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Quinn stuck her tongue out at him like the mature twenty-one-year-old she was.
“Hello,” Orlando’s voice called from the entryway. “Where is everyone?”
“In the living room,” Mamma called back.
My brother appeared in the doorway with a shy-looking girl at his side. He looked around the room and blinked. “Um, did I miss something? When did our family get three people larger?”
“This is Sam’s brother, sister-in-law, and niece,” I said, settling for the simplest explanation I could come up with.
“Okay then. The more the merrier.” Orlando tugged the girl with him into the room. “So I have someone I want you to meet. This is Isabelle.”
The girl gave a small wave and then tucked a loose strand of black hair behind her ear. She looked nervous, like our opinion of her mattered.
“Are you telling us the gossip pages were right about you having a secret girlfriend?” I asked.Boston’s Seven-Fig Newshad printed their suspicions about Orlando’s love life before the charity ball back in August.
“Maybe.” He had the decency to look guilty about it.
“Nice to see we’ve finally been deemed worthy of meeting you, Isabelle,” Mamma said with a warm smile. She would give Orlando crap for keeping his girlfriend a secret, but she would roll out the welcome wagon to Isabelle.
“There’s, uh, there’s more,” Orlando said, shifting from foot to foot.
“What did you do, and do I need to murder anyone?” Nacio asked, going instantly into oldest-sibling protective mode.
“No! Gosh, why can’t you guys be normal for once?”
Nacio frowned. “How am I not being normal?”
Quinn laughed. “Nacio, shut up. Orlando, spit it out.”
Orlando lifted Isabelle’s hand. “We’re engaged.”
The room erupted in congratulations and admonishments for keeping secrets. I glanced at Papa and smirked. And he’d been worried thatIwould be the one getting engaged suddenly. He narrowed his eyes at me, and I knew he was thinking the same thing.
Isabelle showed off the diamond on her finger, a giant rock set in a silver band that was studded with smaller stones, and within minutes the party had moved to the dining room for celebratory drinks.
“Thank you,” I said, hugging Sierra. I’d have hugged Nate too if I thought he’d let me. “I would have hated to miss this.”
Sierra hugged me back. “You don’t need to thank us. But I am going to want a more detailed rundown of your family now that I have faces to go with the names.”
“We’ll do a girls’ night in my room tonight,” I promised her.
* * *
I wasbleary-eyed when I made my way into the kitchen the next morning. After spending half the night talking with Sierra, I was severely behind on my sleep, but I didn’t regret it one bit.
My entire family was already up, along with Isabelle. Mugs of coffee were in hands, and laughter filled the sunny kitchen. I pulled a mug from the cabinet and reached for the coffeepot.
“Your friends aren’t morning people?” Mamma asked.
“They don’t have a familial obligation to come talk to you people after only getting three hours of sleep.”
Orlando laughed. “Fair enough. Mamma and Papa have agreed to host an official engagement party on Saturday so we can tell the world this amazing woman is off the market.”
Isabelle laughed as Orlando kissed her deeply, then replied, “I think the world will be more concerned about the fact that I’ve stolen Orlando Amato from every other young woman in the city.”
My brother shrugged. “They still have Nacio.”
“Thanks,” Nacio muttered. “I really appreciate the extra spotlight.”
