Page 16 of Prayers for the Prickly

After the long series of texts he’d sent me earlier, I felt much better about the way tonight was going to go.

“Prepare to be overwhelmed,” I warned him as I led him into the living room. “Introducing everyone would be pointless, there are too many of us and between all the brunettes and gingers, things get confusing pretty quick.”

Gregor chuckled and the sound sent a shiver down my spine. “No worries, wait until you’re in a room with fifteen men with similar haircuts and beards and watch how baffled you get.”

A cheer rose up the moment we entered the room, and I opened my mouth to tell them that it wasn’t that serious when I realized they weren’t cheering for us, but for the hockey game on the flat screen.

“You a hockey fan?” Uncle Lane called out.

Now he knew good and damn well I wasn’t a…oh…

“Hell yeah,” Gregor replied.

“Then park your ass over here and enjoy the game with us,” Uncle Lane said as he gestured to the empty easy chair to his left.

Funny, but I didn’t recall ever seeing that easy chair empty at a gathering before, usually it was the first spot claimed. When Gregor headed for it, I had no choice but to follow along since we were still holding hands. When we got there, I tried to figure out if I was supposed to sit, too, or if they wanted time to get to know him, and probably interrogate the hell out of him the moment I was out of the room.

Before I could figure it out, Gregor made the decision for me when he tugged me down to sit on his lap and wrapped an arm around me. For as much as I didn’t care about hockey, getting to sit there with my head on his shoulder made the experience much easier to tolerate.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t appreciate the beauty and the viciousness of the games, it was just that I could never keep track of where everyone was going, so while the people in the room around me were cheering, I was left scratching my head, still trying to figure out what had happened.

It was nice to not have to care. I felt a light tug at the nape of my neck and realized that it was Gregor playing with my hair. I swear, I felt him inhale, his nose was so close, then his breath tickled the back of my neck, and I melted against him.

“Did you just sniff me?” I murmured.

“Uh huh.”

“Why?”

“’Cause you smell so damn good!”

His growl made me shiver, but fortunately it was masked as another cheer filled the room.

“Down, boy,” I giggled in his ear. “Before I have to drag you off to my room and leave everyone wondering why they didn’t get to meet you.”

His arms tightened around me, and he inhaled again. I swear he made it a point to put his whole body into it, too, including a subtle roll of his hips that made me do the most impulsive thing I’d done, ever. I nipped him.

When he shuddered beneath me, I swore things were about to get X-rated when Uncle Lane’s voice cut through the haze and drew my attention back the people around me.

“Why don’t you go get your mate a cider and while you’re at it grab me another one, too.”

Gregor chuckled and turned me loose, but not before lightly trailing his fingertips down my side as I got up from his lap.

I left him with them and headed into a kitchen filled with delicious scents amid all the chopping, crackling and laughter that was going on.

“August!”

My mother’s greeting nearly deafened me, and I braced myself before I was surrounded by my siblings and cousins. The aunts and uncles who hadn’t been in the living room surrounded us, too, and I was crushed in a warm circle of love as everyone expressed their good wishes.

I loved my crazy expressive family, with all the eccentric foodies and sports lovers. We were damn near an equally mixed bunch, but the best part of it all was that those who didn’t particularly love making it, absolutely enjoyed every opportunity to taste it. Food did not go to waste around here. Now that I had the chance to breathe a little as they all eased back to resume their tasks, I caught the whiff of seafood seasoning and corn on the cob. Oh, nice! I’d found out from one of the customers in my shop that Gregor was from a family of fishermen and shipbuilders, who made their living almost entirely off the ocean. I’d figured seafood would be something he’d appreciate when I’d subtly mentioned it to Mom earlier, but I hadn’t been sure she’d have the time to add it to the meal plan she was already going to have to shift once word spread through the family and they all started showing up.

I gave her an extra squeeze before I let her go, grabbed three hard ciders and headed back to the living room, just in time to hear the tail end of a conversation between Gregor and my Uncle Lane.

“…was going to ask you a bunch of questions,” Uncle Lane said. “But after seeing the way you were with my nephew in just those few minutes of the two of you sitting there together, I got all the answers I’d ever need.”

“Ditto,” said Aunt Maisy, sitting on the other side of him with her Toronto Raptors jersey on.

I saw a few others near enough to the conversation to have overheard it nod, too, and stepped around to pass Uncle Lane his cider before settling back on Gregor’s lap. He took a sip of the cider I handed him, but instead of hanging on to it, he set it in the cupholder in the armrest so he could wrap his arms back around me.

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