“Oh my God. I’m seeing things. Rosie, am I seeing things?”

Standing before me, literally clutching her pearls was Audrey Hoult, Julian’s beautiful mother who apparently needed her mother-in-law to confirm that I was in fact standing there, and not an illusion.

“Mom,” Julian said with what could only be described as charmed exasperation. We were in the middle of a busy restaurant, and he had warned me she might have this reaction, so I did my best not to giggle. I also made sure to wait till Audrey was visibly breathing again before I introduced myself.

“Oh, no! No handshake. I need to hug the first woman my son’s ever brought home,” she insisted as she wrapped her arms around me. I laughed over her shoulder as Julian stood there, hands in his pockets and eyes locked on me while nodding as if to say, yep, exactly like I warned you.

“Well, technically – ”

“Oh, I know, Julian, technically, we’re not home, this is a restaurant, but still. Sara, please. Come meet Rosemarie.”

I couldn’t help looking completely delighted as I shook hands with the very minuscule Rosemarie Hoult. I felt like I was meeting a celebrity, and it probably showed on my face, because Rosemarie proudly said, “Has he told you my nickname?”

“Rosemarie The Reaper,” I said, prompting laughter from several of the cousins.

“That’s right,” Rosemarie beamed at Julian. “Those boys are terrified of me.”

From there, Rosemarie introduced me to her two children, who I managed to smile for as I shook their hands. I knew they were the ones who had fought like animals over Julian’s grandfather’s property. But I also knew from Julian that Rosemarie, despite deploring her children’s behavior, wished for them to simply be a family again.

So once a year, on their once-customary Sunday, they came together.

“You did better than I did,” Julian murmured to me after I greeted the infamous cousin Paul. He was a balding man in his late thirties with a baby strapped to his chest. He smiled brightly at me and didn’t look particularly villainous, but I knew too well that villains didn’t always look the part.

“Thanks. Are you okay?” I asked Julian, standing close as I held his hand loosely in mine.

“I’m pretty damned good right now, actually,” he said, eyeing something behind me while leaning in to kiss my forehead. “Well. Now I’m just okay,” Julian smirked in a way that told me Emmett was behind us.

I peeked over my shoulder to see him standing there in a black skinny tie and a grey button-up stretched over his big, muscled frame. His adorably deep frown looked like it had no place on his normally jovial face.

“Hi, Emmett,” I smiled.

“Hi. I… think I owe you an apology,” he said, eyeing Julian. “Mind if I borrow her a sec, brother?”

“I do.” Julian’s quick reply made Emmett laugh. “Where are you taking her?”

“Julian,” I flashed a teasing look. Clenching his jaw, he relented.

“Fine, borrow her. But return her to me as soon as possible, please.”

“You got it, lover boy.”

I almost heard Julian’s eyes roll as Emmett walked me out of the bright dining room and into a little greenhouse of a hallway that led to the garden patio outside. I tried not to look too charmed or amused as Emmett struggled with how to start his apology.

“Look, I…” Emmett cleared his throat. “I don’t even… well, first of all – ”

“Emmett. Don’t worry,” I relieved him. “I know it looked pretty bad that night when I ran away. I’m not going to try to explain why I reacted so strongly, but what I will say is that your brother took pretty damned good care of me that night. I’m fine now. You slipped up, but it’s not the end of the world. I had a great weekend, and I’m not angry at all.”

Emmett blinked, silent for a second.

“Wow. That went a lot better than I thought.”

“What, you thought I was going to be a raging bitch about it?” I teased.

“No, but Julian tore me a new one all night after you guys left. He really didn’t let it go, he was beyond pissed for you. I was about to offer him my truck as an apology.”

“Well, we did take your truck home that night,” I laughed.

“Yeah, but I mean for keeps. Anyway, thank you, Sara. I’m so fucking grateful that you’re not pissed at me,” Emmett exhaled, running a hand over his short-cropped hair. “You probably know this, but my brother likes you a lot. I can tell.”

I smiled. “How can you tell?”

“Man.” Emmett drew in another deep breath as he looked down the hallway and into the dining room. “It’s kind of crazy, but I can see the difference in him. In just the way he looks and talks. Sometimes he can be kind of… vacant. Like he’s on autopilot. And it just feels like he hasn’t been lately.” Emmett squinted as he studied his brother from afar. I turned over to find him sitting with his mother, the two of them laughing. “It feels like he’s actually in the moment, and present, and reacting. Like you flipped a light switch in him. Does that make sense?” he winced.

“It makes perfect sense. And it’s incredibly flattering to me.”

“Well, I’m actually not trying to flatter you,” Emmett grinned. “It’s just the truth. And listen, I know you guys are leaving for Biarritz tomorrow, and I just wanna say, when you’re there with him… if you see or hear anything that mentions the name Lucie, don’t… jump to conclusions. It’s not what you think.”

I grinned at Emmett’s need to protect his brother while trying, for once, not to spill the beans on a secret.

“You’re very sweet, Emmett, but Julian already told me about Liz and Lucie.”

“Jesus fuck, seriously?” Emmett looked bowled over. “Wow, that’s…” He looked at me as if I’d just told him I was secretly the Queen of England. “That’s really fucking amazing. That’s really cool, ‘cause I didn’t think he would ever – ” He cut himself off again. He rubbed his chin and cleared his throat. “Look, I’m supposed to stop blowing up his spot, but I just gotta say – whatever he feels for you, Sara, I think it’s pretty big. Right? It’s gotta be. It took me two years to get the full story about Liz and Lucie out of him. Lukas doesn’t even know most of it, so… thank you for being someone my brother feels like he can talk to. He’s never really chosen to have one of those.”

I bit my grin. I knew Emmett wasn’t trying to flatter me, but somehow, that simple statement had me more honored than I could ever remember feeling.

“Alright.” I heard Julian’s voice shortly after his distinct footsteps started ambling over. “I’m sure whatever you’ve said by now, the damage is sufficient,” he said to his brother. “I’ve come to collect her if you’re finished here.”

“Sure am.”

Julian looked at me with a smile. “I know you might have just reached your limit of Hoults for today, but my mother is requesting some time with you, if that’s okay.”

“That’s more than okay,” I replied.

“Shit, hold on,” Emmett said. “Actually, I have one more thing to say to Sara, okay?” he said, laughing at Julian’s are you shitting me look. “Just go, J. She’ll be right there. I promise,” he insisted.

He kept his eyes on his brother till he turned to leave. Once Julian was out of earshot, Emmett faced me with a grin.

“Look, I just wanted to say… in case he ever pisses you off, because Lord knows he pisses me off a lot… my brother’s a really good man. The best I know. And when he cares about someone, he’ll stop at nothing to make sure that person is happy, and safe, and completely taken care of for the rest of their life,” Emmett said earnestly, completely serious for once. “There’s really only a few people he regards that highly outside his family – Lukas being one of them, and I guess you being the other.”

“Sure you’re not trying to butter me up right now, Emmett?” I teased to disguise the fact that my heart was fluttering.

“Yeah, I’m not smart enough to blow smoke up people’s asses,” Emmett snorted, making me laugh. “What you see is what you get. And honestly, I was just telling you that because sometimes Julian… he can hurt people without realizing,” he said, making my smile falter just a little. “He doesn’t mean to – he’s just so focused on something else, usually work. And if he somehow hurts your feelings during this trip because say, he’s really busy, or distracted, or just plain being himself – just know that it’s worth it to stick around with him. Even if you don’t know what the hell he’s thinking half the time, and you can’t stand that he doesn’t say much. He’s still a good man who’s going to take care of you. I mean he’s definitely the best guy I know. I’m still kind of hoping to be him when I grow up,” Emmett smirked, putting the smile back on my lips.

“Thank you, Emmett. I appreciate it,” I said, giving him a hug.

“Alright. Go talk to my mom now,” he said. “And sorry ahead of time if she brings up grandkids!” he called after me.