When Scott Met Annie

Chapter 19: Two Worlds, One Family

Annie's other sister and brother-in-law were nothing like Rachel and Anton.

Theresa was blonde and shorter than the other two women, sun-tanned instead of freckled, green-eyed instead of brown-eyed. Her husband was only a few inches taller than her, with reddish-brown hair and glasses. And their little boy, Aman, who they had adopted from Ethiopia, was still asleep on his dad's shoulder, a blue blanket clutched in one hand.

"You must be Scott," Theresa said with a smile that was a lot like Annie's, all warmth all the way up to her eyes as she grasped Scott's hand in both of hers to shake it. Her accent wasn't as pronounced as Annie's and Rachel's, though that might have been because, as Annie had said, she and her husband traveled often with the WHO. "Mom and Dad have told us a lot about you."

"And I've heard a lot about you," Scott said with a smile of his own.

"Oh no; what lies do I have to undo from my baby sister?" Theresa teased, shooting Annie a look of pretended alarm.

Annie waved her off. "Oh, you're fine," she said. "I only told him the good stuff."

"Oh, we're going to have to fix that," Theresa laughed before she simply wrapped Annie up in a huge hug. "How have you been?" she asked in a much more familiar tone than she'd been using with Scott — and that was all the invitation Annie needed to simply launch into talking about her Kindergarten class and then ask all about Aman and how work was going for her sister, that kind of thing.

Scott helped to take the luggage up to Annie's guest room, where the little family would be staying while Annie's parents were with Anton and Rachel, though Craig, Theresa's husband, didn't really say anything to him more than a polite 'hello' as they got Aman set up on the small portable bed.

Of course, as soon as Craig set Aman down, the little boy started to sleepily stir, and both men froze, trying to be as quiet as possible.

But it wasn't going to work. The little boy was definitely waking up, and he started to rub at his eyes as he held his hands up for his dad.

Craig let out a sigh and bent down to pick up the little guy, kissing the top of his head as Aman rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Come on, let's get you downstairs, little man," Craig said gently, tipping his head for Scott to lead the way. It was the most Scott had heard the guy say so far, and he had a sort of quiet voice that was the exact opposite of Anton's booming, confident one.

Aman made a few sort of tired noises as he hid in his dad's shoulder, shyly glancing up at Scott for a moment before he buried his face in his dad's shirt, though Scott didn't try to push him on it. He'd seen Annie's nieces right after naptime and had learned pretty fast that post-naptime meant that no one was happy for a while until the tiredness had worn off.

"So, you and Annie, huh?" Craig said as he sat down with Aman.

Scott leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and simply nodded. "She's something special," he told Craig honestly. "She helped to save my life, honestly."

"Sounds about right," Craig said with a small smile as he rubbed Aman's back while the little boy woke up. "How long you been dating?"

"Since the summer."

"And you're already moved in?" Craig looked a bit surprised as he turned Scott's way, and Scott couldn't help but wonder just how much the man had been told about... everything.

"It's a long story," Scott said. "Annie could probably tell it better."

"You mean she'll tell it longer," Craig said with a small smirk as he readjusted Aman and they headed downstairs.