Page 25 of His Christmas Gift

DEAN

Today, Autumn would get a breath of fresh air because we were visiting my family today.

I promised my mom that I would visit today, and I wasn’t going to break that promise. I just hoped that they took the news of me being suddenly engaged well.

“I hope they like me,” Autumn sighed in a stressed manner as she smoothed down her white blouse and black pants.

I couldn’t help but chuckle, finding it cute that she was trying to impress my parents, even if our relationship was fake. It was starting to feel less and less fake, though. Sex with her didn’t just feel like… sex. I didn’t only experience it physically, but I experienced being with her mentally too. Then again, she lived in my mind.

“They’ll love you. We’ll treat this just like seeing your parents,” I told her as I led her onto the porch and toward the front door. I knew it would be odd for me to fall into character as much because my family knew me so well. They knew how I felt about relationships, and now, I suddenly had a beautiful woman on my arm. This would probably give them whiplash.

Autumn chewed on her bottom lip for a moment before nodding. She took my hand, moving close to my side.

“I’m ready,” she said after taking in a breath.

I felt a pull in me, coaxing me to kiss her on top of the head. I couldn’t help but feel protective over her. She didn’t need protection, but I was there for her if she got uncomfortable.

Autumn gave me a soft smile, her fingers twining with mine.

She was ready. I opened the front door and led her inside my parents’ house, immediately hearing laughter and conversations flooding from the kitchen and dining room. It sounded like everyone was already here because I could hear all of my nieces and nephews too.

“Hello,” I called out as I entered the kitchen, seeing my mom and dad huddling over the stove as food cooked in pots and pans. My brothers and their wives sat at the dining table, chatting and catching up. My nieces and nephews either sat on their laps or played with toys on the floor near the table.

“There you are!” my mom gasped happily, abandoning the stove to hug me tightly. She then looked over at Autumn with surprised eyes. “Oh, who’s this beautiful girl, Dean?”

“This is my fiancée, Autumn,” I introduced her as I placed my hand on Autumn’s back.

Everyone in my family turned to look at me with shocked looks on their faces. They probably didn’t expect me to bring a girl home for years.

“You didn’t mention a fiancée when we talked on the phone,” Jared said as he stood with Aiden to walk over to me. Jenna and Hannah were on their heels, looking as excited as ever to have another friend.

“I wanted to surprise you guys,” I told them before looking over at Autumn, who smiled at my brothers and their wives politely. “Autumn, these are my brothers, Jared and Aiden. That’s Jared’s wife, Hannah, and that’s Aiden’s wife, Jenna.”

“It’s nice to meet you. Sorry we dropped this on you right before the holidays. Dean likes big reactions,” Autumn laughed softly as she shook everyone’s hands.

“You’re not wrong,” Aiden chuckled before embracing me. “We didn’t expect him to settle down anytime soon. He’s always busy working.”

“She took me by surprise,” I replied as I put my arm around her shoulders. She was already doing well with my family. She probably didn’t think that she was because her family dynamic was so unbalanced, but I knew that my family would love her. “But you can’t stop love when it comes knocking.”

“That’s what we were trying to tell you all along,” Jared said, looking pleased that I proved him right.

I felt bad about lying to my family. They wanted me to settle down with a nice girl so badly. I could admit that the thought of that didn’t scare me away as much as it used to. I supposed faking a relationship with someone like Autumn helped show me the plus sides of it all. It was nice having someone to joke with, talk with, and just be with when I didn’t want to be alone. She was good company, a good listener, and a good person overall.

However, I still wasn’t in a real relationship with her. She was probably going to get tired of me before this week and part of the next one ended, and we would go back to how we were. I didn’t even know if she wanted to sleep with me again. I certainly wouldn’t mind, but I also didn’t want things to go back to how they used to be.

Deep down, I wanted us to stay close, but I didn’t know what she wanted. She said that she wasn’t interested in being in a relationship, but had things changed since we started getting closer to each other? Since we started kissing without an audience? Since we slept together in the hotel room?

“Welcome. I’m glad Dean finally let us meet you,” my dad said as he walked over to greet Autumn. “As you can see, we love growing our family.”

“I can definitely see that,” Autumn said warmly as she looked over at the kids. “My family is pretty small. It’s nice to see a big family all having a good time together.”

“We always do a big family breakfast during the holidays,” my mom told her as she gestured to all of the food being cooked. “There’s plenty of food to go around, so make sure you eat up!”

“I definitely will,” Autumn promised before turning to me, holding my bicep. “Your family is really nice.”

I couldn’t help it. My heart ached for her. I could tell that she wanted this from her own family, but she knew that she would never have it. Her parents weren’t like this. No matter what happened between us after this week and a half, I hoped that she knew that she was always welcome here with my family. They would treat her as one of them.

“They’re your family too,” I said, leaning forward to press a quick kiss against her lips before leading her to the dining table to sit down next to Jared and Hannah. “Mom, did you make those cinnamon buns I like?”

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