“He tell you he wet the bed ’til he was eleven?”

Camden looked to his oldest brother, Carter, and wished he had the power to burn holes in the fucker’s skull with only his eyes.

They’d been sitting at his parents’ dining room table at this goddamn nightmare of a dinner for over an hour. The kids were all in the basement that had been converted into a playroom, making it the perfect time for all his siblings to fill Sutton in on every single embarrassing detail of his life, some true and some made the fuck up, like the bedwetting bullshit.

“You don’t wanna start with me, Cart. You wouldn’t want me to tell Melissa about the time you were busted dancin’ around in front of Mom’s bedroom mirror in one of her dresses and heels, now would you?”

The whole table burst into laughter—everyone but Carter. “What the hell? I was six. You weren’t even born yet, asshole!”

Camden gave him a wicked smile as he sat back and rested an arm along the back of Sutton’s chair “Doesn’t mean there weren’t pictures.”

“Oh, I remember that,” his mom giggled. “There were several weeks there when you insisted everyone call you Cassie. It was just the cutest thing.”

Melissa patted her husband’s arm and teased, “Oh, honey. That explains so much.”

Camden chuckled while everyone else cackled and went on, Sutton included. He couldn’t remember ever thinking she was more beautiful than she was just then, sitting with his family, cutting up like she’d always been there.

His family all adored her. She fit. She was fucking perfect.

Without giving it a single thought, he lifted his hand and started sliding strands of her silky hair through his fingers. The simple touches like that were just second nature. If she was around, he had to touch her.

That was one of the biggest reasons her weeklong avoidance had been so hard. She’d taken herself away from him, took away his chance to touch her, to smell her, to kiss her. In Camden’s eyes, Sutton belonged to him, even before they’d slept together. After that night, she’d become his in every single way, and losing her, even for that short period of time, had been too goddamn much.

Sutton felt the gentle, barely there tug and instinctively leaned closer, snuggling herself under his arm. “Aw,” she laughed at his oldest brother. “Don’t be embarrassed, Carter. I bet Cassie was super cute.”

Camden threw his head back in a loud bark of laughter. Even Carter couldn’t hold his own grin back at that one.

“Damn, Camden. Where’d you find this one?” his other brother, Cooper, asked. “And how’d you get her to go out with your sorry ass?”

“Oh shut it, Coop,” their sister, Vicky, snapped playfully. “Camden’s the best out of all you losers, and you two both managed to coerce poor, unsuspecting women into marry you.”

Both Melissa and Cooper’s wife, Elizabeth, nodded in agreement.

“But seriously, Sutton,” their mother chimed in, “my baby boy really is a lucky man. When Cam told me Tatum set you two up, I just knew you’d be lovely.”

Camden felt Sutton’s body locking up and wrapped his arm around her. He knew her well enough to know what she was thinking, and right now she was stressing that their relationship was a lie. It may have started that way, but it wasn’t like that anymore. She just didn’t know that yet.

Holding her close, he tried his best to soothe her without words as she replied, “Thank you, Val. That means a lot.”

“So tell us a little about yourself, darlin’,” his mom continued. “You’ve met our crazy, wayward family. Do you have any siblings of your own?”

“I do,” she said with a smile on her face and in her voice. “I have an older sister named Sabrina, and her husband, Bryan. They’re both fantastic. And they love Cam.”

“And they’re just a crazy as you assholes,” Camden added. “That’s why Sutton clearly feels at home here.”

“They are kinda nuts,” Sutton giggled. “And they’ve got two kids, my niece and nephew, who are hell on wheels. I love it.”

Valery folded her hands together and rested her chin on them. “Oh, I bet your parents just love that.”

Sutton grew tight all over again. Camden wasn’t sure what that was all about, but it had something to do with what she’d said about her mom earlier, and the fact that she’d lost her dad. All he could think was that his death still weighed on her, and that was why she never talked about him.

“Yeah. They have my mom wrapped around their fingers.”

“And your dad?” The more his mom pushed, the tenser Sutton’s body became.

“Ma,” Camden said in warning. “Enough with the twenty questions, yeah?”

She looked at him with big, innocent eyes. “What? I’m just tryin’ to get to know her is all. Find out what she likes, where she’s from. There’s nothin’ wrong with a mom asking questions. I’m sure Sutton doesn’t mind.”

“She might not, but I do,” he clipped back, growing more and more defensive.

The mood around the entire table had shifted, growing quiet and still.

“For cryin’ out loud, Camden. I don’t see what the big deal is—”

“She lost her dad, Ma,” he finally snapped. “And she might not like you shovin’ that down her throat.”

Everyone but Sutton sucked in their breaths. She had a reaction he’d never have expected. Shooting straight, she dislodged his arm and spun around on him. “What? My dad’s not dead. What made you think that?”

Camden’s chin jerked back in surprise. “What do you mean? You did.”

“I never said my dad was dead.”

“Yes, you did,” he argued. “On our first date. I was askin’ about your folks and you said it was just your mom.”

Sutton’s brows pulled in a severe frown. “Well, yeah. Because it was just my mom. My father didn’t pass away. He just bailed.”

“What?” he growled, all his defensive instincts rushing to the surface. “That fucker bailed on you and your family?”

“Camden.” At the snap of his mother’s voice, Camden came back to reality and realized they’d just been having this very private conversation in front of an audience.

His mother, ever the mediator, quickly untangled the tension in the room. “Camden, this is something you two can discuss later… when you’re alone.” Then she turned to his girl and offered, “Sutton, darlin’, I’m very sorry your father didn’t realize what an amazing family he missed out on. Now, it’s time for dessert,” she said with a clap. “Who wants pie?”

* * *

Sutton

Val had easily transitioned the conversation from my humiliation to something else. Normally, I would have been upset that all that came out in a room full of relative strangers, but I took a second, breathed, and stopped to consider the fact that Camden couldn’t have known. It was a plausible assumption for him to have come to, and he was only trying to come to my defense when he thought something was upsetting me.

So I talked myself off the ledge and eventually let it go. It took a while, but the Knight clan was just so unbelievably amazing that it was hard to keep hold of the anxiety when they all embraced me so openheartedly.

They made me laugh. They made me smile. They made me feel like I’d always been a part of their family. There had been no reason for all the nerves when we first got to Boston. They were the most accepting family I’d ever met, and by the time we finished our pies—yes, plural, because Val was a beast in the kitchen—I felt totally normal again.

I’d eventually let out a yawn, the unnecessary stress from the day finally catching up to me. When that happened, Camden wrapped his arms around me, pulled me close, and declared to the entire house that it was time to call it a night, which, surprisingly, they’d all agreed to without argument. His brothers and sister gave me exuberant goodbyes, complete with bear hugs from them and their spouses before they grabbed their little ones and headed home with promises of returning tomorrow.

With a smile on my face, I turned to Cam’s parents. “Dinner was amazing. Thank you so much.”

“Any time,” Val replied, pulling me down so she could place a kiss on my cheek. “You’re a treasure, sweetheart. You two sleep well.”

She’d called me a treasure. And from the warmth in her pretty eyes, I knew to my bones that she truly meant it.

Callum came in for a hug then, squeezing me tight in a way I could only assume most fathers did. I’d never experienced anything like it. It was the warmest, safest, most secure hug I’d ever had, and for a second I got lost in it, closing my eyes and sinking into the embrace.

“So glad you could join us this weekend, darlin’.”

We disengaged and Cam took my hand, saying good night to his folks before he led me up the stairs. I felt like I was floating on a happy little cloud as he closed the door, shutting us in the privacy of the cute little attic suite.

I spun on my heels to tell him how much fun I had, but before I could say a word, he grabbed my face and stared deep in my eyes, declaring, “I’m so fuckin’ sorry.”

My eyebrows pulled down into a V that puckered the skin between my eyes. “What?”

“All that shit with your dad. Baby, I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to embarrass you, I swear.”

He was walking on eggshells. After everything that had happened and my weeklong avoidance game, he was worried he’d done something to upset me, and the fact that I’d put that doubt into his mind made me angry with myself.

Taking hold of his wrists, I pulled his hands from my cheeks so I could lace our fingers together. “Cam, I’m not mad.”

His head jerked back. “You’re not?”

“No. Honey, like you said, you didn’t know. And you were only being protective, and trying to spare my feelings.” God, I hated that I made him so unsure of how I’d react to tense situations. “I’m the one who should be apologizing.”

He untangled his fingers from mine and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me close. I’d missed this, having him hold me or touch me like he just couldn’t help it. But I didn’t realize just how much until right then. I hadn’t just screwed up. I’d fucked up huge.

“For what, cutie?”

“For being such an asshole the past week that you think you have to be careful of everything you say or do. Those issues are my own. Honestly, you did nothing wrong, and I don’t want you to watch everything you say. I promise, Cam, I won’t freeze you out like that again. You have my word. I just… after we, you know… and then you missed dinner. I just thought you were done. Sabrina says I get too inside my own head and twist everything up, and I’m starting to think she’s right. But I want to do better.”

His arms constricted, squeezing me tighter. “You thought I was done?”

“I—um, yeah.”

“Christ, baby. How the fuck could you think that?”

“I, well, it was… what?”

A chuckle rumbled from his chest and seeped into mine, warming me from the inside out. “Jesus, you really have no goddamn clue,” he said, his voice quiet and deep as his face grew tender with something that made me tingle from the top of my head all the way to my toes.

“No clue about what?”

His voice came out in rough and gravelly as he said, “How fuckin’ perfect you are.”

And then he kissed me.