31. Dakota
The doorbell rings, and the girls spring out of their seats on the couch to run to the door. “Don’t open that door,” I tell them when they disappear into the hallway. I nervously look over at the clock and see they’re early.
“Oh my God,” I mumble. “Don’t freak out.” I take deep breaths as I walk toward the front door. Every single step feels like there is concrete in my shoes.
“It’s Justin,” Rain announces, “and Caroline.”
My heart speeds up when I hear this. “Christopher,” I hiss up the stairs, waiting for him to stick his head out of my bedroom, but he doesn’t and the front door is opened.
“Hey,” Justin says, stepping into the house and squatting down in front of the girls to give them hugs.
“Would you let us in?” Caroline pushes Justin out of the way a bit, stepping in from the cold, followed by Zoe and Viktor.
“Girls,” I urge softly, “let them get in, please.” They walk back to me at the same time as Christopher decides to grace us with his presence.
“Hey, you guys are here,” he says, jogging down the steps, his hair wet from his shower, and I want to inwardly cringe. Nothing says I just had sex with your son like him coming down with wet hair.
He walks past the girls, going to his parents first, giving his father a hug and then bending to kiss his mother’s cheek. I’ve met them before, so I don’t know why I’m so nervous about this. Oh, that’s right, because now it’s different. I’m not just his friend’s wife. I’m now the woman he’s with. I refuse to use the word girlfriend at this age. “Hi, honey,” his mother says softly while she hugs him. “You look good.” She smiles at him while he moves from her to Zoe, kissing her cheek and hugging her in the same way he did his mother.
“Hi,” Zoe greets cheerfully, “look at you.” She puts a hand on his cheek. “He’s glowing.”
“I’m not glowing,” he jokes before hugging Viktor. “Hey.” The two of them share a look before Viktor slaps his shoulder and squeezes.
“He’s not glowing,” Viktor says, “it’s just the look of love.”
He shakes his head and laughs. “I guess that might be it.” He smiles at me and the girls, who are standing in front of me.
“I’m sorry.” I finally get my words together. “Let me take your coats.”
“I’m in love with this house,” Zoe says, turning to see the window. “It’s even more stunning than the pictures.”
“Isn’t it?” I say, walking to her as she hands me her jacket. Christopher takes it out of my hands.
“I got it, baby,” he says, grabbing the jackets and placing them on the stairs. I look over, seeing his parents share a look when both of their eyes go up, then they try not to smile.
“It smells amazing,” Caroline states when she catches me staring at her.
“We made lemon muffins,” Luna shares, jumping up and down, “and I did the icing.”
“Well, then, I’m sure they’ll be amazing,” Justin says, awkwardly standing at the front door, not sure where to go.
“Please come in.” I shake my head. “I’m so sorry.” I laugh nervously. “Welcome,” I say to them with a huge smile.
“I want to see this kitchen,” Zoe states. “From the picture, it looked out of this world.” She walks into the house. “Oh, it’s stunning.”
“Isn’t it?” I smile as I’m running my hand along the granite island.
“Come and see the couch,” Luna says to Justin, taking his hand.
“I want to see the couch too,” Viktor says. Rain smiles and grabs his hand, and they pull them into the family room.
“Would you like some wine or maybe a mimosa?” I’m about to say something else when I feel Christopher behind me, his hand gripping my hip.
“Baby.” He bends down. “Relax.” He kisses my neck right in front of his parents.
All I can do is stare at him, the stare turning into a glare. “Christopher,” Caroline says, “stop making her nervous.”
“I’m not making her nervous.” He points at himself. “You guys are all making her like this.”
“Christopher,” I hiss, then look at his mother. “I’m not nervous.”
“Well, at least one of us isn’t.” Caroline laughs, pulling out a stool. “When I met Justin’s family, I think I shook like a leaf.” Caroline puts her hands on the counter in front of her, folding them together. “They were just?—”
She looks over at Zoe, who also pulls out a stool. “We were a lot.” The two of them laugh.
“It’s silly since we know each other. We’ve known each other for years,” I finally say, “but it’s a different hat.”
“That’s a great way of putting it,” Caroline says, the softness in her eyes helping me relax a bit.
The doorbell rings, and I look over at Christopher, who looks at me. “I’ll get it,” he says, rounding me and heading for the front door.
“Sorry, we weren’t expecting anyone else.” I look at them and hear voices and laughter from the front door before I see Matthew walk into the room, slapping his hands together. “Couldn’t let you guys have all the fun.” Max follows him into the room, shaking his head behind him.
He walks over to Caroline, kisses her cheek, and then hugs Zoe. “Heaven forbid we have something where you aren’t invited to.”
“Heaven forbid,” Max repeats behind him. “You would have thought you guys were keeping state secrets when he found out.”
Matthew just glares at them before walking behind the counter toward me. “Hey, Koda.” He hugs me. “You look good. Glowing.”
“Jesus,” Christopher says, “what is with this glowing thing?”
“It’s love,” Allison says, coming to hug me. “Sorry to interrupt, but we made him promise we would say hello and then leave.”
“Good luck with that,” Karrie says, pulling up a stool next to Zoe. “I love this kitchen.” She looks around. “This house is so cozy.” She takes it all in.
Max makes his way over to me, giving me a side hug before leaving the kitchen with Matthew and heading to the family room with the girls. His voice gets animated when they don’t come to him. “Where are my hugs and kisses?”
“How’re you doing?” Christopher says when he finally stands beside me, putting his arm over my shoulders. “Is your hair on fire yet?”
“You know that feeling you get when you think you’re going to throw up?” I look up at him, and he nods. “I’m like past that and grabbing a bucket to puke in.” He throws his head back and laughs.
“Good thing you love me, then,” he says, and I bite down on my lip. “I’m going to make sure the girls are okay.” He bends to kiss my lips.
I watch him walk away from me into the living room with the guys. “Are you okay?” someone asks from beside me, and I didn’t even notice that Caroline moved.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I assure her. “I just wanted to make a good impression.”
“Good impression.” She throws her head back and laughs, and I see that the other girls are not even noticing our conversation. “You’re kidding, right?”
“I don’t understand,” I ask, furrowing my brow.
“Koda. You made a good impression the minute we met you.”
“Yes,” I say, “but that was?—”
“Was that not you also?” She laughs when she asks the question. “You’re the same person we met all those years ago, just with a different hat.
“You know, when I met Justin’s family, I was living in a one-bedroom apartment in the worst neighborhood. I had drug dealers living right outside my door.” I stare at her. “And then, they are them.” She points with her hand at the group of people just lounging in my house.
Christopher sits on the floor next to Max, who is stretched out, pushing Matthew’s shoulder, who is also sitting on the floor. “So you may not be the person you were all those years ago, but you’re you.” She smiles big. “And you love my son, so it’s a good impression right off the bat.”
“I do, you know,” I confirm softly. “Which I’m sure many people will think is weird. Hell, I even fought it for the longest time. But he’s him, and he’s perfect, and he’s kind, and he’s just…”
“I know,” she agrees, looking over at her husband. “He’s exactly like his father, so I know what you mean.”
“Are we going to eat or what?” Matthew shouts from the family room. “Should we go out or order in?”
“It’s too cold to go out,” Justin says. “We should just order food here and watch the game.”
“We should do Chinese,” Karrie suggests. “Dumplings.”
“Whatever you want.” Matthew looks at her with a smirk on his face.
“We should order sushi also,” Allison adds. “Max, can we have sushi?”
“Anything, angel,” he says, and his look is pure love.
“Oh,” Caroline says, “we should order pizza also.”
“That works,” Justin agrees.
“The last time we were here, we had the best butter chicken,” Zoe remembers, looking at Viktor.
“Dear God,” I say under my breath, and Caroline looks at me. “I’m going to have leftovers for a month.”
“Welcome to the family, Dakota.” She squeezes my hand before she walks away while everyone places different orders on different phones.