Page 46 of No Greater Love
"Mom, give them a minute to breathe," I protested.
"There's no time for breathing at a Williams reunion, you know that." She linked her arm through Nate's, effectively separating him from me. "Nathan, let me introduce you to my husband, Carl. He was military too, you know. Marines."
As she swept Nate away, I met his eyes over her head. He gave me a small smile that said,I've got this. Paige looked up at me questioningly.
"Go ahead," I told her. "The trampoline's through there. Try not to break anything vital."
She hesitated. "Are you sure?"
The concern in her young face touched me. "I'm sure. Go have fun. I'll come find you soon."
As Paige scampered off, I took a deep breath and plunged into the crowd. Within minutes, I was surrounded.
"Girl, you didn't tell us you were bringing a whole man to the reunion!" My cousin Aisha materialized beside me, cocktail in hand. "And he'sfine! Little salt and pepper action going on."
My first instinct was to launch into explicit detail about exactlyhowfine Nate was—the way his shoulders looked in that blue shirt, what those hands could do, how his voice sounded when he—but then I caught sight of Paige bounding across the yard, and something in me shifted.
I was more than justTasha-who-brought-a-hot-guy-homenow. I was part of something bigger, more important.
Sigh.
"It's not a big deal," I finally muttered, snagging a drink from a passing tray.
"Oh, it's abigdeal. Aunt Patty is already planning your wedding. And Grandma Rose just asked if his 'people' are from here or 'up North.'"
I groaned. "It's been five minutes."
"It's been five years since you brought anyone home," Aisha countered. "What did you expect?"
Before I could reply, my brother Marcus appeared, his twin boys hanging off his legs like little koalas.
"Little sis," he greeted me with a one-armed hug. "Mom says you brought a boyfriend. And he's old enough to be your father."
I bristled. "He's thirty-nine, not sixty."
"Hmm." Marcus studied me with the same assessing gaze he probably used on patients. "Is it serious?"
"It's... evolving."
"That's not an answer."
"That's all you're getting."
He sighed dramatically. "Always so difficult. You know Mom's worried."
"Mom's always worried about something."
"She wants you to be happy."
"Iamhappy."
Marcus raised an eyebrow. "Are you? Because you don't seem happy right now. You seem stressed."
I barely resisted the urge to dump my drink on his perfectly pressed shirt. "I'm fine."
"If you say so." He extricated himself from his sons. "Boys, go find your mother. Tell her Aunt Tasha's here." As they ran off, he fixed me with one last look. "Just be careful, Tash. Relationships with that kind of age gap can be complicated."
"Says the man who married his college sweetheart and never looked at another woman," I shot back.
