The question makes everyone gathered in the living room pause, look toward me, then the woman standing at my chest height next to me.
I’m not even sure how to explain. So I just blurt it out.
“Everyone, this is my…fiancée, Scout.”
Like it’s a score for our team, a riot of cheers resounds. I think my mother screams. One of the kids shoots off a Nerf gun. Another spills some drinks and glass crashes to the floor.
But they all surround us, hugging me, then her, and taking Andrew before another kid is placed in my arms, then in hers.
The only ones of similar height are my mother and my sister, Athena, and they scurry over to rescue Scout and escort her to the kitchen with my brothers’ wives and girlfriends.
After several slaps on the back and getting a few beers shoved at me, I finally go into the kitchen, where Mom is hugging Scout, looking at her like she’s a new present. Athena sits next to her at the table, and the two start talking aboutOmegain between my mother’s rapid-fire questions.
“Medicine, huh? That’s amazing! I love that. And surgery, too. That will be a long road, but I’m sure you can do it. You seem to have a great head on your shoulders.”
“She’s really smart, Mom,” Athena’s saying.
“How do you take your coffee, Scout?”
“Oh, I don’t… Well, okay. Do you have vanilla cream or just cream?”
“I sure do. Athena likes flavored creamer. Any sugar?” Mom strides toward the pantry, but I interrupt.
I grab a mug and pour some coffee in with vanilla cream before my mom can get it.
“No sugar.”
“I’m so excited,” Mom says, giving me a squeeze. “I always knew you’d pick a smart one. And beautiful, too.”
I want to tell her I didn’tpickher. But that would be an asshole-ish thing to say. Because when I look at Scout as she eyes me over the rim of her cup, something weird happens inside me.
I didn’t choose her.
…But standing here, watching her?
I think I just did.
And that realization settles heavier than any order ever has.
The nerves she had before we walked in ease through the afternoon. Mom and Athena and Dad and my brothers keep Scout busy, incorporating her into our stupid rituals.
Like every time our team scores, we have to do a double elbow tap, then take three sips. And shout what color socks we wear. I don’t know who started it. Maybe Dad. But wehaveto. Or else they won’t score again.
By the second time, Scout jumps off the couch, beer in hand, and yells, “Purple!”
And my brothers cheer her on.
She glances at me, a line of tears from her laughtercoating her eyes. And she’s that girl again. The one who begged for a tattoo that first night. Who rode screaming on the back of my bike in the freezing winter wind.
The one I want.
One who I want to share things about myself that I haven’t ever before. Not even with Valen.
“Yeah, it’s a comfortable seat. If you want to try it out,” Nico’s telling her about his new tweaks to his bike.
And something makes me home in on their conversation. I toss my arm over her shoulders. “Nah, we need to return to campus.” My eyes narrow over Scout’s head at my brother.Back the fuck off, I tell him silently.
He just smirks and settles deeper into the cushion, finishing off his beer. “Okay, then. See y’all.”
