Page 34 of Protected By the SEAL

I haven’t told any of my family that we are together, but I’m sure they can assume as much. I don’t think it’s that much of a secret. I’m not sure how they will feel about him. I’ve never brought a guy to meet my family before, but it doesn’t bother me. Even if they do manage to find some flaw in the most perfect man ever, I won’t listen. I trust my own judgment enough to know that Benji is the right person for me. I don’t need anyone to tell me what tothink or feel. I don’t need to hear the opinions of others because I have my own voice and my own mind. I feel my own truth very strongly.

God, I really have come out of my shell, haven’t I? I never thought that I would end up this person, so confident in myself. It’s awesome. I wonder what my family will think of the new me. I hope they’ll like me and respect who I’ve become. I was definitely quieter and more internal before, less sure of myself and who I was. I like who I am these days.

Benji hangs up the phone at the end of his conversation and comes to check in on me. To see if I’m okay with all of this, which surprisingly, I am. With him by my side, then everything will be fine. This might even be fun, who knows?

“Why aren’t they here yet?” I ask Benji nervously, clinging onto his hand tightly. I thought that I was going to be okay with this, I thought that I would be just fine, but the longer it takes for Max to get my family here, the more anxious I become. “What do you think is going on? You don’t think that anything has happened, do you? They haven’t changed their minds?”

“Of course your family aren’t going to have changed their minds,” Benji assures me. “Plus, I would have heard something by now if anything had happened. Don’t worry, it might just be traffic or something. You don’t need to worry.”

“Are you nervous?” I turn to Benji. “I keep forgetting to ask you how you feel about meeting my family.”

“I don’t know, really,” he admits. “Maybe a little. I haven’t watched the show much with your family in it, but I’ve seen a little and they appear very intense. All of them. Plus, I don’t know how they are going to react to me, so yeah… I am.”

I grip his hand a little tighter, knowing that I’m going to have to be there even more for him than myself. As nerve-racking as this might be for me, it’s a million times worse for him. He doesn’t even know them, so this is a lot.

“Oh, my God.” All of a sudden, a noise grabs me. “That was a noise, wasn’t it? That must mean they’re here.”

My heart pounds in my mouth. My stomach flip-flops like crazy. I can’t breathe, my lungs shatter, I feel like I’m falling apart. Tears even start tumbling down my face as the footsteps start edging toward me. Oh, my God, any minute now, I’ll be back with my family at last and my life will have come full-circle. As anxious as I am, I can’t wait either.

“Nick!” I see my oldest brother first, and I tear over to him to wrap my arms around him. I can feel the intensity of his emotions as well as we connect at long last. “Oh, my God, it’s so good to see you! How are you? I’ve missed you.”

Almost instantly, any awkwardness or anxiety simply melts away. These people are myfamily. I know them so well. I can’t believe I ever felt weird about this at all. It’s amazing. I hug Nick, Alena, Kevin, Mom, the twins together because they still do everything together at the moment, and finally, my father. He embraces me hard and makes me feel loved.

“It’s so good to see you, Cassie,” he whispers to me. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you. I’ve been so worried about youever since you got kidnapped, and I’ve been feeling guilty as well. It’s my fault that all of this happened.”

“It isn’t your fault,” I insist immediately. “You didn’t do this to me. It wasn’t your fault. I don’t blame you at all.”

“You should,” he exclaims with sadness in his voice. “If it wasn’t for my work, then none of this mess would have happened.”

“Don’t worry,” I insist quickly. “Honestly, don’t worry. I don’t blame you one bit. And while it was horrible at the time, a lot of good came from it. You know that I found Benji from it, and I couldn’t be happier, so it all worked out well. I know it wasn’t exactly ideal, but I don’t look at it as a bad time in my life anymore. It was something that led me right here.”

Dad looks at Benji a little critically. “And he treats you well? I don’t need to worry about him or anything? Because if he doesn’t treat you like a goddamn princess, then I’ll kick his ass right here and now. Even if he’s a lot bigger than me.”

“Dad, he treats me amazingly. You have no idea. We have had the best time traveling around the world. It’s been awesome, and he’s been good to me every single day. I’ve never been treated so wonderful before. I love him.”

“At least he can take care of you. But it wasn’t exactly what I planned when I hired the company to come and save you.”

At least he doesn’t look mad anymore. He’s looking at Benji like he’s a good guy, for which I’m very relieved. My family really are pretty intense. I forgot just how intense they really are, but I’m feeling it painfully now. My mom has hold of Benji right now and she’s chewing his ear off. I can almost see the color draining from his face. As our eyes lock, I do send him a smile tryingto reassure him, but I don’t know if it’s come across right. This won’t be forever, though. Just for a little while longer…

“Well, he’s going to be getting a crash course in the Jones family right now.” My father cocks a knowing eyebrow at me. “Which might scare him away. Do you think that he has a strong enough stomach for it? I’m about to find out.”

As he walks over to Benji, I get caught up by my siblings who of course haven’t had enough of me yet, so I can’t help Benji out as much as I would like to. But I think he might be holding his own, luckily, because I want to catch up with my brothers and sisters as well. I’ve missed them more than I knew I possibly could, and I love getting time with them at last.

This has been alongtime coming, and I might have to ensure we don’t it leave it this long ever again. Even if I’m traveling the world, I can come back whenever I want to see these wonderful people whom I love a lot.

29

BENJI

“Oh, my goodness,” Cassie gasps as she sees my mom’s small home. I knew this would be a shock for her considering she’s spent her life growing up in the biggest mansion ever. I’ve seen a picture of it, and it’s unbelievably huge, but she looks happy. “This place is lovely. And I can already tell from here that it has a calm atmosphere about it. It’s not going to be like my family.”

I let my head fall back and laugh. “No, not a chance. My mom is really calm and collected. Your family are…”

“Crazy, I know.” She rolls her eyes. “That was insane. I need a break after spending some time with them.”

“Well, crazy, sure, but lovely. I got on well with all of them. I enjoyed it… I think. Even if it was incredibly insane being with them. I’m actually kinda glad to be back home. I might need to spend some time relaxing as well. Until we move on.”

I take Cassie’s hand and lead her inside, my excitement growing by the moment. It’s been a long ass time since I got to see my mom, and I can’t wait. Since it was just me and her for themajority of my life, I adore spending time with her. I know I gave a lot of bravery when I thought that there was a chance that Cassie and I were going to die about my mom half expecting that call about my death, but Iknowit would kill her. Now that we’re here, I feel bad for not making that call.

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