Page 73 of Virgin Skin

I snort. “That was going to be the next place I looked.” I unlock it, trying to remember why I was looking for it in the first place. Did I want to call my mom? A text notification distracts me before I can figure it out.

HERO: Hey, I know this is last minute, but how would you feel about coming to dinner at my parents’ place? You can meet your aunts and grandparents… no pressure.

My stomach dances with nerves and excitement.

“Everything okay?” Piston asks.

I chew on my thumbnail and nod, still staring at the text.

“Yeah, my dad wants to take me to dinner with his family…Myfamily.”

He moves the pan off the burner and turns fully around to face me.

“That’s huge. How do you feel about it?”

How do I feel? Scattered. Jittery. Overwhelmed. Excited.

“Good,” I say, because it’s easier than word vomiting about the millions of things running through my head. “Maybe I should tell him today… about us, I mean.”

Piston pulls me into his arms, and I happily melt into him a second time. We might be the same height, but he feels so much bigger and stronger than I am. He feels sturdy and safe.

I love him.

He rubs his hand slowly up and down my spine, and I take a few slow breaths, trying to calm my racing thoughts and pounding heart.

“If it comes up naturally and you really want to tell him, you have my blessing, but don’t focus on that today. We’ll tell him. Today, just focus on what’s important—meeting more of your family. Okay?”

I take another deep breath and nod. “Do you think they’ll like me?”

“Baby, anyone who doesn’t like you is an idiot.”

I muffle a laugh against his shoulder and squeeze him tighter.

I love him.

Eventually he lets go of me and we have coffee and breakfast together. I text Hero back to tell him I’d love to come to dinner, and then I spend the next five hours pacing around the house, no doubt driving Piston to the brink of insanity while I wait for Hero to come pick me up.

When he pulls up in his truck I’m already waiting on the porch, wearing my jacket and bouncing impatiently on my toes. He waves at me through the windshield, and I trot down the driveway to get in. The cab is nice and warm already and there’s rock music playing loudly through the speakers. He reaches over to turn it down a few notches and smiles at me.

“So, just a heads-up, I haven’t told them about you yet,” he says as he pulls out of the driveway.

“Oh great. This is going to be a mess, isn’t it?” I laugh.

“Nah, it’ll be fine. They’ll be thrilled to meet you, I promise. I just couldn’t quite find the right words. Every time I tried, I got all tongue tied and nervous about it. Then I figured it would be a hell of a lot easier to just bring you by.”

Maybe I should be annoyed at him, but since I’m keeping a secret fromhim, I figure he’s due one freebie.

“It’ll be fine,”I say.

It’s warm enough inside the truck that I take off my jacket and set it on the bench seat between us.

“Tell me about them?” I say, chewing on the nubs of my fingernails. I already chewed all the polish off over the course of the morning, and the skin around my nail beds is starting to sting, but I’m too nervous to stop now.

“They’re great,” he says fondly. “Mom was an English teacher, but she’s retired now, and Dad was career military. He was disappointed that I only did one tour and didn’t re-enlist, but luckily my youngest sister Blaire was more than happy to carry that torch instead of me.”

“How many sisters do you have?” I’ve never had aunts before, no uncles either. My mom is an only child, so I’m not sure what to expect.

“Three. All of them are younger. Blaire is thirty-five, but she won’t be there. Like I said, she’s career Army and she’s stationed in Hawaii for a few more years. Valerie is thirty-seven. She’s sweet and too damn trusting, gets herself into a lot of bad situations, but I love the hell out of her anyway.” I can hear the fierce protectiveness in his voice, and it makes me strangely proud that he’s my dad, like that goodness must be in my genes. “And then there’s Hellen. She’s forty-four, only a couple of years younger than me. She’s a ball buster. She’s the only one of us who had kids… Well, I guess that’s not true.” He chuckles and looks over at me. “But up until now, she was the only one. She and her wife had triplets through IVF five years ago. They’re three little tornadoes, but I think you’ll like them.”

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