“She’s not stunted,” I growled.
Belle patted my leg, trying to calm me down.
But I would not calm down.
I would not allow her family, even if they were doing it out of love, tease the living hell out of her for being ‘stunted’ when she wasn’t.
“I was just saying, it’s a surprise that she was able to land someone.” Booth leaned back in his chair. “She always promised that she would never marry. Never have kids. Never anything. She didn’t want that life.”
I turned to look at the woman that had agreed to be mine forever just a few hours before.
“You thought you’d be alone for your entire life?” I asked, unable to stop the sadness from leaching into my voice.
She shrugged. “I hadn’t met you yet. I didn’t know that there would be someone out there that understood me.”
I felt something inside of my chest shift and knew without a shadow of a doubt that from now on, there would never be a time that she felt unwanted.
I would make sure that she knew, every single day of the rest of our lives, that she was mine. That I wanted and needed her right there at my side. For as long as we both shall live.
“Did you have something to ask us?” Bourne asked out of the blue. “Is that why you’re here?”
“Actually.” I stretched my neck from side to side. “I have two very good reasons.”
“Which would be…” Priscilla drawled.
I looked over at the woman that looked so much like Belle, but couldn’t be more different.
Belle was an extroverted introvert. Priscilla? She was the belle of the ball, always willing to be in someone’s presence.
She was cute and sassy and willing to try anything, while Belle was beautiful, reserved and would always question you no matter how much sense it made.
“Which would be, I need to talk to Nico.” I looked over at the door where the man had disappeared to cook steaks over twenty minutes ago.
Belle rolled her eyes.
“Just go,” she grumbled.
She was in on this plan.
From the moment we showed up here to the house full of her family, she’d concocted a plan that would have her dad grilling steaks and giving me the opportunity to talk to him seeing as he hated having anyone help him cook them.
So she said.
Anyway, I got up and headed for the door among the whispers of their family.
But just before I got to the door, the line of questioning from Booth’s wife, Delanie, had me stopping and looking over my shoulder.
“Priscilla, when you sit down on the toilet in a public bathroom, and accidentally fart, do you get embarrassed?” Priscilla’s face flushed bright red.
“Of course I do!” She flushed under all the attention.
Dillan’s eyes turned to Belle.
“Belle, when you fart in a public restroom, do you get embarrassed?” Daniella challenged Belle.
My lips twitched with amusement.
I’d found out just this morning that she was a bit… different. As in, she was now much gassier. Gas that was coming out both ends, but didn’t seem to bother me in the least.