Page 44 of Finding Home with You

I want us both to enjoy this time with his family, despite my nervousness.

“Tell me about your family,” I say, wondering just what I’m getting myself into. I know it can’t be anything like what I grew up with, and I’m already nervous as hell to meet them.

“Ok, I’ll make you a deal,” Ryan says, looking over at me, smirk on his face, and he gives me a wink. “I’ll tell you about my family, but you have to tell me about yours.”

“No,” I say instantly without even giving it a second thought, but I know how selfish it sounds. It’s hard to share things with Ryan because I have no idea if I’m sharing it with my boyfriend or if I’m sharing it with a cop.

“Erin,” he says sternly. “I want to get to know you and getting to know you means knowing everything about you. I promise I won’t use anything you tell me in my investigation unless you tell me it’s okay.”

I give it a few seconds to sink in, letting it play out in my head. I have to trust Ryan, because without it our relationship is doomed.

“Okay, you’ve got a deal,” I say, pecking him on the cheek. “So I know you grew up in a small town in Maine and your family is fucking perfect and all that shit,” I joke with him. “But I don’t know much else.”

Ryan chuckles a little, giving me a look that says I’m being a shithead.

“Yeah, so I grew up in this small town in Maine, it’s in the middle of nowhere. When I was a kid I always wanted to move to Boston. I grew up watching the Red Sox with my whole family, and I constantly dreamed of one day moving to Boston and becoming a cop.” He shrugs his shoulders like it was just something that came naturally.

“When I turned eighteen, I left home and moved to Boston. In order to become a cop in Massachusetts, you have to live in the district you work in, so I got a job waiting tables at a high-end restaurant in Boston, enrolled in college studying criminal justice, and worked my ass off until I was old enough to apply to the police force.”

“What did your parents think of you leaving like that?” I ask, because I know mine couldn’t have cared less with the exception of the fact that I was taking the family secrets with me.

“I wasn’t the first so by then they were both like see ya later.” He laughs again and it’s makes my heart skip a beat. There is something so perfect, so calming about him.

“My two older sisters had left and gone to college by then. They were working and living on their own, semi-successful, so I guess my parents figured I’d end up the same way.”

“So you have sisters?” I ask, even though I know he has mentioned them before, but not in detail.

“Yep, three of them. Two are older than me and one is younger. Sarah is my youngest sister. You’ll totally get along with her. She’s a pain in the ass just like you.”

“Ryan,” I scoff, smacking him on the arm. “Stop it.”

“But seriously, you’ll like all of them. They’re cool. Kate’s my oldest sister; she’s married and lives in Portland, works as a nurse. Jenny’s in the middle; lives in Vermont and sells shit for some lab supply company. I like to give her shit that the products she sells are just used to make pancake syrup because who the fuck actually lives in Vermont besides people who make syrup?”

We both laugh and I can picture Ryan hassling his sister about her job and it makes me love him even more. I love that he has that kind of relationship with his family where they laugh and joke.

“Then there’s Sarah,” he says rolling his eyes. “She the youngest and probably the one I’m the closest to, but she’s a fucking piece of work.” He shakes his head, and pauses a second like he’s trying to figure out what to say about her. “She lived with me up until about five months ago, but she’s back in Eddington living with my parents and tending bar at this dive in town. She hates me.”

“What?” I question. “She hates you? You just said you guys are close.”

“I kicked her out because she couldn’t find a job and was doing fuck all in Boston. Basically I was supporting her because she couldn’t have possibly lived on her own with what she was making waitressing on the weekends.” He pauses for a second. “I felt like a real asshole for making her leave. I still do, but she needs to get her shit together. She has a fucking MBA and no job.”

“So she hates you because you made her move back home,” I say. “I get it. It would suck to be on your own and then back to living with your parents, especially in my case.” I give Ryan a little nudge and he smiles at me.

“See? A total pain in the ass just like you,” Ryan adds for a second time and it just solidifies how much he really does love me.

Chapter Seventeen

Ryan

Most of the ride ends up being spent with me telling Erin all about my family and my childhood, and it’s not until we’re an hour or so out that Erin changes the subject.

“So, do you want to tell me why we’re really going up to see your family?” she asks.

“What do you mean?”

Erin shifts in her seat so she’s facing me. “Are we running away from something?”

I shoot her a quick look, trying to gauge what she’s really asking me. “Of course not,” I say. “Why would you think that?”

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