Your Beauty Never, Ever Scared Me - Wintumn Stories

The Meeting

Winter woke to the sound of his alarm and turned around to wake up Autumn. This had been their routine since they started seeing each other. He had a much easier time getting up in the morning than she did. But today he was met with an empty bed. He made his way downstairs to see Autumn, already dressed, making them breakfast. This was a nice change of pace for Winter as usually this was his job.

"Morning, my sweet." She said as she handed him a plate and a cup of coffee. It was nothing special, eggs on toast, but given how little Autumn cooked before they got together the gesture was greatly appreciated.

"What did I do to deserve this, my love?"

"Don't get too excited. This is a preemptive apology breakfast. Marjorie is sending you to work at Reece's nursery today. I really tried to get you out of it but unfortunately there was no way around it."

Winter had yet to actually meet Reece. Anytime he was in the nursery Reece had someone else around him. Whether that was Marjorie, Carly, or the endless string of single parents making any excuse to talk to him. He'd heard plenty about him though.

Now that he and Marjorie were an item, Reece was around the office more, speeding up the siblings' reconciliation. Winter loved seeing Autumn reconnecting with the person who was once her best friend. She would beam any time she brought up her favorite memories of their childhood since now remembering them wasn't accompanied by the pain of their fallout.

"No need to apologize darling. I'm excited to meet him."

"Winter, seriously. My brother can be...difficult at times. He has always been very protective. And Carly had told him that the only reason we got together was because of a drunken Halloween hookup."

"Did she?"

"She did also tell him that you are a good guy and absolutely besotted with me but protective big brother mode kicked in relatively quickly. He can just be such an arsehole sometimes. I did a fair amount of damage control the other night but he still feels like he's responsible for keeping me safe. If I'm being honest this is why I have been putting off this meeting."

"My love, I think it's great he wants to keep you safe. I'll be fine, you know I've dealt with my fair share of arsehole parents." Winter grabbed her by the waist and kissed her. "Besides, if he's from the same family as you I'm sure we will get along just fine. At the very least we have you in common."

"Thank you, my sweet. I'll drive us in today and go talk to him before you meet. I'll make sure he knows to be nice or he'll regret it."

She gave him a quick kiss before starting to wash up the morning's dishes. Winter went to get ready for the day, putting in just a little extra effort. He knew how much Reece meant to Autumn. He couldn't help but want to make a good impression.

The drive in was no different than usual. Comfortable silence as the couple listened to an oldies station, sharing glances as they sang along to their favorites. Winter thought Autumn had a lovely voice but she would always deny it and overdo her "bad singing" to amuse him. Winter's played with Autumn's hair as she drove. That was his surefire way to calm her nerves.

As they walked into the building, Winter headed immediately to the staff room to put his things away before starting for the day and Autumn went straight to Reece's office. She walked in to him staring at a text from Marjorie on his phone.

It did not take long for the two to start bickering. He threw a piece of trash at her, Autumn retaliating with his headphones, and ending with her chasing him down the hall to stop him from doing anything to her car.

Winter was walking to his assigned room for the day when he ran directly into Reece. "So much for that great first impression," he thought. But once he noticed his love slowing down to stop beside him, he was immediately at ease.

"Winter?" Reece had noticed his sister's demeanor change tipping him off to who this was.

"You must be Reece."

"Yeah...I thought you'd be taller."

"I thought you'd be much better looking given you're from the same gene pool as you sister." Winter could tell by the look on Autumn's face that joking back was the correct choice. He said his goodbyes and headed off to work, listening to the siblings continuing to squabble behind him.

The morning went by without issue and soon it was nearing his lunch break. About 10 minutes before he expected to leave Carly came in telling him she was here to cover for him and that Reece wanted to see him in his office before going on his break.

"Wonderful." Winter said. "I'm sure there is absolutely no reason to worry about my girlfriend's older brother wanting to talk to me alone in his office."

Carly laughed and wished him luck as he left the room.

Reece's door was open when Winter got there. He gave a quick knock anyway, not wanting to startle him.

"Carly said you wanted to see me?"

"Hey, yeah." Reece looked up from the paperwork in front of him. "Come sit down. And close the door if you don't mind."

"Of course." Winter suddenly realized how nervous he felt. Reece was arguably the most important person in Autumn's life. She cared immensely about what he thought whether she would admit it or not.

Winter spoke before Reece had a chance. "I'm assuming this is about Autumn."

"Yeah." Reece answered flatly. His voice never showed much emotion so Winter didn't know what to expect from this conversation. "Look, I don't want us to have any problems with each other but I need you to understand that I'm always going to be here to protect Autumn. No matter what. I've heard from almost everyone here that I shouldn't worry about you two being together but I won't be able to believe that until I hear it from you."

Winter watched Reece sit up straighter in his chair trying to make himself more imposing, which was not hard to do given his height. But the Knight siblings were extremely alike in many ways. All Winter had to do was look into Reece's eyes to see that it was all for show and, though outwardly trying to be intimidating, there was nothing but love and concern for his sister behind his threats.

"Reece you don't need to worry about that. Your sister is an incredibly powerful woman, so even without me she would be fine on her own. Still, she is my number one priority. I can assure you of that. I'm more than committed to our relationship, so you are going to be stuck with me for as long as she'll have me."

"Good to know." Reece laughed. "And I'm more than aware of Aut's power. I've got the bruises to prove it."

The men laughed together before Winter decided to continue:

"'I'm in love with your sister, Reece and I would never do anything to hurt her. And she would hate me to bring this up but I know how much it means to her that she has your approval."

"You don't have to worry about that. I think you'll fit in the family just fine."

Winter shook the other man's hand before leaving the room. As he reached the staff room to start his lunch break he felt his phone vibrate.

"You seem to have made quite the impression on my brother, my sweet. How many threats did you have to use to get him to say he liked you? xx"

"I told you I could handle him, my love."