Dangers of Love

by M. S. Parker

  “So, it’s just the McCraes who are from Scotland?” she asked as we sat down in front of my laptop. “The rest are from America?”

  “Yeah. Austin, Rome, Paris, and Aspen, they’re the Carideos. They were all born in San Jose. Blaze, Fury, and Rose are Gracens, and they were born there too. All of us lived there for a few months right after Da and Theresa got married, then we all moved to San Ramon. That’s where Sean, Xander, and London were born. After Mom’s brother- and sister-in-law passed, the Gracens came to San Ramon to live with us too.” I grinned at the expression on her face. “Don’t worry, there’s no test.”

  “I’m glad.” She waved a hand in front of her smiling face. “I’d need to study for a week to get all that.”

  I glanced at the time. “Ready?”

  She let out a long breath of air. “As I’ll ever be.”

  I made the call and reached for her hand. She was a strong woman, but it’d been a rough couple of months, and the last thing she needed was my family overwhelming her.

  Another reason why this introduction was better with video.

  “Eoin!” Paris’s voice came through a moment before the screen focused on her. “Right on time too. We were betting whether…oh, hi.” Paris’s dark eyes went from me to Aline and then back to me. “Mom’s going to kick your ass for not telling her you have someone with you.”

  Aline tensed, and I squeezed her hand. “It’s not how it sounds.” I glared at Paris even while trying to reassure Aline. “Paris doesn’t always think before she speaks.”

  “Is that Eoin?” Mom appeared behind Paris, and her eyebrows shot up, emphasizing their common features. Mom’s hair was a dark reddish-brown to Paris’s pitch-black, but there was no mistaking the genetics there.

  “Hey.” I waved with my free hand. “Can you get everyone together, so I don’t have to repeat introductions?”

  “Mm-hm.” Mom stepped out of sight.

  “Told you,” Paris said with a grin. Out of all of my siblings, she and I were the closest. Seven months older than me, the way our birthdays had fallen had put us in the same classes growing up. She’d never rebelled like I had, but she definitely hadn’t been quiet and compliant either.

  I flipped her off, barely getting my hand out of sight before the screen filled with a dozen members of my family.

  “Theresa said you have a surprise for us. I see she wasn’t exaggerating.” Da smiled at Aline. “Good evenin’. I’m Patrick, and I hope you won’t be holdin’ my son’s lack of manners against me.”

  Aline laughed. While there was a nervous touch to the sound, she wasn’t clinging as tightly to my hand as she had been, which was good, and probably what Da had intended.

  “Good to meet you,” she said.

  “Let me get your names out of the way first,” I said. “You already met Paris, Mom, and Da.” I pointed to the tall one with the deep red hair pulled back in a ponytail. “That’s Rose. She lives in Colorado.” Sandy brown hair and blue-green eyes, my most easy-going brother had his arm on Rose’s shoulder and a strange, serious expression on his face. “Brody’s from San Ramon.” Short raven-black hair and a serious expression was next. “Aspen lives there too.” Only shorter than me by an inch, my L.A.-based stepbrother was next. “Rome. He lives in L.A.”

  Rome shot Aline a little salute. “Nice to meet you.”

  Aline waved. “Nice to meet you too.”

  I kept going. Slightly shorter but just as broad was the oldest of us all. “Alec, the old man of the bunch.” It actually was a surprise to find him there since he was the biggest workaholic in the family, and that was saying something. I didn’t mention that, though.

  “Austin.” The baby of the family had strawberry blonde hair, and like Aline, the sort of delicate appearance that made us all extremely overprotective. “London’s an actress in New York.” Next to her was one of the twins. They were identical, but I’d never had any problem telling them apart, even when they were together. “That’s Sean.” The musician was next with her honey-blonde hair and ever-present smile. Except that smile didn’t quite look like it was reaching her eyes. I’d have to ask about that later. “Maggie’s the family musician.” And then were the two whose names she knew, though she’d only seen one of them before. “That’s Cory, and I’m guessing you already recognized Fury.”

  “She did?” Fury was understandably puzzled. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I know you.”

  Aline shook her head. “I graduated from Stanford this past spring.”

  “Ah, that makes sense.” Fury turned all his attention to her, his dark eyes amused. “I’m guessing there’s a good story about how you went from Stanford to him.”

  I interrupted before we could get into that minefield. “Everyone, this is Aline Mercier.” I held up her left hand. “My fiancée.”

  Dead silence.

  I took advantage of it to drop the second bomb so we could get it all over with at once.

  “And we’re having a baby.”

  Jaws dropped. The only ones who didn’t look like I’d hit them with a two by four were Austin and Fury. Well, them and my parents. They were surprised too, but they managed to control their expressions for the most part. They were also the first to recover. Austin and Fury were impossible to get reactions from.

  “Congratulations.” Theresa’s voice was steady, and her smile was genuine, but her gaze kept darting over to me, and there were questions in her eyes.

  “Aye, lad.” Da cleared his throat. “Bit of a surprise, but good news all the way ‘round.” He looked at Aline. “Welcome to the family, lass.”

  “Thank you.” Her fingers had tightened on my hand.

  “Damn, big brother.” Sean grinned at me. “How’d you manage to snag someone like her?”

  “If I knew, little brother, I’d tell you.” I laughed. I should’ve known I could count on Sean to break the tension with some half-asshole comment. “Trust me, I know how lucky I am.”

  “I’m just glad we’re finally getting some more women in the family,” Paris said. “Not that I thought it’d be you next. I mean, Alec was a bit of a surprise, but you…”

  “Paris.” Mom’s tone held a warning we all recognized.

  Paris grinned. “Come on, you can’t tell me you expected this.”

  Mom gave Paris a look that silenced my slightly older sister before turning to Aline. “How are you feeling, dear?”

  “Good.” Aline’s smile was a little stiff, but it wasn’t forced, just uncomfortable. “Some morning sickness, but not a lot.”

  “That’s good,” Mom said. “Mine were all different. With Sean and Xander, it didn’t hit me until noon.” She reached over and tried to fix some of Sean’s hair, even though we all knew it was a losing battle. “Like clockwork with them.”

  “Thanks for sharing that, Mom.” Sean rolled his eyes. “That’s exactly the sort of thing I want my future sister-in-law to know about me. Want to share about dirty diapers next?”

  “Don’t tempt me, young man.”

  Aline laughed quietly, and I wondered if it was the exchange between Mom and Sean, or her remembering what I’d told her about our family’s ‘must-wear-pants’ rule. Either way, it was a sound I liked hearing.

  “Do you know when you’re due?” Rose asked.

  Aline shook her head. “Not exactly. I think August, but I should know more once I see my doctor after the first of the year.”

  I could see a couple of them doing the math, trying to figure out how far along she was. They could figure out a lot of things that way. Like when she and I had started sleeping together, which might lead them to asking about how we’d met.

  I was pretty sure the reason no one had asked about how long we’d been dating was because they’d all realized that things were moving fast. After all, I’d been with them on Thanksgiving and hadn’t mentioned that I was dating anyone.

  “Have you picked a date for the wedding?” Paris asked. Her face lit up. “Carson can totally design your dress!
He’s amazing!”

  “Carson?” Aline glanced at me, the question barely loud enough for me to hear.

  “Cory’s twin,” I said. “He’s a designer in New York.”

  “I’ve already told him that he’s designing mine, but that’ll be far, far in the future, if ever,” Paris continued. “He’d love to do yours, I’m sure. And he’d do it for a good price too.”

  “Paris.” Maggie put her hand on Paris’s arm. “Let’s stick with Christmas and save the wedding planning collaboration for later, all right?”

  For a moment, I thought I saw something strange on Maggie’s face, an emotion or something like that, but when I tried to focus on it, it was gone. I told myself to remember to come back to it later, ask one of the others if something was going on with her, but even if I forgot, I had complete faith that someone would figure it out. A family this big, secrets didn’t last for long.

  “Sorry.” Paris grinned at Aline. “I can get carried away sometimes. Just ask your fiancé. I’m sure he can find some great stories to tell about the shit we used to get into growing up.”

  “Language.” Mom said it with the same exasperated tone she always used when she wished we’d lay off the curses but wasn’t going to make a big deal about it.

  That was how she’d always been. She didn’t like us swearing, but as long as it wasn’t directed at someone seriously or disrespectfully, she’d just give us that same warning. For her and Da, it’d always been about respect. The one time I’d really gotten my ass busted had been the only time in my life I’d called one of my sisters a bitch. I couldn’t remember which one or the circumstances, but I sure remembered the punishment.

  Mom had arranged for me to spend two months cleaning kennels at a local animal shelter. She’d said I needed to learn what a real bitch was.

  Since then, there’d only been one woman I’d ever used that word for, and that had been Alec’s ex-wife, Keli. There had been enough extenuating circumstances that if Mom had known about them, she probably would’ve said it herself.

  “So, Aline, since my son is clearly neglecting the good manners he was taught as a child, how about you tell us a little about yourself?” The warmth in Mom’s voice was genuine, but so was the slight reprimand she directed specifically at me.

  And it was all rightly on me. Aline may have been a little hesitant to talk about the pregnancy, but my family should’ve at least known about her. We might not have been dating long, but Alec had realized how important she was to me when I’d talked to him. The rest of them should’ve known it too.

  “Um, well, I’m from L.A.,” Aline began. “And, like I said, I graduated from Stanford. My sister did at the same time too. Her name’s Freedom, and there’s just the two of us and our parents.”

  Aline may have looked calm and composed, but my leg was pressed against hers, and I could feel her shaking. I didn’t know if it was fear, anxiety, or just the result of adrenaline from working herself up, but she needed me to take over.

  “Aline has a master’s degree in elementary education,” I said. “She plans to be a teacher.”

  “Master’s?” Cory was clearly impressed. “You barely look old enough to have a Bachelor’s.”

  “I know I look younger than that,” Aline said with a laugh. “It’s okay.”

  “She’s a genius.” I smiled at her, aware of the looks my family was shooting my way.

  I hadn’t smiled this much in a long time, and now they knew the reason why. It was her. After spending almost a full year spinning in circles, I had my focus again.

  I had a future and a purpose.

  Thirty-Two

  Aline

  The video call had been…interesting.

  I’d enjoyed meeting Eoin’s family, even though it had been a little overwhelming at first, but I’d still been relieved when it was over. I didn’t regret the decisions I’d made, and I knew I’d absolutely love my in-laws, but everything had just been happening so fast. I needed the world to slow down a bit.

  Fortunately, Eoin had arranged for something nice and relaxing for the rest of Christmas Eve: decorating the tree he’d had delivered, eating Christmas cookies, and watching a Christmas movie or two.

  Perfect.

  The tree was on the small side, barely reaching my shoulders even with the stand, but it was a freshly cut white pine with long, soft needles and just the right amount of scent. Since we didn’t have a lot of ornaments, it hadn’t made sense to get a big one. It wasn’t much smaller than the ones Freedom and I had always gotten for our apartment, but a part of me was already looking ahead to the sorts of trees that the high ceilings here would be able to accommodate.

  The slightly embarrassed expression on Eoin’s face when he brought a box out of one of the closets brought me back to the present.

  “Growing up, all of us had our own boxes of ornaments. Da and Ma had always bought us one every year before she passed. Mom had made ones for her, her first husband, Marcus, and their kids. Blaze, Fury, and Rose brought their family ornaments with them when they moved in. Then we started our own family tradition of making ornaments for each other.” He opened the box. “By the time London was two or three, we had to start getting two trees, but we kept making them because, when each of us moves out, we get to take the box of our ornaments with us.”

  “That’s wonderful,” I said, moving over to stand next to him.

  “You might not think so when you see some of them,” he warned. “I’m not the most artistic person in the world.”

  Someone else might’ve thought he was being flippant and didn’t care about the items in that box, but despite the short time we’d been together, I’d learned to read him better than that. He was trying to distance himself from something he was emotionally connected to because he was unsure as to what my response would be.

  I hated that he thought I might be anything other than supportive, but I was starting to understand that he still saw himself as the screw-up bad boy he’d been as a teenager. A boy who knew his family would love him no matter what, but still didn’t believe that they liked him or were proud of him. And certainly a boy who could never be loved by anyone else.

  I put my hand on his arm, surprised at the strength of the emotions that went through me, both at my realization and the physical contact. “Would you love our child any less if their first picture of you was a stickman with purple hair?”

  He looked startled by the question and then laughed. “No, of course not.”

  “What you have in there is no less precious because it might not be ‘perfect.’” I put the word in air quotes to ensure that he didn’t miss it. “They’re a part of you and your family that our child – our family – will use to build our own foundation, our own traditions. It’s a beautiful beginning to what will be a great life together.”

  Every word I said solidified in my mind that accepting the proposal had been the right thing to do. And my little speech accomplished something else too. It revealed to me the not-so-secret truth that I’d been dancing around for a while.

  I might not have been ready to say I love you to him, but I had fallen in love. I didn’t know when it’d happened, but it was there, big and bold. Something too large to be ignored, even if I’d wanted to.

  That awareness clung to me as we went through his box of ornaments, and he shared stories about them, talking more than I’d heard him speak in one stretch at any other point in time. I didn’t interrupt, though. I was usually the one with all the words, but I didn’t mind being the listener today. I was eager to learn all I could about him.

  Despite how uncomfortable I’d been a few times during the video call and the anxiety that had come before it, today had quickly become one of my favorite days. We ate the amazing cookies he’d brought home and laughed when the tree nearly fell because we’d put too many heavy ornaments on one side. Then we’d turned off all the lights except the ones on the tree and settled on the couch to watch White Christmas.

  As the openi
ng scene began, Eoin put his arm around my shoulders, and I leaned against him, loving the way we fit together so perfectly. I hadn’t really thought about the way we must’ve looked together, him being so tall while I was barely average height. The sheer power in his body while I looked delicate enough for a strong breeze to knock me down.

  Physicality wasn’t the only difference between us either. We’d both come from hard-working, wealthy families, but that was where those similarities ended. He had a massive blended family, while mine was limited to my parents and sister. He’d gone into the army straight out of high school while I’d graduated young and entered college the following autumn.

  We didn’t make sense.

  But I didn’t care, and I hoped he didn’t either. If the ring on my finger was any indication, he and I were on the same page, but a small part of me still wondered if our engagement had more to do with the baby than it did him actually wanting to marry me.

  We had time, though. Just because we were expecting, engaged, and living together after knowing each other only for a little over a month didn’t mean our wedding needed to come as quickly as the rest had.

  I pushed all those thoughts away. I wanted to enjoy our Christmas, and while part of that included the strange circumstances surrounding my relationship with Eoin, I didn’t want every waking moment consumed by that particular situation. I wanted at least something that felt like it could be just a normal Christmas Eve with a guy I was dating.

  Not that I had any clue what that would feel like.

  Still, I focused my attention back on the film, determined to enjoy the simple act of watching a Christmas classic with my boyfriend. Fiancé.

  Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye had just revealed their big surprise to their former commanding officer when Eoin’s fingers began to lightly stroke my upper arm. It was an absent sort of touch, the kind that isn’t really intended to seduce or arouse, but nonetheless, it left tendrils of heat on my skin, twisting coils of warmth low in my belly.