Page 190 of My Rules

“I know, I’m sorry,” he replies. “I’ve been working long hours.”

Taking photos of my feet.

Guilt fills me. I need to stop being so demanding of his time.

Blake looks around. “Where are the girls?”

“Over here.” His mom takes his hand and leads us through the crowd. “This way.”

“What about my foot?” Belinda demands as she hobbles along behind us with her shoe in her hand. “Nobody cares about my feet.”

“You got that right,” Blake whispers under his breath.

Rosemary crosses her eyes.

I get the giggles again, and something tells me that Belinda is the drama queen of the family. We walk around to the side and see three girls standing together. “Here they are.” Rosemary smiles.

Blake kisses and hugs each one. “Rebecca, these are my sisters, Catherine, Aubrey, and Emery.”

“Hello.” They all smile and shake my hand one by one.

“It’s so lovely to meet you.” Blake hugs each one, and they all begin to chatter.

I’m shocked. These girls aren’t what I expected at all. Blake is so handsome and suave that I just assumed his family would be the same way. I expected glamour models and judgment and feeling inadequate.

They’re a million times better than anything I ever imagined.

Pretty, curvy, and warm. Catherine is tall, and Emery is short. Aubrey is about my height. They look like normal girls; they feel welcoming and happy.

“It’s so lovely to meet you,” Catherine says as she takes my hand in hers. “We’ve been waiting for what seems like forever.”

From the corner of my eye, I see Blake doing a tone-it-down signal with his hand behind my back.

“There you are,” a man’s voice says from behind. We all turn to see an older man approaching us. He’s tall and handsome, with salt-and-pepper hair: Blake’s twin.

“Your dad?” I smile.

“How’d you guess?” Rosemary smiles. “Twins, huh?”

“My god, you’re so alike.” I laugh.

“In personality too.” Rosemary smiles as her eyes linger on her husband. “Luckiest girl in the world, I am.”

“I got you some cream,” he says as he hands the bag over to Catherine.

“Thank you,” she says. “Hopefully this works.”

His eyes come to me. “You must be Rebecca?”

“I am.”

He holds his hand out to shake mine. “I’m Blake. It’s lovely to meet you.”

“Blake too?” I ask in surprise.

“They couldn’t think of another name.” My Blake rolls his eyes.

I smile. A weird sense of serendipity falls over me, and a few things click into place.

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