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“Hey, aren’t you always getting on Emmett for being late?” I teased, drying my hands on a blue-striped cloth napkin. “Julian. Get up off the couch.”
He laughed. “Come here.”
I tried to resist but failed when he patted his lap. Going over to him, I grinned, enjoying the feeling of his chest pressed against mine as I straddled him.
“What’s up?” I cocked my head. “Are you idling because you don’t want to go?”
“Yes.”
I gave a sympathetic smile as I ran my fingertips along his chest. “I can imagine how hard it is to have to smile and fake nice for the rest of your family. I couldn’t forgive them either. But it’s only one day a year. It’s for your grandma. And for Grandpa and Dad.”
“I know.” Julian collected my hands and kissed my fingertips. He didn’t look at me when he said, “I want you to come with me.”
My eyes fluttered. “What?” I bit down on my lip when he looked up at me. “Really?”
“Yes. Will you?”
“Of course,” I blurted. “But… won’t everyone think I’m your girlfriend?”
“Yes. But you can fake it, right?”
“I haven’t had to fake it this entire last month, so I might be out of practice.”
Julian rubbed my thighs. “Are you trying to turn me on or get me out the door?”
“The latter,” I smirked, hopping off his lap so fast he groaned. “Come on, Hoult. Let’s get our asses on that bike. We got this.”
27
SARA
“Oh my God. I’m seeing things. Rosie, am I seeing things?”
Standing before me, literally clutching her pearls was Audrey Hoult, Julian’s beautiful mother who apparently needed her mother-in-law to confirm that I was in fact standing there, and not an illusion.
“Mom,” Julian said with what could only be described as charmed exasperation. We were in the middle of a busy restaurant, and he had warned me she might have this reaction, so I did my best not to giggle. I also made sure to wait till Audrey was visibly breathing again before I introduced myself.
“Oh, no! No handshake. I need to hug the first woman my son’s ever brought home,” she insisted as she wrapped her arms around me. I laughed over her shoulder as Julian stood there, hands in his pockets and eyes locked on me while nodding as if to say, yep, exactly like I warned you.
“Well, technically – ”
“Oh, I know, Julian, technically, we’re not home, this is a restaurant, but still. Sara, please. Come meet Rosemarie.”
I couldn’t help looking completely delighted as I shook hands with the very minuscule Rosemarie Hoult. I felt like I was meeting a celebrity, and it probably showed on my face, because Rosemarie proudly said, “Has he told you my nickname?”
“Rosemarie The Reaper,” I said, prompting laughter from several of the cousins.
“That’s right,” Rosemarie beamed at Julian. “Those boys are terrified of me.”
From there, Rosemarie introduced me to her two children, who I managed to smile for as I shook their hands. I knew they were the ones who had fought like animals over Julian’s grandfather’s property. But I also knew from Julian that Rosemarie, despite deploring her children’s behavior, wished for them to simply be a family again.
So once a year, on their once-customary Sunday, they came together.
“You did better than I did,” Julian murmured to me after I greeted the infamous cousin Paul. He was a balding man in his late thirties with a baby strapped to his chest. He smiled brightly at me and didn’t look particularly villainous, but I knew too well that villains didn’t always look the part.
“Thanks. Are you okay?” I asked Julian, standing close as I held his hand loosely in mine.
“I’m pretty damned good right now, actually,” he said, eyeing something behind me while leaning in to kiss my forehead. “Well. Now I’m just okay,” Julian smirked in a way that told me Emmett was behind us.
