Chapter 24

Hudson

For a guy who hadn’t been to California more than once since I’d come to America more than a decade before, it was strange to be touching down there for the second time in as many months.

Mia’s parents had jumped at the chance to have her home for the weekend, but were more than reluctant to extend the invitation to me. They had relented only after Mia told them we were a package deal, and if her husband wasn’t welcome, she wasn’t either.

The lengths she went to for me never ceased to amaze me. She was one of a kind, and somehow, she was all mine.

Under the circumstances, I was surprised that she seemed completely relaxed about going home. So relaxed, she’d fallen asleep shortly after takeoff and was still dozing when we started our descent into LAX.

“Baby,” I murmured. “It’s time to wake up, we’re almost there.”

Her golden curls framed her face, and her sleepy eyes blinked open. “Really? That was quick.”

She looked so fucking beautiful, even after most of her makeup had faded over the course of the day, and what little remained was smudged under her eyes. I leaned over to brush her cheek with the backs of my fingers. “Really. Have a good nap?”

She yawned, giving me a lazy smile that made me want to rip her pencil skirt off and fuck her all the way to the other end of the globe. Or until the plane ran out of fuel.

“I did. I didn’t realize I was so tired.”

My eyebrows furrowed. “You’ve been working too hard, I’m going to rearrange your client roster this weekend.”

“You will not,” she insisted, her eyes suddenly wide open and alert. “My clients are mine. You’re not touching them.”

I smirked. “Actually, they’re ours. As in BC’s. If I assign them to a new manager, that’s just the way it is.”

“No,” Mia pouted. “It’s not the way it is, because it’s not happening.”

The jet taxied to a stop, and my palms suddenly felt uncharacteristically clammy. We were minutes away from seeing Mia’s family. It was not the time to pick a fight, especially not with what I had to tell them.

“Okay, let’s table that discussion. We’ll see how you feel next week.” I reached for her hand. She sighed, but laced her fingers with mine.

“Okay, but I’m not going to feel any differently.”

“We’ll see. How are you feeling about being home?” I was worried about her, about what we would potentially be walking into. I wrapped my arms around her, wanting to protect her from the hurt she could be facing if her parents rejected her. Us.

She melted into me, her fingertips tracing my spine in a way that was not conducive to anything but spurring on my plan to tell the pilot to keep flying until we ran out of fuel so I could fuck my wife the way I wanted to.

“Not as nervous as I thought I would be.” She breathed against my chest, reminding me of what we were actually doing, not what I wanted to be doing.

“I’ll be right there with you, baby.” I massaged her shoulders with my thumbs.

“I know. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Probably not be fighting with your family in the first place?” I suggested, a wry smile on my lips. I felt like shit for having caused the rift between Mia and her family, but hopefully, we’d get that all squared away soon.

“Oh, ha,” she replied, pulling away from me to disembark but keeping her hand in mine.

“Just stating the simple truth.”

“Even so, I’m glad you suggested it.” She smiled over her shoulder.

The closer we got to her parents’ house, the more nervous I got. Considering the last time I’d been there, I walked out on a wedding her parents had put together with less than forty-eight hours’ notice—I wasn’t expecting a warm welcome.

The one I got was not even cold. It was icy at best. And well deserved. Not only had I walked out of the wedding, but then I married their daughter in front of a justice of the peace without them even knowing it.

“Mia!” her mother exclaimed, rushing to hug her before she’d managed to completely get out of the car.

“Hi, Mom,” Mia returned her hug, glancing at me before burying her face in her mother’s hair. I knew she missed her, and felt bad about everything that had happened, given how close she was with her mother.

Ryan swept her up once her mother let her go, turning her as I’d seen him do the first time we’d arrived. Mia’s Mom spared a quick hug for me, but Ryan bluntly ignored me.

Charles and Mia’s grandfather waited at the front door, both pausing to shake my hand but dropping it like it burned them not a split second later.

Unlike the first time we’d arrived, only Mia’s immediate family was there. They ushered Mia inside, leaving me behind to deal with our bags. I didn’t mind in the least.

I was being punished. I deserved it. And I needed the time to think. I took the bags to Mia’s room, giving the family some time to talk before I joined them.

Laughter echoed from the kitchen when I finally descended the stairs. The Doyle’s were all seated around the kitchen island, plucking freshly baked cookies from a plate at the center.

“Hudson,” Mia called, almost like she sensed my presence.

I rounded the corner, heading straight for her. The rest of her family fell silent, but I wasn’t going to let them intimidate me. We were there to make peace with them. That wasn’t going to happen if I avoided them all weekend.

Besides, my fingers itched to feel Mia’s soft skin beneath them. I needed her if I was going to get through making amends the only way I knew how.

I pressed my chest to her back and rested my hands on her hips. “You okay, wife?”

Ryan fumed silently at the term, and a vein throbbed in Charles’s temple. Maybe it wasn’t quite the right time to rub that fact in, but Mia turned to me, smiling wide. “Sure, want a cookie?”

I wanted one all right, but the one I wanted wasn’t going to be eaten in front of her family. I took solace in the fact that I’d be alone with her soon enough.

She grabbed the plate from the table and offered it me, a private smile on her face when she recognized the look in my eyes. She shook her head almost imperceptibly, but her eyes shone with excitement.

“Yeah, I’d love one.” I was not lying about that, but to keep up appearances, I accepted one of the chocolate chip cookies on the plate.

“I was just telling everyone about the band we wanted to sign until the backtrack got stuck—”

“And the lead singer pretended stammering the words was part of the song?” I finished for her.

She howled with laughter at the memory. “That’s the one.”

“It’s quite the story,” Alice agreed, still not meeting my eyes.

“It’s been an interesting couple of weeks, that’s for sure,” Mia said, then snapped her mouth shut as realization of the door she’d just opened set in. She reached for my hands, still resting on her hips and twined her fingers with mine as she folded my arms around her.

Ryan fixed his scowl on me. “Yeah, Mia. It has been. How about you tell us about the time your fiancé ran out on you, and then you ended up marrying him a week or so later anyway?”

Mia’s mouth opened, then closed. Her hands started shaking in mine. I gave them a reassuring squeeze and stepped in. It was my battle to fight, not hers.

“Please don’t speak to my wife in that tone of voice,” I began, my voice much calmer than I felt.

“I’ll speak to my sister however I want, thanks. I don’t even know what the fuck you’re doing here.” Ryan snapped at me.

“Language, Ryan,” Alice said reflexively, then fell silent again.

Charles chimed in. “He may have said it harshly, honey, but I agree with Ryan. We’re owed an explanation.”

Mia’s grandfather watched the scene play out without a word.

“You are owed an explanation, sir,” I said. “That’s what we’re here for.”

“Well then, the floor is yours, Hudson. Explain away.” Charles didn’t sound like he was ready to listen at all, but it was my time to talk.

“Before I came here with Mia last time, I hadn’t spoken to my brother for a long time.”

Ryan’s eyebrows shot up. “What does this have to do with your brother?” he demanded.

“I’ll tell you if you’ll let me say more than one sentence at a time.” Mia’s grip tightened on mine. It reminded me that I was the one explaining and apologizing.

I dialed my aggressiveness down a notch or ten. “Dakota and I hadn’t had a good relationship since I left home. I never missed it. Never missed him until I was here with you all, seeing what a family could be.”

Mia leaned back and whispered to me. “You don’t have to tell them about that, Hudson.”

It was so quiet in the room, everyone had heard her anyway, so I didn’t bother with a silent reply. “I do. Being here with you helped me rekindle my relationship with him. It opened my eyes to the relationship that you should have with your brother.”

I looked at Ryan meaningfully. He had the good sense to look suitably remorseful as he flashed Mia an apologetic smile.

“There were so many things happening so fast the first time I was here I didn’t deal with it the way I should have. For that, I am truly sorry. I should’ve explained myself to all of you and not just to Mia. I could have done a lot of things differently—better.”

“Ya think?” Ryan breathed. Alice silenced him with a stern look.

“I do think. No, I don’t think, I know, but looking back doesn’t change the past. I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere.”

“Are you sure?” Alice asked quietly, her gaze drifting between Mia’s eyes and mine.

“I’m sure. I don’t deserve a girl like Mia.” I ignored a low comment from Ryan and tried to swallow the lump that jumped into my throat. I’d never said the words I was about to say out loud to anyone, much less to their entire family.

“I love her. That’s why I wanted to come here. I love her, and I wanted to make things right with all of you so she wouldn’t suffer for my mistakes anymore.”

My heart sputtered to a stop. My entire body felt cold, and my mind, disconnected.

The reactions varied. Mia stopped breathing. Ryan looked thoroughly confused. Alice’s eyes misted over, and Charles looked like someone had dumped a gallon of icy water over his head.

Mia’s grandfather breathed a sigh of relief. “I knew it.”

It took my brain a second to catch up to what he’d said. “What?”

“I knew you loved her.” A slow grin spread on his face. He heaved to his feet, walking right over to me and pulling me into his arms, a hand thudding on my back.

Mia let go of me so I could return the unexpected hug.

Alice was next in line. “You love my little girl?”

“I do, ma’am. With all my heart.”

“That’s good enough for me.” Alice smiled, then wrapped her delicate arms around me.

“We going to get a do over?” Charles’s voice was gruff when Alice let me go.

“If that’s what Mia wants.” I caught her eye. She looked like a deer frozen in headlights.

Ryan came over to me next. “You fuck with my sister again, you’ll be fed from a tube for at least a month.”

I shook his hand. “Deal.”

Mia practically pulled me to her room as soon as her family had finished with me.

For once, I couldn’t read her expression. It scared the shit out of me. My pulse thrummed, and my stomach flipped uncomfortably.

She slammed the door behind us and whipped towards me. “Did you mean it?”

“When I said I loved you?”

She nodded, her eyes wide.

“Abso-fucking-lutely.” I grabbed her hands, tugged her tight against my chest, and asked the question that was burning a hole in my heart. “You?”

She answered without hesitating for a second. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”