“Cute place,” Marlow observed.
“Thanks.” Though why I was taking credit for it was beyond me. I supposed that’s what you kind of did when it was the place you grew up in all your life and regarded as a safe landing pad in times of trouble.
Beyond the porch light was another one coming in from the front door’s window. The small chandelier my mother had inherited from my grandma before she passed just out of view.Thankfully, no one was rushing out of the house to come drag us inside yet.
Though, it was only a matter of time before that happened.
“How’s your leg?” I asked, turning my attention away from my childhood home.
Marlow slowly looked down, slapping his hands around his thigh and drawing it up from where it was tucked under the dash. He rotated his ankle a few times, finally free from the cast that had been confining it for the past three and a half months.
In the grand scheme of things, that was a blink of an eye compared to the years that were left down the road. But for someone as active as Marlow, it might as well have been torture.
“Oh my god,” he murmured. “It’s... alive!”
The joke cracked through the anxious cloud hovering over me. “Oh no. What does it hunger for?”
A horrified look crossed his face. “It... it’s... hungry for blood!”
He jerked it around the small leg space, noises that sounded close to cats being strangled tumbling past his lips. Amused, I patted his shoulder a few times before popping my door open, letting the fresh autumn air hit me.
I never minded the changing seasons.
Going from spending all day under a hot sun to a nice, crisp fall evening gave me the kind of reset I was looking for after the busy summer months that felt never-ending at points. Things slowed down this time of year, giving us all a much-needed reprieve.
The passenger door popped open, Marlow’s familiar figure coming into view. He ducked behind to the back seat to grab what he had deemed his ‘humble offerings’, gathering theveryexpensive bottles of wine along with the large king-size boxes of candy into his arms.
“Want help?”
“Nope.” He hip checked the door closed behind him. “You just get that pretty little butt of yours up the front steps and open the door for me.”
“Yes, sir.”
Even in the dark, I could tell his eyes instantly flashed with interest. “Careful, Austin. There’s still time to drag you into that back seat.”
A shiver rolled up my spine. “Don’t tempt me.”
Fucking in my parent’s driveway. Now that would certainly be a first for me.
If this wasn’t Marlow’s first time meeting my entire family, I’d take him up on the offer. If only to check it off on our bucket list.
Keeping close to him and a wary eye on his newly free leg, we headed up to the front door. It was already unlocked when I tried the handle, a good sign that everyone was already here ahead of us.
While my two younger brothers were still teenagers and lived at home, my two older sisters had long since moved on to greener pastures, coming around for the festivities whenever the option was presented in the family group chat.
Loud voices hit my ear immediately. The familiar sounds of a game night going very poorly telling me all I needed to know about what the hell we were walking into.
Oh, boy.
“Rowdy bunch,” Marlow said, amusement dripping from his tone.
“You have no idea.” Toeing off my shoes, I took both wine bottles from him while he squatted to unlace his. “Remember how much you said you loved being an only child because it was nice and quiet and you got all the undivided attention from both parents?”
“Look, that was the old me. Thenewme loves big, loud, obnoxious family gatherings.”
“Famous last words.”
He grinned, standing up to snatch the wine bottles from me. “Are we making a bet? Please say yes, I’m dying for the dopamine hit.”
