing in a corner behind the front door, her hand on her belly, her eyes a little wild.
"I'm sorry?" I asked, head ducking to the side.
"They're overwhelming," she clarified. "I know. Trust me, I know," she said, brows raising. "Hence why I am standing in this corner and breathing into my stomach. It's just... very crowded in here. I'm still not used to it. Plus the dog and the chick and... yeah, I needed a minute. You can take a minute with me. They won't come looking for us. They know I need to get away sometimes."
"You have panic attacks?" I asked, figuring that explained the big eyes and the deep breathing thing.
"I was agoraphobic, and now, well, it's just... a process. Progress and regression. Like now, I am regressing for a few, and then I will progress my butt right back out there again. I'm Dusty," she said, offering me a kind smile.
"Scotti," I agreed, nodding.
"I'm with Ryan," she explained, giving me a chance to get things straight before I was bombarded by strong personalities. "He will be the one in a suit."
"Oh, yeah, I saw him at the gym once. He's the more... serious one. Oldest."
"Right," she agreed, nodding. "He's not as intimidating as he seems right at first. None of them are really. They're just a bit, ah, in-your-face. But they have been nothing but nice to all the serious girlfriends."
"Good to know. You want to walk in with me, or do you still need a minute?" I offered, noticing she had relaxed a bit, but her hand was still on her belly as she took deep breaths.
"Need a minute," she admitted. "But I'll be in. You'll be fine."
I gave her a smile, maybe a little charmed that in the midst of a panic attack she felt the need to try to comfort me.
"I'm not saying that," another female voice said as I rounded into the living room. It seemed everyone was in the kitchen area. "I'm saying if you don't stop spoiling her, you are going to be in deep sugar-honey-iced-tea."
"Sugar-honey-iced-tea?" one of the men asked, clearly sounding amused. "Are you worried about our virgin ears, Fee?"
"Becca likes curse words now," Fee informed them all. "And she likes to repeat them. Loudly. At school. So everyone is going to have to step up their acronym game until she's over this little phase."
"You expect all of us to... ah, there she is." This came from the one I knew as Shane, the biggest one, the owner of the gym. "Expected you to put this sh..." he started, only to cut off when Fee gave him a hard look, "this sugar-honey-iced-tea off for at least another twenty minutes."
