Page 33 of Nolan (The Doherty Mafia)
It was uncomfortable for me to be in that situation with Amelia. I’d never brought a chick to be introduced to my family before. And here she was, sitting across from me, about to experience a full-scale Doherty dinner.
Isabelle, our step sister, was especially giggly tonight. Mostly because she couldn’t believe her eyes—that I’d brought a date with me. I wanted to get up and clarify to everyone the only reason Amelia was there was because Reese had insisted. But maybe at some point along the way, I’d stopped giving a crap about what my brothers thought of me.
I just didn’t give a shit anymore. They were free to think whatever they wanted about our relationship. More importantly, Amelia seemed to have fit right in.
At first it was mostly Reese who spoke to her. It wasn’t even me who made the introductions. Reese was the one who introduced Amelia to all of them. My brothers and their women. Isabelle was very excited and had a lot of questions for Amelia. She was even more excited when she learned Amelia was a fashion student. It looked like they’d have a lot to talk about.
Amelia glanced at me from time to time. She had a comfortable smile on her face like she didn’t want me worrying about her around my family.
Killian tapped a fork on the side of his whiskey glass and the conversation in the room died down. He stood up at the head of the table and looked at Reese.
“We asked you all to come to dinner tonight because we have an important announcement to make and we wanted all of you to find out at the same time,” Killian said. Isabelle gasped like she had already predicted what the announcement was going to be. I was lost. I had no idea.
Killian reached over for Reese’s hand and they stared at each other fondly.
“Reese is pregnant. We’re going to have a baby,” Killian said.
The room erupted into claps and cheers. Isabelle jumped up to hug Reese and Killian. When I looked at Amelia, I saw she was smiling at them too.
I was going to be an uncle and that made me happy, but I couldn’t fully enjoy the moment knowing I may end up leaving the family soon.
“If you want to leave, we can. We don’t have to stay,” I said.
Amelia had stepped into the kitchen to bring out some food Reese asked her to. I followed her to the kitchen so we could have a private moment.
She looked at me, surprised, as she scooped scalloped potatoes into a big dish.
“Why would I want to leave when I’m having so much fun?” She reached for me, placing a hand on my arm. “Aren’t you? Having fun?”
“Not exactly. This is my family. I’m not sure I have anything in common with them.”
Amelia tipped her head to one side and fixed me with a hard stare.
“Nolan, you’re overthinking this. You’re not letting your family in.”
“Letting them in where?”
She looked directly at my chest and I rolled my eyes. The conversation turned very melodramatic very quickly. She smiled and turned away.
“All I’m saying is maybe you should give them a chance.”
“A chance to do what?”
“To prove they want you to be a part of their lives.”
“I’ve never been a part of their lives. I’ve always been an outsider. Too young to understand, too naive to make any decisions.”
“What kind of decisions?” Amelia asked casually.
If I’d explained to her what kind of decisions my brothers made on a daily basis, I doubted she’d still want to finish the rest of the dinner with my family.
“Business decisions,” I said.
“You mean the business decisions you don’t want to tell me about?”
“Trust me, you’re better off not knowing,” I insisted.
“What if I want to know? What if you’re wrong about whether I can handle it or not.”
“Maybe I don’t want you to handle it,” I replied.
Amelia looked disappointed and hurt at that moment. Maybe I’d said the wrong thing.
“It’s not that I don’t want you to know, it’s I can’t share sensitive information with you.”
“An outsider, you mean?”
“Someone who isn’t a part of the family.”
“When you say sensitive information, it makes me very suspicious of your family business.”
“You should be.”
Amelia smiled. I’d managed to avoid an argument. She opened her mouth to say something else but Tristan walked into the kitchen then.
Amelia smiled at him too, then giving me a wink, she walked out with the dish of potatoes in her hands.
“Did I cramp your style?” Tristan asked with a laugh.
I went to the fridge and pulled a beer out.
“No, it’d take more than this,” I said, to which Tristan laughed some more.
“You know, this girl, Amelia, we all like her. You have the family’s approval,” he continued.
“Yeah, well, I don’t need the family’s approval.”
This dinner turned out to be much longer than I anticipated. Everyone had taken time with their food, asking for second helpings and thirds. Everyone, including Amelia, seemed to be having fun. In fact, she didn’t appear to be an outsider amongst my family at all. She had fit right in.
