Where the spirit meets the bone. (Book 1 of the Illicit Affairs Series)

Chapter XIII

You rang the doorbell with your elbow, balancing the turkey on your knee, almost losing your balance and falling on the ground, face planted in the poor bird.

"I wasn't expecting you so early. With a turkey?" Bucky said, confused, opening the apartment door.

"My dad kicked me out." you explained, noticing his furrowed brows, "Don't worry, though. I stole his turkey." His expression was now amused despite his evident confusion.

"Who is it, Duckie?" a woman's voice called from the other side of the door. His mother, you concluded.

"Duckie?" you mouthed, barely containing a giggle, which earned you a playful glare. You could hear some familiar chuckles from the inside of the apartment.

"It's the friend I told you about, Ma." he hollered back, stepping aside to let you in and reaching for the turkey, closing the door behind you with a swing of his hips, which was surprisingly attractive for a guy. "Follow me." he said, leading you to the kitchen, where a dozen faces looked up at you.

"Hi, everyone." you said, waving a hand awkwardly. Next to Bucky's empty seat were Steve and Sam, Natasha and Sharon in front of them. The other side of the table was occupied by his family: James' mother, a woman who couldn't be older than fifty, two younger women who you supposed were his sisters, an asian man and three kids.

James was the spitting image of his mother, you realized, and his sisters looked a lot like her, too. All of them had chestnut hair and blue eyes, but the women were a lot shorter than him. You supposed he got his eyes from his dad. The kids, however, looked a lot like the asian man, their father: they all had thick, black hair and only the younger one, a girl who looked to be about four years old, had inherited his mother's blue eyes.

"You must be Y/n! James, honey, be a darling and get her a chair." his mother said, smiling and scooting over to the side, making space for a chair between hers and Bucky's. "I'm sorry to drop by unannounced, I-" you started, but she shook her head. "Everyone's welcome here, especially the girl my son always talks about. The more, the merrier, I say." she replied, cheekily. You felt your cheeks heat up and heard Bucky groan over the chuckling of the group.

"Let her be, Ma." James grumbled, emerging from the other room with a chair that he immediately set down and pulled back, waiting for you to sit on it. Once you did, he adjusted it closer to the table, making your blushing fiercer. "I'm not doing anything, just talking to her!" his mother defended herself, "Thanks for the turkey, dear."

"It's no big deal, Mrs Barnes. It would've been rude to show up empty handed." you responded, avoiding any mention of the fact that you had stolen it. You wanted to make a good impression, if she was ever to be your mother in law.

"And you have manners, she's a catch! And none of that, call me Winifred, or Winnie." she corrected you, already filling your plate for you.

"Thank you, Winnie." you said, smiling at her thoughtfulness.

"I'm Rebecca, or Becca." the woman in front of you said, "This is Mary and her husband, Eugene, and those little monsters are Isaac, Kai and Erika."

"She's pretty, mom." Kai whispered, still loud enough that everyone close enough could hear.

"She is, Kai." Mary smiled, flashing you a wink.

"Thank you, Kai. You're a handsome little man, too." you laughed, making him blush. Bucky chuckled. Liking you was in his family's genes, he thought.