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How could she repay that?
“I appreciate you driving up,” she said, taking Aunt Pat’s hand. “You know that, right?”
Pat studied her. Then those bright red lips pressed flat.
A sure sign of disapproval.
“I see you’re going to be stubborn about that man.”
She had to. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
A huff. But they’d spent enough time together that Pat knew when to pack in the nagging—case in point, right then. Though, Pat had to get a few final statements in—albeit doing it while dunking a strawberry in chocolate spread. “You think because of your past that you don’t deserve happy.”
“Pat.”
“But, sweets, you need to look atthis”—she swept a hand (the one without the strawberry) around the room—“all of this is for you.”
Raven shook her head. “This is Kim and Maggie and Frankie and Misty and Soph being too stubborn to leave me on my own.” She chewed on the inside of her lip. “This is those women taking me under their wings and refusing to allow me to fly solo. It’s not about me so much as it’s about how goodthosewomen are.”
A pointed glance. “They don’t seem like the type of women to be dragging around dead weight.”
Raven shrugged. “They’re nice.”
“And strong, capable, and smart,” Pat said. “So Irepeat, I don’t think they’d be making an effort with someone who they didn’t think was worth it.”
“That’s not a repeat,” Raven pointed out—unhelpfully, she knew.
Pat shot her a look. “Then I’ll just say it’s a repeat of what I’ve told you more than once before this conversation.”
Unfortunately, that was true.
“And,” she went on, “I’ll just say,Ionly put up with stubborn if I know she’s worth it.”
Raven sucked in a breath.
“You’ve done some soul-searching, Raven,” Pat said, her tone going gentle in a way that Raven knew would slice right through any barriers surrounding her heart, her soul, pop every air pocket in the carefully packed bubble wrap beneath them. “But, honey, you’ve still got more to do if you can’t see why these good people might want to spend time with you and be friends with you. Why they might consider you family.”
Her breath hissed out. “They’re all just nice and inclusive and—”
Her words stoppered up in her throat at the sight of Pat’s face, at the expression.
Disappointment.
“More work to do, sweets,” Pat said softly. “You have more work to do if you think that they would put up with you thinking that nonsense when you wouldn’t put up with the same from them.” A nudge of her knee against Raven’s. “Because I’ve met them once and Iknowthey wouldn’t.” Then she wiped her hands on a napkin, stood up, and moved into the other room to socialize.
Napkins.
Napkins Connor had ordered.
Connor.
Just his name in her mind had her belly going warm…a feeling that was quickly swallowed by fear because they couldn’t ever be. Not when—
She was her.
And, dammit, that thought flitting through on the heels of warmth, the fear settling heavy and hard was an abrupt smack through her mind that meant…Pat was right.
She was her.
