One . . . two . . . three . . . I held my breath, I couldn’t move. If I did, I was going to lose it. Holy shit. If this had been one of my brothers, I’d have found this moment so much funnier, but it wasn’t—it was Katy and me.

“Well, now, that answers that question.” My mother’s words seemed to be the catalyst to break the moment.

“Holy shit. I mean shoot.” Stella tried to cover up her cussing since the kids were around as she clapped her hands over her mouth.

Unfortunately, my brothers and Carter were doubled over laughing and couldn’t sit up straight, and my father was as bad as they were. Sophie, Ariel, and the rest of them were fighting to hold back their laughs because from the look on Katy’s face she was utterly destroyed.

“Sweetie, you must have heard wrong.” Katy’s voice was extremely controlled.

I shook my head, already knowing this wasn’t going to be pretty.

“No, Mom. You were in Damon’s room, and you said, ‘Oh God. Oh God.’ So you should do the blessing.”

“Yeah, Katy, it sounds like you were really thankful,” Ian said as he fought to get the words out.

“I didn’t think Damon was that blessed,” Kayson added.

Reaching under the table, I grabbed Katy’s hand and squeezed, but she jerked it away. Fuck. She slid her chair out and dashed off. When she was out of the area, I turned on my family.

“Really? Grow up. Tease me later.”

“Boys.” My mother’s voice broke through the noise. “We’ve had enough.” Even at thirty-six, that particular tone in her voice still scared the shit out of me.

I scooted my chair back and went to check on Katy, who had shut herself into the downstairs guest bathroom.

Giving a few knocks, I waited for her to answer.

“Give me a few minutes.”

“Let me in.”

She didn’t answer, so I reached up, grabbed the skeleton key from the top of the doorframe, and let myself in. My heart broke over the sight of her curled up on the floor.

“Psichi mou, it isn’t that bad. Come on. You’re going to laugh about this when Bee is older.”

“That’s the second time you’ve said that.”

“Said what?”

“See key, oh, I don’t know.”

See key? What . . . oh, I’d called her psichi mou and not even realized it.

Settling onto the floor next to her, I brought her head over to my shoulder. It didn’t matter we were on the floor in a bathroom in my parents’ house with family and friends waiting or in my bedroom with no one else around because I was lost to this woman. Tilting my head down, I brought my lips to hers and wanted nothing more than to infuse her with the strength to face the crowd and acceptance of the fact that I’d fallen in love with her. Psichi mou, I’d been calling her my soul and hadn’t even realized it. We sat for a few more moments until I felt her body slowly relax and uncurl, a sure sign that her embarrassment was ebbing.

“Come on, let’s go out there and eat.” I stood and held out a hand to help her up.

“I can’t.”

“Bee has no clue what has happened. She thinks that she’s done something wrong. As far as the adults, they’re either jealous that they don’t have someone or happy that we’ve found each other. Now, come on.”

“Is that what we did?”

“What do you mean?” My hand still held out to her.

“Did we find each other?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what we did. You’re stuck with me. You, Katy Nichols, are something special, and I have no intention of losing you. I’d find you,” I said the last part in my creepy stalker voice, imitating the crazy chick from Wedding Crashers and hoping that she’d totally get the connection.

I waited. When she finally relaxed, so did I.

When I felt her cool, soft hand grip mine, a sense of relief washed over me.

“By the way, don’t ever do that again.”

“Do what?” I feigned innocence. “What? I’ll find you.” Of course, I used the same high-pitched stalker voice.

“Yeah, that. Just don’t, or I can’t be seen with you.” She gave me a wicked smile. “Or you might not be finding anything else for a while. That is some creepy shit.”

“All seriousness. I love you. I know that we haven’t said it, but I do, I love you.”

“Oh God, Damon. Yeah . . .” She was mumbling to herself when her words hit me, and I started laughing. “What?” she asked confused.

“I think it was those exact same words that got us here in the first place.”

I helped her up and out of the bathroom without putting her on the spot to admit her feelings. It would come, in time, I felt it. The rest of lunch was uneventful, thank God.

Katy’s laughter slowly returned, and by the look on her face, she was deeply touched by everyone coming together to celebrate, let alone bearing gifts.

Stella had picked up some items for my mom and Leo to give Katy as well, they gave her a skirt and a green shirt. Ariel had given Katy some jewelry, and there was even a bag from Tristan and Ian, which was funny considering that Tristan wasn’t back yet, and Ian was as surprised to learn that he got Katy a purse as Katy was. Everly, Piper, and Vivian had given Katy a leather vest and helmet.

“Just in case you want to ride with us,” Piper explained.

“Here, I’ll take that.” Ariel snagged the vest from Katy’s hands. “I have to embroider our logo onto it. I’ll have it back to you by tomorrow.”

Katy looked overwhelmed.

“Here, Mom, this is from me.” Bee held out the white bag. “Open it.” Katy shook as she carefully removed the white box and opened it. “See. There’s a bee, for me.” Katy traced the silver bumblebee with a crown sitting on a bed of pink inside the tiny jeweler’s box.

A tear rolled down her cheek, I wanted to reach out and wipe it away, but I was afraid too much public display of affection would just push her away especially after earlier events.

“Here, let me put that on you.” My mother reached over and removed the Pandora bracelet from the box with the single bee charm.

“Damon said that I could get you another charm for Christmas.”

Aghh, eight-year-olds, do they ever know when to shut up? I hoped that she didn’t take that as too presumptuous.

“Thank you.” Her soft hand wrapped around mine.

“You’re welcome.”

As with any event with the Christakos family, lunch turned into a near all day event.

“We’ve got to get going if we are going to make our dinner reservations.”

“Can I just stay here and go home with Harlow?” Bee looked up to Katy for her answer.

“Sure, I don’t see why not. Do you have a key, Sophie? She already has her overnight bag packed.”

“Christine has a key, we’ll get it. You guys have fun. Happy Birthday.”

Bee ran over and gave me a hug, and then she kissed me on my cheek, and I knew what my mother meant every time she said her cup runneth over. She’d say it when we would bring her flowers even though they were weeds or we’d try to make her a masterpiece that required her to clean up the mess. I’d always thought it was just some crazy old girly shit, but I was so wrong.

Katy and I headed to my house where she set down her load of gifts. “I can’t believe your family. This is incredible. You all have done so much. We can stay in, no need to spend more money. I can cook something for us, and we can watch a movie.”

“Shh. I’ve been looking forward to this date for so long. We are going out. I know that your birthday isn’t yet Do you want your birthday present from me now or later?”

“Do we have time?” Katy gave me a devious wink.

“Okay, let me rephrase. Do you want the first of your two gifts now or later? Because the other one is definitely later.” I pulled her against me. “If I gave it to you now, we would be busy until tomorrow morning.”

“Okay. I’ll take one now and one later.”

I guided Katy out to the garage. “Before you say anything, I bought it used. It can stay here.” I was spurting out answers to protests that she hadn’t even given yet, trying to preempt any fights. Placing my hand over her eyes, I guided her down the last few stairs. Switching on the garage lights, I moved my hand.

“You bought a motorcycle. Did you buy me a fucking motorcycle? What kind of person gives a motorcycle? Are you insane? Of course you are, your entire family is insane. The birthday party, the gifts. Holy shit, Damon. I can’t. Oh my God. I can’t accept this.”

“Will you stop?” I shoved my hands through my hair. “I didn’t want to ruin your birthday. I wanted to make it special.”

“It is special. I just don’t need expensive gifts to make it special.”

“Can we talk about this later? Let’s have a nice night out. Like I said, it was used. I want you to be able to do more things with the girls. Please, though, we will talk about it tomorrow, when it isn’t your birthday.” Katy nodded. “Now go upstairs and let me see you in that gorgeous outfit.”