Chapter 8 #2
The invitation came from a number I didn’t recognize.
Xavier had warned me his moms wanted to throw him a birthday party slash housewarming in his new house and when it would be so I could make plans to go.
The apartment he’d sold and split with Gio had been absurdly expensive.
It left him with enough to buy a nice four-bedroom property not all that far from Curtis with a decent-sized yard out back.
He still had a mortgage, but it wasn’t too much for him to handle on his budget.
Besides, he was doing well for himself in his job.
Unknown
Hey Brady, I’m Leigh-Anne, Xavier’s alpha mom. The party starts at seven. Stacy, my wife, has created a registry because our son wouldn’t dream of asking for anything for this place! Hope to meet you at the party.
Leigh-Anne had attached the invitation along with Xavier’s address.
I sent back something polite confirming I’d be there.
My stomach was full of nerves at the thought of meeting his family.
He hadn’t said all that much about his alpha sister, Kaitlyn.
I knew she was a couple of years older than him, mated to a guy Xavier had struggled to like at first. He’d been right, and they divorced after the guy had their son.
Kaitlyn now raised her son, Teddy, alone.
He was around the same age as Marty’s daughter, Maddy, maybe. Wasn’t a hundred percent on that one.
For his housewarming, I got Jae to create an anime-style drawing of me and Xavier that I put in a frame.
My head told me it was a bad idea, that it suggested we were far more than just people who fucked sometimes.
I was blaming it on all the heat hormones scrambling my brains.
It didn’t matter that it was three weeks after my heat.
Nope. His birthday gift was a forty-year-old bottle of scotch. Expensive, yet worth it.
By the time the day of the party dawned, I’d worked myself into a state over it. I’d been tempted to call my family or Jae for advice, but I couldn’t rely on them for everything. They had their own lives to lead, and this was a mess of my own making.
If I wanted something with Xavier, I had to bite the bullet and ask for it.
I took a ride share to his house. Someone had strung up fairy lights all over the house and along the walkway up to the blue front door. There was a note stuck to the door that told me to head on through.
The hallway was brightly lit and welcoming. At the end, I could hear the noises of the party coming from the open-plan kitchen diner extension. There were patio doors open leading out to a lantern lit yard with comfortable looking seating for the guests.
Xavier spotted me from his place at the grill. He nudged his friend, getting them to take over, and approached me.
“Hey, good to see you!” He wrapped his arms around me, but didn’t go in for a kiss.
There was an awkward moment where we sort of stared at each other as if we were going to go in for one, but we backed away.
Xavi huffed a laugh, pressed a kiss to my cheek, and wrapped an arm around me. “Want me to introduce you to everyone?”
“Um…”
“Okay, not all at once. Want a drink?”
“Xavi? Is that Brady?” called a woman who had to be his mom. They had the same ocean blue eyes, though her hair was a darker brown than Xavi’s. His had more gold highlights through the wavy strands.
“Yeah, Mama,” he answered. “C’mon,” he said to me. “We better head over there or she’ll refuse to serve us. She’s our bartender for the night.”
“Oh, you are just as handsome as he said you were,” Stacy praised as we drew closer. “Here, have some of my iced tea. It packs a punch.” I took the offered glass and sipped carefully. As soon as it hit my throat, I felt the burn. I coughed, which made Stacy laugh. “You’ll get used to it.”
“Wow! That’s uh… powerful.” To Xavi I whispered, “Don’t let me drink too many of these or I’m not going home.”
He leaned into me and spoke in an undertone. “What if I don’t want you to go home?”
I didn’t know how to react. There had been a reason I hadn’t been to Xavier’s place before.
Either the apartment he’d lived in post break up nor his new house.
I wanted to be in control. To do everything on my home turf, where I felt most comfortable.
I didn’t want to see all this and feel out of place.
Thing was, now that I was here, I felt like I belonged here.
Like this was where I was supposed to be.
Xavier didn’t push me to say anything, just wrapped an arm around me and led me to his alpha mom. Leigh-Anne was just as friendly as her wife. She unwound Xavier’s arm from my waist and took his place before pulling me along to the food table.
“We must feed you!”
All the guests were welcoming, with plenty of funny stories of times they’d spent with Xavier.
His colleagues from work were there, people from college and law school, even an old friend from high school with her husband.
Everyone made an effort to include me in conversation, and no one brought up who I was to Xavier.
“Excuse me, everyone,” Stacy caught the attention of the crowd. “We’re going to have Xavier blow out the candles in a minute, but first I want to say a few words about my baby boy.”