Page 103 of Fearlessly Us

“I wish you didn’t have to be,” he says immediately. “I hate that you have to be.”

“It’s not my favorite thing,” I admit, and even being able to say that out loud to another human feels groundbreaking. “But it doesn’t feel quite as bad now that I don’t have to white-knuckle through it alone.”

“Never,” he says fervently. “You’ll never have to face it alone. You have me and you have your friends, and now you’ll have your family.”

Drew swings the car into a parking spot at the curb and I stare up at the house that holds all my memories, feeling anxious and a little bewildered but above all, like it’s time. “I’m glad you’re with me for this,” I tell him as he clicks the button to release my seatbelt, picking up my hand and pressing a kiss to my knuckles. “I’m glad I don’t have to do this alone either. Don’t be nervous. My family is your family now.”

Emotion swims in Drew’s eyes and he puts his hand on my cheek, stroking his thumb over my jaw. “I love you,” he says quietly. “Thank you for letting me be yours.”

Covering my hand with his, I let his words settle as I turn my head to kiss his palm. “Always. I love you too. Let’s get you to your first official Parker gathering in your I love Cait era. I promise you’re going to love it.”

“My long-lost granddaughter finally returns!”

My grandma swans into the foyer, grin wide and arms open. I brace myself for a tight hug that definitely won’t feel the best in my current condition. But instead of hugging me, she goes straight to Drew. Standing on her tiptoes, she wraps her arms around him and pulls him close. He freezes for a second, blinking like he’s not sure what to do with himself.

“Give into it, honey, remember?” she says quietly. “You deserve a hug.”

At my grandma’s words, Drew’s entire body relaxes, melting into the hug, his face filling with so much longing my heart squeezes. I thought I understood how much the way he grew up affected him. But watching him struggle to keep himself under control while wrapped in my grandma’s arms, I realize I didn’t know a thing, and I make a silent vow to fill his life with as much family as possible. So many Parkers and Hanleys and Wrights and Sullivans and Wyles he won’t know what to do with himself. There will be so many people in and out of his life that we’ll probably make it weird and he might end up hating it, but I’ll never stop doing it anyway.

Drew Ellicott was born for family, and I’m going to give him the biggest one he could ever dream of.

“And you,” my grandma says, releasing Drew and turning to me, resting her hands on my shoulders, studying me intently. “What brings you here?”

I resist the urge to fidget under her scrutiny, knowing better than most that Rachel Parker sees far more than anyone wants her to see. “Dinner, remember? Jack is crowing about his latest sourdough experiment that everyone needs to taste, and my dad got a wild hair to smoke a brisket for a hundred hours or something because he has too much time on his hands now that Jack has taken over the bar. I was summoned, and I brought backup in the form of a six-foot-two wide receiver sourdough savant who will be able to tell Jack everything he’s doing wrong, which will be fun for me.”

Drew coughs out a laugh, but my grandma just raises an eyebrow, like she’s not buying any of my bullshit. “That may be why you’re here, but that’s not the reason you came. Tell me the real reason, Cait.”

I feel Drew reach out and take my hand, squeezing as if to say, I’m here, and I know my grandma clocks the movement when she glances down and then back up at me, her face softening with a smile. “Fine,” I mutter. “Since you’ve decided to be psychic today or whatever, I do have something to tell everyone. But I’d rather tell everyone at once. Once is more than enough for me.”

“I suspect it is,” she murmurs, wrapping me in a tight hug. “Proud of you,” she whispers in my ear. “Whatever it is, we’ll fix it together. Family is where you lay your hurts, Cait. I think it took you a little while longer than the rest of us to learn that lesson, but I’m glad you’re here now.

“And I’m glad you’re here too,” she says, turning back to Drew and then looking from him to me and back again. “I had a feeling about you two that first day you came to the girls’ office looking for a lawyer. Took you a minute, but you finally got her, didn’t you?”

Drew looks at me, eyes filled with so much love it almost takes me out at the knees. “She got me too. And she’s never getting rid of me now.”

“Well!” my grandma says, clapping her hands together, approving smile on her face. “Around here we love a man who can express healthy emotion, especially when that emotion is love for one of my grandchildren. I sure didn’t have so many of my grandchildren falling for football players on my bingo card for this year, but I’m adjusting.”

I snort. “One of those football players is literally your grandchild too. Like, in the blood way. I think when you talk about it this way, you need to pretend Sophie isn’t yours because when you say your granddaughter fell for your grandson, people start looking at you weird.”

She waves that away. “Let them look. We know who we are.” She glances up at Drew. “And now I have another football-playing grandchild to add to the ranks.”

“Football playing for the moment,” Drew mumbles, his eyes snapping wide, like he didn’t mean to say that at all, and my grandma’s eyes sharpen, like Drew might not have meant to say it but she clocked every damn word.

I expect her to ask about it, do the thing where she can’t help but insert herself into everyone’s business. But instead, she reaches up and pats Drew on the cheek, resting her hand there for a beat. “We’re here to help you figure that out too, when you’re ready. Family is always here.”

Drew opens his mouth, closes it, and tries again like he doesn’t know what to say, but before he can figure it out, Grandma is turning and heading deeper into the house yelling, “Hallie! Ben! Caitlin is here with Drew and she has news!”

Drew chuckles, draping an arm around my shoulders and pressing a kiss to my hair. “Having a conversation with your grandma is kind of like what I imagine it feels like to get struck by lightning.”

Laughing, I lean against him. “It’s a feeling I’m well acquainted with after twenty-seven years of living. Rachel Parker takes no prisoners and suffers no fools and is an absolute puddle for anyone she considers family.”

“Which now includes me,” he says, with a kind of wonder that makes my eyes burn.

I squeeze him around the waist, leaning up to press a kiss to his jaw. “Bet your ass it does. You’re mine, which means you’re hers. That’s just the way it goes.”

“The way it goes sounds perfect to me.” Drew turns me to face him, cupping my cheeks in his warm palms. “You ready for this? Just say the word and I’ll stage a diversion for your escape.”

I laugh, thinking there isn’t much I wouldn’t be ready for as long as I have him next to me. “I don’t think a diversion will be necessary, although I wouldn’t say no to a prize at the end of this night. I found a new peanut butter brownie ice cream at the store that looked like something I need to try, so I bought four of them. We can have a taste test and do our monthly Hunt for Red October rewatch.”