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“Neither of us were kidding,” I assured her. “I asked Julia on a date and as soon as she says yes, I’m going to marry her.”
Harrison stopped laughing, mostly because his jaw dropped open in shock. He and Jamie stared at me like I’d grown a few more heads.
“What the actual fuck happened at that bakery?” he asked.
I took a seat on one of the oak stools at the island before answering. “Everything happened,” I said after a few seconds. “I saw her and I just knew. No doubts, no equivocation, no uncertainty. I’m meant to spend my life with this woman. She’s the one.”
Jamie looked concerned. “Do you have a headache? Does everything smell like hardboiled eggs? That’s a sign of a stroke,” she babbled.
Before I could get a word in edgewise she plowed on.
“Wait! Did you eat anything while you were in there? Maybe a brownie or some magic mushrooms? Shit,” she hissed frantically, “we’re going to need to throw away the cake. Clearly that place is selling laced goods because there is no way you’re this gone over someone you just met. They seemed so nice…”
I waved her off. “Jesus, JJ. Way to take it to Defcon one. I’m sober as fuck, never felt steadier or more solid a day in my life. Facts are facts. Julia is it.”
JJ’s expression was dubious. “So in the last hour and a half you’re telling me you’ve gone from confirmed fist fucker to ready-to-settle-down-man?”
Harrison barked out another laugh, which I shut down with a glare. Being known as the fist fucker was really not cool.
“All I can tell you is what I know,” I said when I looked back at Jamie.
“Ryan” she huffed, “you barely believe in love much less love at first sight.”
“I do now,” I answered.
“What the hell?” she asked.
I shrugged as Harrison looked at me curiously.
“You’re serious about this, aren’t you?”
I nodded. “More serious about this than I’ve ever been about anything.”
He nodded before he turned and wrapped an arm around Jamie’s shoulder. “Remember when we met, baby?”
Jamie’s face took on the dreamy quality it got whenever she and Harrison talked about any portion of their love story.
“Yes,” she said sweetly. “You were in the seat next to me at the Twilight movie with your little sisters. They forced you to take them to the midnight show, and you were mad that it was sold out since it meant you had to sit next to strangers. I remember walking toward you and feeling some kind of weird pull. When I sat down and you looked over, I was so flustered I dropped half my troth of soda into your lap, while the other half wound up in mine.”
“How many hours passed before I asked you to marry me?” he asked.
Jamie giggled and leaned into him even more. “I see what you’re doing.”
I raised an eyebrow as I looked at them both. “Uh, anyone want to clue me in? As far as I know, you asked her to marry you a month after you met.”
Jamie blushed as she rubbed her pregnant belly and beamed up at Harrison. “We left the theater together to dry off in the bathrooms. We ended up talking in the hallway the entire time the movie was playing. Missing the midnight premiere of Twilight to stand and talk to a guy… I knew I was in love with him from the first. I’d read those books nearly a dozen times each and I’d had my ticket for almost a month but none of that mattered when I met Harrison. My friends came to check on me twice, convinced I was losing my mind, but I waved them off both times. I just wanted to be with him.”
Harrison traced a finger across her cheek reverently as he smiled down at her. “I asked her to marry me as the movie let out and people started spilling out of the theater. She said yes. The next night I took her back to the movies to see Twilight, and we haven’t spent a day apart since.”
I knew that part. I’d hit the roof when I realized my sister admitted she’d moved in with a guy I’d never met, someone she’d only known for a matter of hours. I’d grown to love Harrison like a real brother, but for the first few months I really thought they were both whacked out of their fucking minds. After meeting Julia, I understood exactly why they’d needed to be together from the first.
“So you understand,” I said. “That’s what this was like. I saw her through the window—just the back of her—and I felt the craziest pull. When she turned around and looked at me, I almost fell on my ass. She’s everything.”
“Do you think she felt the same?” Jamie asked hopefully.
