“Nice to meet you too,” Aiyanna said, smiling and glancing around casually as she tightened her arms in front of her. “I was already up, actually.”
“Oh good. We can have coffee and muffins.” Liv smiled big, glancing at Nathan, who rolled his eyes with a smirk and shook his head. “Not sure how much my brother’s told you about his family, but my little sister owns a small bakery. Her specialty is muffins. She made plenty last night. Cranberry orange pecan. I’m not just saying it because my sister made them, but they really are to die for.”
“Liv.” Nathan’s tone was cautionary. “She just woke—”
“Actually, that sounds delicious,” Aiyanna said, glad for the chance of a do-over when she reentered the room in less dramatic fashion. “I just need to finish getting dressed.”
Liv smiled big again, giving Nathan a knowing look. “Of course. I’ll get the coffee started in the meantime.”
She started toward the kitchen. “I got the baby,” Nathan said as he followed Aiyanna back into the bedroom. “We’ll be right out.”
They’d barely closed the door behind them when he started apologizing. “I forgot to tell you my family can be a little overbearing, but they mean well. And you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. She’s just being evil. Like I told you last night, I’ve only brought girls around them a handful of times, and they’ve never known me to have anyone here overnight.”
Aiyanna turned to him, letting out the breath she’d held in the whole time. “If you had any idea what I was thinking when I heard you calling someone baby and angel face then heard the kissing noises, you wouldn’t be apologizing.” The strange expression on his face had her letting out a nervous laugh. “Spending the morning having muffins and being interrogated by your sister is nothing compared to how I thought this morning might end for a moment there.”
It seemed to finally hit him and he laughed. “Did you really think—?”
“Yes!” Aiyanna said, covering her face with her hand as she shook it.
“No wonder you walked out there the way you did.”
“I don’t even know what I was going to say or do.” She continued to shake her head as she picked up her bra. “I just heard the kissing noises and thought I might scream. After what happened with Jace, I couldn’t believe it might be happening again.”
Nathan chuckled then reached for her hand and pulled her to him. “Look at me.” Aiyanna did, but she still felt too embarrassed to keep the eye contact for too long. “Look at me, Anna,” he whispered again when she glanced away. He stared at her, smiling sweetly. “I know I said I didn’t do relationships back at that cabin, but I had a feeling the moment I first kissed you that things were about to change. And now I know they have. I would never do something like that to you. I promise, okay? I don’t want what that asshole . . .” He whispered that last word then kissed the baby’s nose. “I don’t want what he did to you, making you paranoid about me. If that had really been a random girl who showed up here, I wouldn’t have even let her in. I have way too much respect for you. You believe that, don’t you?”
Aiyanna nodded, feeling a little choked up now on top of it all. “I do.”
The baby’s little hand reaching out for Aiyanna’s face broke the moment but made Aiyanna smile. Turning to the baby, she touched her little fingers. “We haven’t been introduced.”
“My bad,” Nathan said, turning to the baby. “Anna, meet my angel face niece, Chloe. Chloe, meet Uncle Nate’s beautiful girlfriend, Anna.”
“Very nice to meet you,” Aiyanna said, kissing the little girl’s hand and trying not to show how thrilling that introduction was for her. “You really are an adorable little thing.”
“She is,” Nathan said, kissing the baby again. “Liv and Emi take turns watching her Saturday mornings when her older sister has chess tournaments.”
He told her more about Chloe being the princess of the family at the moment since both of his sisters had boys. Aside from AJ’s older daughter, she was the only baby girl. “With Kelli pregnant now and Liv pregnant again too, that might change soon. But she’ll always be my angel face.” He leaned in to kiss Chloe again then sniffed her, crinkling his nose. “Only I think she might need to be changed soon.”
On that note, Aiyanna giggled and started moving around. “You don’t have to wait for me. I just need to get my shoes and bra on.”
“Nah, I can wait. I need to warn you about something.” Aiyanna stopped in her tracks, swinging her head to face him. “It’s nothing bad,” he said, quickly motioning for her to keep moving. She did a bit hesitantly and he went on. “Not for you anyway. It’s just that, well”—he huffed, shaking his head— “I thought I’d have more time before having to warn you. I’ve told you my entire family was beside themselves when I was missing for all those days. So when I got home, I had the whole herd here waiting for me. I guess they expected me to be all traumatized and shit. I swear my sisters had all this comfort food waiting for me, and they brought sleeping bags and pillows, ready to stay with me as long as I needed them to.” He chuckled, making Aiyanna feel a little less tense about whatever it was he was going to warn her about. “It’s embarrassing actually, but my sisters were quick to catch the way my face lit up or whatever any time I mentioned you.” He rolled his eyes, kissing the baby on the nose. “Those two think they know everything, don’t they, angel face?”
Aiyanna’s insides warmed even as she stood there putting her bra on under her blouse. “What else did they catch?”
“Basically, they were on to me. They knew my time in that cabin with you had been anything but traumatizing. Even after I showed them my war wound I got from that bear.”
That had Aiyanna laughing, especially because the thing had healed up pretty fast even before they left Colorado. The baby laughed too, and Nathan kissed her cheek.
“Hey, no laughing at Uncle Nate.” He turned back to Aiyanna. “Anyway, as concerned as they’d first acted, they all but ignored my war wound and immediately wanted to know everything about you and when they’d be meeting you. I tried to tone it down, calling them crazy for making so much of it, when all we agreed on was to keep in touch.” He laughed as she looked up at him while tying her laces. “And now this. So just be warned. She’s probably already texting my other sister to gloat about how right they’d been. She knows you spent the night here, something I told you never happens, so I had no choice but to admit you are in fact officially my girl. There’s no going back now. And she already seems a little too pleased with herself.”
Finishing up with her shoes, Aiyanna couldn’t help smiling at that. But her smile flattened when she stood up and glanced in the mirror. “Oh my God.” She gasped, touching the rat’s nest on her head. “Why didn’t you tell me my hair was such a wreck?”
Nathan laughed. “I like your bed hair.”
“But if your sister’s really that perceptive . . .”
“Sweetheart, you really think she’d believe I brought you here to spend the night and nothing happened?
He had a point. Even so, she tried to pat it down, hold onto a shred of dignity, and at least attempt to make a better first impression. She rushed into the bathroom and patted her hair down some more with a little water.
“You’re fine,” he said from the doorway.
Aiyanna glanced at him through the mirror and gave in. They walked back out into the kitchen where Liv was setting up things on Nathan’s center breakfast bar.
“I wasn’t sure how you took your coffee, so I brought out a few things.”
Nathan handed the baby over, explaining about her having to be changed, and Liv excused herself to change the baby. Aiyanna took in the sweeteners, honey, and other coffee condiments on the bar as Nathan wrapped his arms around her from behind. “I’ll get rid of her as soon as we’re done with our coffee,” he whispered in her ear.
“Shh!” Aiyanna glanced back into the other room where Liv had walked off with the baby. “I don’t want her to think I wa
nt you to.”
“I know, but I do. I planned on staying in bed most of the day.” Feeling her insides warm at the very thought, Aiyanna smiled. “Jace is still texting you?” The question came out of left field. It deflated Aiyanna’s smile and had her tensing immediately. “I wasn’t snooping. I just saw your phone screen light up this morning with his name.”
“I haven’t responded to any of his calls or texts since the night I walked out of his place.”
“You ever plan to?”
“No,” she said, turning to look at him.
He didn’t seem mad, nor did he wear the expression he had back at the cabin when he’d reacted to Scott the way he had, but he wasn’t smiling. “So why haven’t you blocked him?”
Swallowing hard, Aiyanna cursed herself inwardly for not anticipating the possibility of him asking her this. But she hadn’t even anticipated him ever knowing Jace still texted her. Since she really never planned to respond to the jerk, she didn’t think there was a point. Except admitting the real reason she hadn’t blocked Jace felt out of the question.
She couldn’t.
Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to, not yet anyway. Liv strolled back into the kitchen, carrying Chloe cheerfully. Nathan had mentioned his sister having two little ones of her own. Clearly, the woman had changing diapers down to an art because she couldn’t have been gone for more than five minutes.
Aiyanna exchanged a telling glance with Nathan before taking her seat at the breakfast nook. Nathan sat down next to her, mercifully dropping the uncomfortable subject. But if the slightly hardened expression on his face was any indication, they’d be getting right back to it the moment he got the chance. So Aiyanna would have to think of something quick.
After getting rid of the diaper in the trash compacter, Liv sat down across from Nathan and Aiyanna. “So Nate says you’re a Psych major. That’s gotta be interesting.”
“It is,” Aiyanna said, stirring the creamer into her coffee. “Youth Psychology specifically, but a lot of my classes focus on the complexities of the human brain in general. I’ve always been fascinated with the study of personality development, emotions, social behaviors, etc.”
“I took one semester way back,” Liv said, breaking off a tiny piece of her muffin and putting it in Chloe’s mouth. “It was fascinating.”
Aiyanna took a bite of her muffin and had to stop and savor it for a second. “Oh, wow, this is really good.”
“Isn’t it?” Liv said, smiling big as the baby seemed to agree, reaching out for the muffin in Liv’s hand. “You think so too, huh? Ah, ah.” She pulled it away before the baby could grab it, shaking her head “You can’t have the nuts, baby. You don’t have enough teeth to chew them.”
“How old is she?” Aiyanna asked.
They spoke about the baby, her own sons, and the line of work Liv was in. Then Liv turned it around and got back to Aiyanna and Nathan.
“So yours will be a story to tell if this ends up working out, right?” She smiled big, taking a sip of her coffee. “Two strangers stranded together in a snowy romantic cabin for days and then falling in love. Doesn’t get more storybook fairytale than that.”
Aiyanna felt her face heat at the mention of the L word. She and Nathan had discussed many things, but that hadn’t been brought up by either. Liv’s smirk was reminiscent of Nathan’s sinful one.
“Well, maybe you’re not there yet, but having breakfast with a girl Nate’s seeing is definitely a first for me. So I can only assume.”
“Yes, Liv,” Nathan said, sitting back in his seat and placing his hand on Aiyanna’s thigh. “And we all know you and Emi do a lot of assuming.”
Liv began to retort until the phone ringing in the other room interrupted them. She stood up with a frown. “That’s my phone. It’s probably Em. I’ll be right back.” She rushed off, taking the baby with her.
“These muffins really are delicious,” Aiyanna said, taking a bite and praying they wouldn’t get back to the subject of Jace.
“My favorite are her poppy seed,” Nathan said, standing up and heading for the fridge. “They’re not as sweet, and I think that’s what I like about them.”
Aiyanna’s mind raced to try and come up with a satisfactory answer to the inevitable question, chiding herself because she knew she could simply say she just hadn’t thought to or hadn’t gotten around to it yet. But she also knew her very specific reason for not doing so was why she was over thinking this now. Especially since both Scott and her sister had suggested she block the bastard immediately.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Nathan’s words, especially at such close range, startled her. The last she knew he was on the other side of the kitchen at the refrigerator. He now sat right next to her, his legs on either side of her stool, peering at her curiously—questionably.
“Nothing, why?”
“I asked you something,” he said, searching her eyes. “Twice.”
Aiyanna could kick herself. She had to stop falling so deep into thought like that.
“That was Sai,” Liv informed them as she walked back into the kitchen. “He and Kelli are on their way over here.” She laughed, picking up her coffee cup. “I called him last night to tell him I’d be bringing him some muffins for his coffee today, but I didn’t know he’d be waiting on them.”
Liv explained about how she was actually going over today to discuss the combo baby/wedding shower she and Emi were planning for Sai and Kelli. That reminded Aiyanna that Kelli was the last girl Nathan had ever considered a relationship with. Since she was engaged to Isaiah now, Aiyanna hadn’t thought meeting her would be an issue. But she hadn’t anticipated having to meet her this soon. Suddenly, she was feeling anxious about it.
“Who are you texting now?” Nathan asked Liv as he poured himself more orange juice.
“AJ,” she said without looking up from her phone.
“Are you kidding me?” Nathan asked. “What? Are you inviting the whole crew down?” He turned to Aiyanna, who was feeling even more anxious now. Rage was coming too? “I warned you about my family.”
“Stop.” Liv giggled, glancing up. She was holding the baby with one hand, so it was taking her longer to text with one hand and the phone on the counter top.
Aiyanna held her hands out and offered to hold the baby for her. Liv handed her over, thanking her. “I’m just letting him know I’m here now but to text me before he comes to pick Chloe up so I can tell him where we are.” She finished putting her text together much faster with both hands. “I’m not that rude,” she said to Aiyanna as she put her phone down again. “I wouldn’t just assume you two don’t have plans, but I had told him I’d be at Isaiah’s, so just in case, I’m letting him know.”
Liv offered to take the baby back, but Aiyanna said she wanted to hold her a little longer. Chloe truly was a doll. Somehow, holding the little angel face took a little from the anxiousness she’d begun to feel, both from Nathan’s inquiry about Jace’s texts and knowing she’d be meeting the infamous Kelli any minute now.
The noise out in the foyer and then voices that followed only made Aiyanna’s heart speed up a little. Taking a deep breath, she remembered her sister’s cautionary words when Aiyanna had told her about Nathan and his brother’s fiancée. “Never trust an ex. The girl’s been with two brothers. Nuf said. Eyes and ears open, Sissy. Just sayin.”
Aiyanna did clarify that Nathan hadn’t actually been with Kelli. According to him, they’d never slept together, but admittedly Aiyanna had been hesitant to ask for more details. She didn’t want to come across as suspicious or insecure. The girl was his brother’s pregnant fiancée. Nathan didn’t strike her as the type of guy who’d continue to even think of his brother’s soon-to-be wife in an inappropriate way. She just hadn’t counted on meeting Kelli this soon. On meeting any of his siblings. But she supposed it was only fair. He had met and hung out with her gang already.
Nathan leaned in over Aiyanna’s shoulder at Chloe, who reached her little
hand out to him.
“Hey!” Liv said, standing up when Isaiah and his very attractive fiancée walked in.
They both said hello to Liv, hugging and kissing her. Nathan stood up to greet them also. When they were done, they turned their curious eyes onto Aiyanna.
Nathan smiled at her then back at Isaiah and Kelli. “This is Anna”—he walked back to where she was sitting, taking the baby from her when she started to get up— “my survivor partner in Colorado.”
“Nice to meet you, Anna.” Isaiah was the first to reach out and shake her hand.
Aiyanna smiled nervously, nodding as she shook his hand. “Likewise.”
She turned to Kelli, who smiled sweetly enough, keeping one hand on her baby bump and shaking Aiyanna’s hand with the other. At closer range, Aiyanna had no choice but to take in the fact that Kelli wasn’t just attractive. She was gorgeous. Even as Nathan slipped his hand in Aiyanna’s, she couldn’t help but feel the slightest sting of jealousy. Maybe it was the fact that Kelli really appeared to be radiating a pregnancy glow. Though Aiyanna hadn’t missed how even though Nathan had introduced her as his beautiful girlfriend to baby Chloe, she’d been reduced to his survivor partner in front of his beautiful ex.
Luckily, Chloe took center stage as they fawned over her for a while. They sat around, chatting over coffee and muffins as Nathan and Aiyanna answered questions about their week in Colorado together. Despite Isaiah and Nathan laughing about his retelling of the frying pan he took to the head, Aiyanna winced, still feeling bad about it.
“I think it’s great that you two hit it off,” Liv said then crinkled her nose. “Can you imagine being stuck for days with someone you didn’t click with? Someone who maybe even annoyed you or was creepy? That would’ve been awful.”
“At first it was,” Aiyanna said, and Nathan turned to her, eyes wide. “I mean before you woke up. All I knew was this big man had just broken through the window and I’d be all alone with him when he woke. I was terrified.”