Page 64 of Kiss Me

“You finally made it!” Kennedy Townsend’s voice breaks the stare off between me and Taehyun.

Her husband, Taehyun’s cousin, Dae isn’t far behind his wife.

“We were just debating who gives the best gifts,” Kennedy continues, wrapping her arm around mine.

She starts to pull me away, but my hand is caught in a vice grip. I glance up at Taehyun, expecting him to let go.

Kennedy notices and laughs. “You wouldn’t believe what it takes for this guy to let my hand go. It’s kind of common around here.”

I don’t really understand what she means, but neither does she wait for my response.

“I promise I won’t run off with her,” she tells Taehyun. “Besides, it’s not like this guy won’t track me down if I tried.” She tilts her head to Dae who, as I’ve noted over the past week, is never far from his wife.

Taehyun slowly releases my hand.

“Don’t go far.”

“We’re literally in the same room,” I remind him. Yes, the room is almost the size of that of a ballroom, but still, the same room, nonetheless. It’s not like Kennedy or I can be out of these guys’ sight for too long.

“Your assistant isn’t with you?” Kennedy asks, looking around.

“No.” I shake my head. “Liza’s apparently occupied.” I give her a wink and a smirk.

Her expression changes to one of understanding, before we both laugh in unison. I’m not exactly certain of what happened between Liza and the red-haired waiter, but she and I spoke once this morning.

She, of course, asked if I needed anything. After reassuring her that things were fine with me and insisting she continue on her vacation, she reminded me that she wasn’t far without giving many details.

I did hear a man’s voice in the background.

“This is the time of year for love,” Kennedy says, leading me to a table with her sister-in-law, her mother, and a few of her aunts.

“She’s so cute,” I say of the baby, Kylie, in Riley Townsend’s lap.

“Not so cute when she’s crying at two in the morning,” Eve Townsend groans.

The other women laugh, including myself.

“Would you like to hold her?” Riley asks.

“Really?”

She nods. “Might as well before either her grandfather, father, or one of her umpteen uncles comes over and steals her away.”

“Again,” Kennedy’s mother says.

“I swear they’ve all had her more than I have this week. I started to think she’d forgotten what I looked like. If this littleone didn’t need me to feed, she’d completely forget about me,” she teases at the same time she hands me little Kylie.

Before I know it, I’m holding a little, chubby-cheeked, baby girl in my arms. I bounce her on my lap, making her giggle. Even her drooling is adorable.

Honestly, I hadn’t thought much about having kids of my own. But looking into her sparkling gaze, I start to get the appeal. These little things are so cute.

“Yeah, until they have a poop explosion,” Riley groans.

Again, I must’ve stated my thoughts out loud.

“I don’t miss those,” Kayla Townsend adds, making a chorus of “me eithers” sound around the table from the older women.

I hear someone moan and glance across the table at the oldest among us, Deborah Townsend. She points at me with a grin on her face.

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