After the Christmas Party(152)
When no one her entire life had believed in her, why did he? What did he see that no one else did? “Why’s that?”
“You’re a smart woman who can do anything you set your mind to.”
“Thank you, but you’re giving me more credit than I deserve.”
“I don’t think so. I just think you don’t give yourself enough credit. Not where a lot of things are concerned. You really are the most amazing woman, Trinity.”
Not knowing what to say to his comment, she made a show of surveying the assembly of presents. “I hope they like them.”
His gaze stayed on her rather than the presents. “They will. They aren’t picky. They’re used to dealing with me, remember?”
He was so close to perfect it wasn’t real. His family would see right away that they were from two different ends of the spectrum. A bubble of panic rose in her throat.
“What if they don’t like me?”
“They will like you. Weren’t you paying attention? They aren’t picky.” He grinned while he said the last and she knew he was attempting to ease her concerns. His easy smile and confidence did go a long way to dismantling her anxiety. The man’s constant good humor was contagious.
She slapped his arm playfully. He had such a way of making her feel better. “Shame on you, Riley.”
His eyes twinkled with merriment. “For?”
“Teasing me when I’m nervous about meeting your family.”
“No worries, princess. I know they are going to love you. Besides, turnabout is fair play and you can tease me when I meet your family.”
Which was yet another reason why she should have shut this conversation down a long time ago. She bit the inside of her bottom lip. “Won’t happen.”
His brow rose. “You don’t plan to keep me around long enough to have need to introduce me to your family?”
His tone was teasing, but a real question shone in his eyes.
“It’s not that. We both know you’ll be the one to get bored with me and walk away. Not vice versa.” She hated the thought of him doing so. If she’d felt a panic bubble before, she felt a panic volcano now. “If you think back, I told you that I don’t know my father, and my mother died a few years ago.” Right before she’d started dating Chase, actually. “There’s no family for me to introduce you to.”
“No uncles or aunts or cousins?”
If there were she’d never met or heard of any of them. She shook her head.
“Oh, princess, that’s terrible. Come here.” He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close, much as a parent would a child.
Trinity couldn’t say her lack of family was terrible, just her reality, but Riley’s arms around her felt good so she wasn’t going to argue with him. Instead, she snuggled against him and rested her cheek against the hard plane of his chest, soaking in his strength.
“I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t know.”
“It’s okay.” How could he have known? How could anyone have known when she kept all her emotions bottled up inside her? Even now she wondered if she’d made a mistake, letting him know so much. “Does it matter?”
He pulled back to stare down at her. “Of course it matters. Family is one’s support system and you’ve had to face life without that.”
Her mother had been her only family and, honestly, she hadn’t been supportive, at least, not that Trinity could recall. More that Trinity had been an unexpected nuisance that had come along and interrupted her buzz.
“Not all families are supportive.”
“True, and there are times mine drive me crazy, but I wouldn’t trade them for the world.” He kissed the top of her head. “Well, you’ll see what I mean after you meet them tomorrow.”
With that, a renewed dread of meeting his family, of having to endure a Christmas dinner and be smacked in the face with what all she didn’t have in her life hit her. A renewed fear of what this Christmas Day would bring because, seriously, Christmas was never good for her. “You’re really going to make me go?”
“You know I am. You gave me your word.”
She nodded. She’d expected no less. “What should I wear?”
“Clothes. If you don’t, my mother will be highly upset with me,” he said with a deadpan expression that was unlike him.
“Okay, smartypants, what kind of clothes? A dress or just something casual?”
He grinned and she realized he’d once again purposely tried to distract her. “Casual. There’s a lot of us, and I do mean a lot, and we’re very informal. Just dress in whatever you’re going to be most comfortable in.”