Page 31 of Til Death Do Us Part

Leo

May

Placingmy hand on Everly’s knee, I tried to calm her down. “Don’t be nervous.”

“Easy for you to say; my mom loves you. She thinks you’re absolutely perfect.” Her teeth went to her upper lip where she started to gnaw on it.

Pulling her lip out from between her teeth, I ran my thumb over it. “Well, it’s easy since I’m the perfect husband.” I smiled big at her.

“Oh, Leo.” She frowned. “I didn’t mean to make you feel as if you weren’t. You are perfect. At least for me.”

“I know you didn’t, sweet girl. Trust me when I say Luke will love you. He’s the most mellow dude ever unless you fuck with his family.”

“Yeah, not helping. You are his family, and the youngest.”

True.

Everly had been worried my family would think she was using me after I made her give up her apartment. It didn’t matter how many times I’d tried to reassure her. I hoped after meeting Luke, she’d see she had nothing to worry about.

“Alex loved you from the moment I mentioned you. She’s been wanting me to have a girlfriend since I met her. Really, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. They’re so damn tired they don’t have time to hate anyone. If you hold the baby or make it so they can take a nap, they’ll love you for life.”

“I love babies, so I’ll happily watch her while they get some rest. The picture your brother sent the other day was so cute.”

“Yeah, Mason is ecstatic to be a big brother. Gracie’s lucky Mason is so much older than she is because I have a feeling he’s going to be crazy overprotective of her.”

“Oh, that’s sweet. It makes me wish I had an older brother growing up. What was it like for you?”

“We’ve always been close, but I’ve been the closest to Luke even though he’s been out of the house most of my life. He made sure to always call or come visit when he could. Liam scared all the boys away from Stella, so they’ve had a love/hate relationship since high school. By the time I got to high school everyone had moved out of the house and it was just mom and dad and me.”

“Aren’t you going to miss your family being here in the United States?”

We pulled up to the gate of Luke and Alex’s neighborhood, and I put in the code. I knew if I got her talking, Everly would forget about her nerves.

“I’m sure I’ll miss them, but I knew they wouldn’t be happy if I held myself back. They’ll come here, especially now that they have a granddaughter to dote on and we’ll go there.”

“You want me to go to Sweden with you?” Her face was a mask of shock.

“Of course, I want you to come. Maybe we can go this Christmas unless they come here.”

“I don’t even have a passport.”

“Then I guess we better get you one just in case.” I pulled up to Luke’s house and turned off the car. I hoped they’d give us a few minutes to get out of the car. I didn’t want Everly to have a panic attack in front of them, and with the way her breaths had increased, and her hands twisted in her lap, she was close to having one. Taking off my seatbelt, I turned to her and pulled Everly into my arms. “I don’t know what you’re so afraid of. You’re amazing and even if they don’t like you for some crazy reason, I’m not going to go home and file for divorce. I can’t imagine my life or my home without you in it.”

Her arms tightened around my neck. “Now you’re going to make me cry and mess up my makeup.” She took a deep breath in and held it for a long moment before she let it out. “I don’t know why I’m so emotional.”

I didn’t know either. Everly was always calm. Even after she’d had someone break into her apartment, she’d remained calm, but the prospect of coming face to face with Luke and Alex and she was shaking to death.

“What can I do to help?”

She pulled back with tears close to escaping her beautiful blue eyes. “Don’t leave me alone with anyone until I’m ready. I don’t want to get cornered and freak out.”

“I promise.” I didn’t want to argue with her that no one would be pushing for any answers, nor did I think she’d freak out. “We really could get out though before they wonder what’s taking us so long and come to the car to greet us.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” She bit her bottom lip and now that I wasn’t driving, I could remedy the problem the way I wanted to. Pulling her lip out from between her teeth with my thumb, I leaned forward and nibbled on it for myself before I swept my tongue inside and devoured her. I didn’t pull back until I needed to take a break for some much needed air.

Opening my eyes, I found Everly’s eyes still closed with a peaceful look on her face. In that moment, I knew I loved her. The last three months had been the best of my life, and I didn’t know what I’d do if she up and decided she wanted to walk out of my life.

The words were on the tip of my tongue, but I thought maybe I should save them for a better time.

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