Page 58 of Taming Bull

“And this little ball of fuss is Madison,” Marilynn said, raising her cards so we could see the baby sleeping on her lap. “I’m not gonna get up because I just got her to sleep, but it’s so nice to finally meet you, Lily.”

“Thank you. You, as well. And Madison is adorable,” Lily gushed.

My sister smiled and brushed back her baby’s thick hair. “Yes, she is. I think we’ll keep her.”

“Hey Fred,” I said with a nod.

“Deryk.” He nodded back. My brother-in-law was an all right guy, but we’d never had much in common to talk about.

Everyone sat. I positioned Lily beside me on the chaise lounge as Mom and Dad took up their position on the love seat across the coffee table from Grandma and Grandpa. Marilynn and Fred were opposite me and Lily, on the other side of the sectional.

Mom picked up her cards. “I trust nobody cheated while we were gone,” she said, eyeing the room. It was the same look she used to give me and Marilynn when she knew we’d filched treats but couldn’t prove our guilt.

“Mom, please,” Marilynn said, looking up from her cards. “Give us some credit.” She winked at Grandma, and Grandma winked back.

Mom rolled her eyes at them. “Jesus doesn’t like cheats and liars.”

“Then I think you have some repenting to do after that last game,” Grandpa said.

Mom harrumphed and everyone else laughed.

Lily sat quietly and took it all in. As Grandpa’s turn came and went, she leaned closer to me and whispered, “Do they really cheat?”

I chuckled. “Every one of them… every chance they get.”

“Boy, don’t you be tellin’ stories about us,” Grandma said. “Don’t you go poisoning that girl before she gets a chance to know us.” To Lily, Grandma added, “Don’t let him fool you. You’re sittin’ with the biggest cheat of all.”

Lily gasped. “Youcheat?” she asked me. “Against your grandma?”

Grandma laughed. “He sure does.” To Mom, she added, “I like her, Liz. She’s adequately appalled by your son’s behavior.”

Lily was still staring at me in opened-mouth horror.

I held up my hands, trying to ward off her judgement. “Hey, Grandma’s ruthless. I gotta win sometimes.”

I was afraid there’d be tension and awkwardness, but my family’s competitive shenanigans had Lily fully relaxed and laughing in no time. She helped Mom and Grandma bring out the food and held Madison while Marilynn ate. She even got into a heated debate with my dad about why the Seahawks were better than the Cowboys, and held her own against Grandpa’s signature teasing.

Watching her interact with them all, I realized Lily had never had this. Sure, she’d grown up with her grandmother, and now she had the club, but she’d never had a family Christmas dinner that ended in a high stakes Scrabble match that required a dictionary, a rosary, and a swear jar. My mom had put up a stocking for Lily, and when Lily saw it, she started bawling.

As Mom draped her arm over Lily’s shoulder and took her for a walk to talk, I knew everything was going to be okay. Lily needed this. I hadn’t trusted my family to welcome her, but man had they ever proven me wrong.

Since we weren’t married, Mom put us up in separate rooms. I sneaked into Lily’s room in the middle of the night, and she reluctantly gave me a chaste kiss before chasing my ass out.

“I’m not spitting in the face of your parents’ hospitality,” she told me.

I couldn’t have loved her more if I tried.

Dad asked when I was planning to marry her. I told him we were in no hurry and wanted to travel and see some of the world before we blew money on a wedding. He offered to pick up the tab for our ceremony, but I declined. I appreciated his generosity, but some things we needed to do for ourselves. When we were ready to get married, we’d pay for it on our own. But for now, our plates were full, and our love was enough. We didn’t need a piece of paper to make it official.

We returned to Seattle to spend New Year’s Eve with the club. While we were away, a new recruit had joined. Link introduced him to me as Kaos, which was apparently his nickname when he played hockey.

“Hockey?” I asked, certain I must have misheard him. “Professionally?”

Kaos nodded. He was a big man. Standing at least six-three, two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle with broad shoulders and a shit-eating grin, he just looked like trouble. “NHL. Played center for the Sharks before I enlisted.”

I knew very little about hockey and made a mental note to look up the position and find out what the hell he did. “Holy shit. You were pro and you enlisted?”

He shrugged. “I was getting old. Didn’t know what else to do.”

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