Page 56 of If This Was a Movie

“No room for arguing,” he mutters under his breath. “You might hurt my mom’s feelings.” There’s a small tilt to his lips telling me it’s probably bullshit, but I go along with it all the same.

“Yeah, that works,” I say.

“Pie time!” Sophie yells, grabbing her grandfather’s hand and running for the door, leaving us all giggling as we follow her.

We leave the Donovan family home after eating way too much pie, but the fullness I feel isn’t in my stomach but in my chest. Something about being around this sweet, supportive family that nudges and teases each other but in a way that’s laced with love all the way through healed something in me I didn’t know was frayed.

It turns out the Donovans are a romantic comedy family: incredibly tight-knit, incredibly kind, and incredibly funny, and I’m now adding another thing to my movie-worthy life list.

There are long goodbyes, more come back soons, and an invite to the family Christmas party before we get out the door, two hours past Sophie’s bedtime.

“It’s a special occasion, Jules,” Nate said when I mentioned it. “Rules are off on special occasions.”

She falls asleep in the car almost the second Nate starts it, despite it not being even a ten-minute drive from the Donovan house to the community center. We’re parked in the lot next to my car, but I’m reluctant to leave this warm little bubble Nate has built for me.

“Thank you,” I say into the quiet. “For tonight. For coming. For bringing your family. It means a lot to me.”

“They insisted once Sutton told them she was helping and once Sophie told them all about you. This has been planned for a week.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? That you were coming?”

“Well, you see, ever since Sunday, you’ve been avoiding me, so…” His words trail off, and I feel a blush burn over my cheeks.

“Sorry,” I whisper.

“All good, Jules,” he says, reaching over to grab my hand. “You’re steering this. We’re going at your pace.” I should say that we can’t be going at any pace at all, but something stops me.

Silence fills the car again before, finally, Nate breaks it.

“Your mom wasn’t there tonight.”

I turn to him and see he’s looking at the building in front of us as if he doesn’t want to pressure me into talking but wants to know all the same.

I sigh, and maybe because I’m tired, or it’s dark and quiet, or because I’m blown away by his gentle kindness, I respond. “Yeah, she’s not really into the whole…thing.”

“Dance?”

I shake my head and laugh. “No, no, she loves that. She was the one who got me into it. She’s not into my owning a business.”

That has his head jerking, turning to me. “What?”

“She wishes I’d focus on…other things.”

“Why?”

I shrug but answer all the same with a deep sigh.

“When my grandmother passed, I got a small inheritance. Nothing crazy, but it was enough for the down payment on the building and a bit of money for renovations. She wanted me to use it to buy a house, preferably in a nice neighborhood with single bachelors who would wife me up and make me a stay-at-home wife.”

He snorts out a laugh. “In Evergreen Park?”

I shook my head and bit back a laugh of my own.

“No, she lives in Dalton.” Naming the expensive and exclusive town has Nate nodding with understanding.

“Ahh. So she doesn’t approve of your self-renovations, I assume?”

I shake my head.

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