Page 21 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

“Sometimes? Try at least once a week!” Dad barked out with a laugh. “I’ve never spent so much money on stamps in my life!”

“Dad!” I cried, my embarrassment coming back.

I buried my face in my hands, my blush spreading to the tips of my ears.

“It seems our Havie has her first crush.” Tiffany chuckled.

“What?!” I shouted, my head snapping up to stare at her. “No! No, no, no! We’re just friends!” I insisted, my arms crossing and uncrossing in front of me vehemently.

“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Haven,” Tiffany said. “It’s perfectly normal for you to have a little crush on him. He’s a nice boy, and I can tell from the picture mom showed me he is a pretty cute kid.”

“This is not happening,” I muttered to myself under my breath as I looked up at the ceiling and sighed. “Mom, tell them to stop, please!” I begged her, but she laughed along with my dad, Scott, and Tiffany.

“All of you, leave her alone,” she told them anyway, even though she was still giggling.

“Sorry, Havie,” Scott said, ruffling my hair with his hand. “We’re just teasing. And you’re so cute when you blush.”

I shoved his hand off of my head with a groan.

“I remember I had a crush on Stevie Bernard when I was in 4th grade,” Tiffany said as she cut a bite of her chicken. “He was my first boyfriend,” she added with a sigh.

“You had a boyfriend in 4th grade?!” I squeaked.

She laughed. “I mean, he asked, and I said yes. We wrote notes and brought each other gifts on holidays, and then we ‘broke up’ when he moved to another school.”

“No boyfriends for you,” Dad said, pointing at me with his fork. “Not until you can drive.”

“I’m not interested in boys,” I told him, shaking my head.

“Well, no girlfriends either,” he amended.

“No! I mean…” I sighed. “Never mind.”

I went back to my meal, ignoring their stares, hoping they’d change the subject to something that didn’t involve me.

“So, Mom, as much as I love regaling you all with tales of my hilariously entitled clients, I know there was a reason you called Tiff and me here other than to listen to me talk about work,” Scott said as the conversation dwindled.

Mom and Dad exchanged a glance, then Dad nodded and left his seat to go into the kitchen. Tiffany glanced at me, and Scott took a drink from his water to hide his smile.

“Haven,” Mom began, and I turned to look at her, shoving my shaking hands under the table to hide them. “Haven, this probably won’t come as a surprise to you, but we have something we’d like to ask you.”

My heart pounded in my chest, knocking against my ribs with a force I’d never felt before. Butterflies swarmed around my stomach, and my throat tightened as if being squeezed by a vise. I had been waiting for them to ask for months now, but even knowing it might happen didn’t prepare me for how I would feel when it actually happened.

Dad came back into the dining room just then, holding a cake box, a hopeful smile on his face. “We already think of you as part of our family, but we wanted to ask you…”

He set the box down in front of me, and in purple writing on top of the white frosting, they’d written:Will you officially be our daughter?

I stared at the cake, unable to do anything else. My hands still shook under the table, and the butterflies still flew around my insides. My heart threatened to burst through my chest, and my throat clenched, rendering me speechless.

I tried to swallow, but the action felt foreign to me. I closed my eyes and counted to ten, taking long, slow, deep breaths before I opened my eyes again to glance at the cautiously hopeful faces of my family.

My family. They were already that, had been that for me for longer than I’d truly realized, but they wanted to make it official.

The tears streamed down my face, but I didn’t bother with trying to hide them. I was too happy, too excited, too overjoyed to care.

I nodded at them, choking out words. “I want that. I want that so badly.”

I wasn’t sure if they could understand my words because my voice was so emotional. But my nod seemed to be enough because they all began to cheer and clap in excitement.

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