He suddenly jumped off the bed, grabbing my arms, and pulling me up. "Right, come on bestie, we have a brunch to get to. I like that pink robe on you, it’s perfect. Come on.” He said all this while he walked me toward the door, and all the family beyond.
“Remy, let me at least get dressed in something a little nicer before I meet everyone.”
“Nicer? Dude, I’m wearing pajamas that would look insane on a four-year-old. Seriously, you look fucking regal compared to me. It’s PJ Christmas, you’re fine. And you best be glad the aunts didn’t have time to buy you something, too. They had their eyes on a sexy reindeer onesie, but they ran out of family. Surprise! Guess what I’m suggesting you wear next year.”
He smiled with all of his teeth and with the hood still up, he looked like the evil elf on the front of the eighteen-wheeler in that Stephen King movie where all the electronics came to life and killed everyone. I was NOT sleeping with my phone under my pillow ever again.
“You wouldn’t dare suggest anything like that. Hey, wait, what do you mean next year? I won’t be here next year. I’ll have moved out and moved on by then. I’m no mooch. I have never been, and I never will be, so don’t think I’m going to be taking advantage of Jay because he felt sorry for me.”
Remy shook me to get my attention. We were just about to step through the end of the hall and into the room beyond where I could hear most of the voices were gathered. I stopped and looked him in the eyes, and when I did, I could tell he was very serious now.
“You’re not a mooch, and I know you can stand on your own two feet, but don’t you dare think that you’re not going to be a part of this family from this day forward. Uncle James is on his way to falling in love with your pretty ass, and I’m going to do everything I can to push him into actually admitting that to himself and eventually admitting it to you. If there’s any man in this world who needed to find love, it’s Uncle James. And you would never have accepted his help if you didn’t already feel something for him, too. I’ve seen some of your messages back and forth. It’s there. It might not be all the way there, but it’s so close already. It just needs a nudge. So from now on? Just call me nudge.”
He set me away, turned me to face him, straightened my lapels on my robe and smoothed my hair back like I was a wayward child who needed to be made to rights. When he was done, he gave me a quick hug and a kiss on my forehead. I started to say something, and he shook his head, so I snapped my mouth closed, still a bit dazed from all that had just happened.
“Let’s go meet your new future family. And for God sake, don’t take it personally.”
“Take what personally?” I asked. What could they possibly say to me that could be that bad I wondered?
He shook his head again like I just didn’t get it, then patted me on the head and walked me toward the voices while whispering, “Any of it.” As we walked into the chaos of a living room, I was greeted by a sea of faces and so many crazy sets of pajamas I was momentarily blinded. That was the only explanation I had for allowing Remy to lead me into the room and sit me directly on James’s lap while yelling to the crowded assembly at large.
“Hey, everyone, this is Ethan. He’s here to stay with James for a while. Connor, he’s a bartender so you might want to hire him before you open next week. I told him all about PJ Christmas Day, and he’s participating like a trooper.” Then he looked at me and waggled his eyebrows. “Now, go ahead and tell Santa what you want for Christmas and maybe he can pull something out of his bag for you if you’re a good boy.”
It was in the middle of my mortification that I noticed I was sitting on James’s lap who, sure enough, was dressed as Santa. I looked at all the faces around me, which showed anything from amusement to mortification on my behalf. I had no idea who any of these people were, but they were James and Remy’s family. They had to be used to this at some level, and I honestly couldn’t find it in me do deal with any of this in any serious way. Finally, I looked at James and saw him flinching away from me and knew Remy was right. I was already half in love with him. If Remy was telling the truth, James might feel something for me, too. I never wanted him to flinch from me, so I did the only thing I could to salvage this situation. I doubled over and laughed my ass off. The ridiculousness of the entire morning finally hit me, and I laughed until I cried. And as I laughed, the tension in the room broke, and everyone started laughing with me.
All except James. He still looked uncomfortable, so I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and hopped up, saying, “I think Santa knows what I want already.” If Remy was even remotely right, and I had a chance with James, and that he might be stubborn for whatever reason, I needed to do everything I could do to start on the right foot. That started with the family.
I made eye contact with Remy and motioned him over. When he got to me I latched onto the crook of his arm and said, “As my new bestie, introduce me to my new family. If this gets to be tough, we’ll need allies.” Remy smiled his shark smile, and for the first time in a long time, I thought I might finally have a chance at a happily ever after.
We were approached just then by someone who could only be Remy’s twin brother, Rhett, all the way down to the elf jammies, except his were red instead of green. His eyes were the same deep blue as Remy, but he didn’t have any of the piercings or tattoos. He did, however, have the same scowl when he approached and started to admonish his brother in what seemed like a practiced speech.
“For fuck’s sake, Remy, don’t you have any sense of propriety? What were you thinking dragging a complete stranger into the living room and embarrassing the hell out of him?” After that dressing down, which had Remy glancing at me and rolling his eyes, Rhett looked to me, “I’m Rhett Eldridge, Ethan, and I apologize profusely for my brother. We’re not all rude heathens in this family, I swear. Now, Remy, let go of the nice man’s arm and let the rest of the family meet him.” He linked his arm to mine on the opposite side of his twin, but Remy didn’t let go.
“I saw him first, and he’s mine, Rhett. Go get Connor or Lachlan and claim them. This one’s mine.” His words sounded like what a five-year-old would say about a toy, but when said in his gruff voice, they didn’t sound childish at all. They were a tad bit menacing, and if I hadn’t seen him blush earlier, I’d have moved much closer to Rhett at this point. As it was, I moved closer to Remy and gave Rhett my sweetest smile.
“Rhett, I assure you, I’m in good hands. I asked Remy to introduce me to everyone. You’re more than welcome to tag along.”
Rhett gave me a deep, hard look, then shook his head in defeat.
“He’s already gotten to you. Damn, another one lost to Remy’s supposed charm. I personally don’t see what anyone sees in him, except bad manners and the liberal use of the word fuck.”
He heaved a huge sigh and then clapped his big hand on my back.
“Good luck to you, Ethan. If you ever need some sanity in the family, you give me a call.”
Then he walked over to James, and they both exited to what I assumed was the kitchen.
I turned my head to see Remy’s reaction, but he shrugged his shoulders and seemed to slough off the whole conversation. He leaned toward me then and whispered, “Rhett has this thing about control all the time, and he doesn’t get how I can just do shit without thinking of the consequences. He thinks I’m too impulsive and out of control.” He turned toward me then and met my eyes. “Do you think I’m too impulsive and out of control?”
The look I saw in his eyes was two parts curiosity and one part worry. He would deny the worry. I had no doubt. I had just met this man not thirty minutes ago, but I knew enough about him already to know what my answer should be.
“You are impulsive, but that’s not a bad thing.” There was no way I would criticize him for what I was guilty of myself on more than a few occasions. “I’ve been called impulsive, and I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”
As I watched him amid the organized chaos of the family being called to dinner, I suddenly realized something about my new bestie. “You’re absolutely not out of control! I think you’ve got way more control than anyone here realizes. You and Rhett are very much the same, except he locks himself down to keep control of everything , and you use your control to keep your reputation as the wild one.”
Remy startled at that and turned to me with a raised eyebrow and a look of surprise, awe, and a little bit of fear.
“I think everything you do is very thought out beforehand, and you have all the contingencies taken into account.” He knew that if he plunged me into family Christmas and pretended to embarrass the hell out of the new house guest, all of the family would embrace me with open arms to make up for his craziness. And they had, beginning with Rhett trying to save me from Remy. I laughed at that encounter, then just gave Remy a sweet smile and patted him on the upper arm. “Don’t worry, handsome. I won’t tell anyone. Your secret’s safe with me.”
Remy continued to look at me with that raised eyebrow for at least half a minute more before loud laughing from a group of men in the dining room interrupted the connection. As we broke eye contact, Remy quickly shook his head and let out a breath. “You talk better bullshit than most everyone in the family. You’ll do.”
He dragged me over to the group that was still laughing, and I met Ladd, Connor, Ladd’s fiancé as of last night, Connor’s brother Lachlan, and their friend Taylor. In the ten minute conversation, I was offered a job, propositioned to go scope out the construction workers at a new building downtown, asked about my hair products and got an offer to go to lunch and hang out. Remy, who still had my arm linked with his in a possessive grip, gave me a wink when we broke away from the group to head to the dining room for brunch.
“See, I told you you’d fit right in.”
I looked across the room at James aka Santa helping set out all the food along with Rhett, and I longed to have all this as mine. In order to make that happen, I’d need to make James mine first. James looked up and made eye contact with me over the overloaded table and smiled a bright smile. Then his smile dimmed, and I could see thoughts clouding his first reaction to seeing me. Whatever those thoughts were, that was what I was going to have to battle. Looking around, I decided all of this was worth it. James was worth it all. I just hoped I survived the fight.
