Page 43 of Chasing Honor

“We did. Caught him on his seventh hit. His sheet’s a mile long, he shouldn’t have been walking the streets.”

“No work talk,” Meadow said.

“You got it, Red.” Nick smiled at his wife.

“Nick. Meadow. This is Honor Sullivan.”

The three of them exchanged pleasantries before Nick scooped up Carson and walked to the door. When I’d announced to the family I was going to have a child I’d been most worried about Nick and Meadow’s reaction. They’d wanted kids, but due to Meadow’s attack she was unable to have children. And there I was, way too young and in no way ready, but I was having one by accident. When they moved to Georgia, they’d started talking to adoption agencies after I’d explained I couldn’t and wouldn’t give up Carson. Neither of them had been anything other than supportive, but I still wonder if the timing was like a slap in the face.

We stepped into the foyer, and I pulled up short, stopping Honor in the process. The house was utter chaos. I let the sight of my family wrap around me. I lived for these barbeques. We’d been having them for as long as I could remember. Normally, they were for no special reason. But today, I was nervous. I’d never brought a woman to a family gathering. They were sacred, my time to connect with the people who meant the most to me. I’d never met anyone I’d wanted to bring into the inner circle—until Honor.

“There are so many people here,” Honor murmured.

“If you get overwhelmed, tell me.”

“There you are,” Carter said. “Why the fuck are you standing in the doorway?”

“Nice. Honor meet my brother, Carter.”

Carter stood an inch taller than me but other than that we were matched in size. And no one would doubt we were brothers. Much to my mother’s delight, we both looked just like our father. Lily Lenox always bragged about how she had the best-looking men in Georgia. I’d always thought she had to say that about me and Carter because we were her sons. Then middle school came, and both of us got our share of attention. But high school was when I’d realized the opposite sex appreciated the Lenox genes.

He was sizing Honor up, and if I didn’t know his secret, I would’ve warned him to take his eyes off my woman. But I knew something the rest of the family didn’t know. I was about fifteen when he told me, making Carter around seventeen. He made me promise to never tell. To this day, I think the secret is stupid. No one would care. There is one thing this family wants and that is for everyone to be happy. And the thing Carter isn’t, is happy. He had a bad ass job as a Navy SEAL, had great friends, but had zero personal life. And if the same thing rings true at twenty-six as it did when he was seventeen, he was a choir boy. Considering his SEAL platoon calls him Church, I’d bet it was still the case.

“Nice to meet you,” Honor broke the silence.

“You, too. Come on in, Mom’s been waiting for you,” he told her.

Mom?

Not my mom, not our mom—just Mom.

“There you two are. I thought I saw Carson running down to the basement.”

And, it was too late, my mom had found us.

“Hi, Lily,” Honor beamed. “Do you need any help?”

“Yes. Come on and leave the boys to catch up I’ll introduce you around.”

“Okay.”

Before my mom could lead her away I stopped her, looked around, and not seeing Carson, I brushed my lips against hers. “Please don’t let them scare you away.”

“I’ll be fine.”

I let my mom steer her in the direction of my aunts, Emily, Regan, and Blake, and sighed. Nothing like baptism by fire.

“You’re fucked,” Carter said.

“Come again?”

“You won’t see Honor the rest of the day. Mom thinks she’s hit the jackpot. One of her sons has finally given her a daughter.”

“I think you’re exaggerating a little.”

“Am I?”

“You realize I’ve known her like a minute, right?”