Which was why, when I saw the bathroom just before we got to the baggage claim where we were to be meeting, I darted inside and went straight towards a stall. Where I promptly started to hyperventilate.
I sat down and buried my face in my hands, leaning forward to try to circumvent the panic I could feel rising at an alarming rate.
What if they didn’t like me?
Would Miller think differently of me?
Hell, Miller didn’t feel anything for me. How could he?
He hadn’t made so much as an ass grab since I’d forced him to fuck me.
The door to the stall opened and I halted my sobs.
Silent tears tracked down my face as I waited for whomever was outside the stalls to finish the fuck up so I could resume my sob fest.
Except whomever it was didn’t just leave.
“What’s wrong?” Miller said from above me.
“What the hell, Miller! What have I told you about boundaries?” I yelled, yanking my pants up and turning to glare up at him.
He started to grin unrepentantly at me before he saw the tears in my eyes, then he frowned.
“What’s wrong?” He demanded.
Then he literally jumped over the stall.
I wasn’t sure how he did it, but one second he was on the other side, and the next he was gathering me into his arms.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said lamely.
He chuffed. “Get over it and tell me what the fuck is wrong.”
Always so elegant, my Miller.
“What if they don’t like me?” I whispered fiercely.
His eyes softened as he cupped my face. “They’ll like you, honey. You’ve already got my brothers wrapped around your finger. And we’ve got our parents wrapped around ours. Trust me, it’ll all be okay. I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t think they’d like you.”
I closed my eyes and leaned my head against his chest.
“Okay,” I sighed. “Let’s go.”
He took my hand, stopped for a squirt of the hand sanitizer dispenser, and pulled open the door to the bathroom.
I hadn’t even made it out three feet past the threshold when a barrel of energy hit me, gathering me up in her arms and pulling me into her.
“Oh,” the woman, who I guessed was Miller’s mother, said. “I’ve been waiting for you for thirty five years.”
I blinked. “Thirty five years?”
She nodded. “The moment I had Miller, I knew I was only ever going to have boys. But I knew that one day Miller would get married, and I’d have a daughter.”
“Hey, what about me?” Viddy teased from the chair beside Trance’s slumped form.
“I like her,” his mother whispered. “But you are exactly as I’d pictured my daughter in law to be.”
Then she turned around to Viddy. “No offense.”
She smiled. “None taken, Sloan. I know Miller’s your favorite.”
Sloan, Miller’s mother, nodded. “That’s true,” turning back to me. “He is my favorite.”
My jaw dropped. “You have a favorite child?”
She nodded. “He’s the only one that I got drugs with when I was birthing them. I don’t care what the heck you say. You don’t forget. You remember everything about the birthing experience, and those other two kids left me with scars. Horrible, ugly scars.”
My eyes widened and I turned my face up to Miller’s to see him smiling.
That smile was contagious, though.
It caught on my face, and when I turned back to Sloan I said, “I think I’m going to love you.”
She beamed. Positively beamed.