“As long as they’re not going to give me the third degree when I come to breakfast!”
“I’m sure they won’t,” Emmy assured him as they went into the B&B.
What appeared to be her entire family was waiting for them in the reception area.
* * *
There were so many brothers,Karl thought dazedly. So many rather large, brown-haired, brown-eyed brothers who all looked a lot like Emmy and something like Mr. Jones. There were at least four of them, and two younger sisters, and an older woman who was clearly Mrs. Jones, and a vision of what Emmy would look like in thirty or forty years. Much as she did now, but with silver in her hair, and soft lines in her sweet face.
Karl liked the look of that, if it was a glimpse into his own future.
Assuming, of course, that he survived the next few minutes. “H-hi.” He cleared his throat. “Hi. Hello. I’m…I’m Karl. You must be…Emmy’s family.”
Having stated the incredibly obvious, Karl wondered if crawling into a pit to die of embarrassment was a viable option.
The largest of the brothers, who wasn’t quite as tall as Karl but was built like a power lifter, eyed him. “I hear you’re—”
Emmy said, “Todd,” in the most amazingly no-nonsense, warning voice.
Her gigantic older brother met her eyes, winced, and mumbled, “My sister’s fated mate. I hear you’re Emmy’s mate. Congratulations,” in a completely deflated tone. He had clearly been going to do the whole threaten-and-posture thing that guys liked to do, because guys were kind of idiots.
Karl, who was also kind of an idiot, grinned and stepped forward, offering his hand. “Also known as the luckiest guy in the world, yeah. Hi. It’s nice to meet you, Todd.”
That had clearly been the right thing to say. There were suddenly several hundred people around him, or it sure felt like it, after most of a year hiking across the country alone. They were shaking his hand, making cheerfully teasing remarks, introducing themselves—he caught all of the names, but not which faces they belonged to, except for Emmy’s mother, Anna—and generally making him feel both welcome and utterly overwhelmed. He was searching for a graceful way to escape without offending anyone when Emmy’s voice cut through the chaos.
“All right, all right, you all got a look at him, the rest of it can be saved for the family chat—”
“Which you aretotallyavoiding,” one of the sisters accused.
“—which I amtotallyavoiding,” Emmy agreed, “but all of this can still be saved for it. He’s my mate, not your new chew toy.”
One of the brothers barked laughter, and Emmy gave him the same dire look Todd had gotten. This one was either younger or less polite, because he didn’t look quite as cowed, but he didn’t pursue his possible crudeness any farther. Emmy murmured, “Are you okay?” as she led Karl up the stairs, and he gave her a wide-eyed but grateful nod.
“Just not used to so many people.”
“That’s what I thought. Don’t worry. I’ll fend them off until you can cope.”
Karl, in absolute sincerity, said, “My heroine,” as her entire family chorused, “Good niiiiiiight!” behind them.
The last thing Karl heard from them was a family-wide fit of giggles, and then Emilia pulled their bedroom door closed behind them.
CHAPTER13
Habit made Emmy wake up early, since she often had breakfast work to do in the B&B. It seemed brighter than usual, sunlight seeping in around the edges of the curtains, but that was good. It would be a nice sunny morning for the Virtue Easter egg hunt. She reached past Karl for her phone, which she’d set to silent the night before because her wretched, darling family kept sending suggestive texts, and checked the time.
9:28 didn’t make any sense, at first. They’d gone to bed later than nine-thirty. There was no way it could stillbenine-thirty. There were fifteen text messages and even more missed calls from Donna. Emmy blinked. Donna would never call all night unless there was an emergency.
Wait, Emmy thought.All night.
The sunlight peeking through the windows suddenly made sense, and Emmy’s rabbit shrieked,We’re late! We’re late! For the very important date!
Emmy didn’t so much fall out of bed as somehow magically went from lying down to standing in the middle of the room in a panic. She didn’t know exactly how she’d made the transition. It was possible she’d actually turned into a rabbit, jumped out of bed, and transformed back again without entirely realizing it.
Either way, Karl sat bolt upright, his golden hair a wonderful mess and his beautiful blue eyes wide with alarm. “Emmy? What happened? Are you okay?”
“I’m late!”
Karl’s eyes bugged. “We used condoms! It’s way too soon to tell anyway, isn’t it?”
