"Emma, Emma," repeated over and over was what woke me.
"Oh, fuck." I declared, registering the pain in my ears. I must've fallen asleep before we were airborne, and now we were back on the ground, by the looks of it.
The woman next to me shot me a dirty look. Ethan snorted.
"Here, gum." he offered, noticing me rubbing my eardrums.
"Sorry I slept on you the whole way," I mumbled.
"I did the same to you. This is comfortable," he said, fingering the sleeve of my fluffy jacket.
We stepped off the plane with our backpacks, then retrieved our luggage and hauled it to the side of the street.
"Hey, losers!" a voice called towards us, and Grayson and Ethan's face lit up. The large truck parked in front of us, and a girl, mid-twenties jumped out.
"Cam!" Grayson called. "What's up?"
Oh, this was Cameron. Their sister.
"I missed you, asshat!" she said, leaping into Grayson's arms and squeezing him tight. He was at least 8 inches taller than her and lifted her off of her feet.
"E," she said loudly. "You just keep growing."
"Hey, Cam," he said, scooping her into a hug as well. "And you are probably shrinking."
"And you must be Emma, Ethan's told me a lot about you," Cameron said, dismissing Ethan's comment. "I'm Cameron."
"Nice to meet you. And good...I guess." I said, awkwardly sticking my hand out to shake hers, but she pulled me into a hug anyway.
"Love your jacket, let me get your bags," she said, grabbing my white suitcase. Grayson loaded the other two in the back. Ethan ushered me forward into the back seat of the truck.
"This used to be my truck," Ethan commented, running his hand over the leather of the seat.
"And now you've gone through a BMW and a jeep." I reminded him.
"Jeep is the best." he decided.
"It's a nice car."
"When are you going to get a Tesla?" Ethan teased.
"Nah, love a good Subaru." I smiled.
"Alright, kiddos. Let's go. Emma, you might get the pleasure of meeting more of our psycho family. Once they heard Ethan had a girlfriend they came in droves." Cameron explained. I laughed.
"Not a problem. I'd love to meet them." I said, even though there was a twinge in the pit of my stomach.
"Riley and Christian?" Grayson inquired, leaning his chin on his hand that rested on the dashboard between them.
"Probably. Our house will be full. But they're all leaving by four. So tonight it'll just be us and Mom and Dad."
And it was definitely a full house. Having a small family, every thanksgiving included my mom, dad, uncle, cousin, and grandma. And that was it. So with multiple sets of uncles and aunts and grandparents, I struggled to keep them straight. Ethan was always close, introducing me and inviting me to play house with his younger cousins. That I was good at. Grayson ended up crashing with their youngest cousin, Shane, in a twin bed. It was too cute not to take a picture of. As for dinner, I was ecstatic when Cam informed me she was vegan as well. I followed her closely and put everything she put on her plate on mine. But as 4 o'clock rolled around, Cam was right. Numbers started dwindling, and most of them had hour long drives. That confused me the most. All of my family lived in completely different states. We spent a few hours sitting in the living room, just talking about everything with Lisa and Sean. I found to be very comfortable with them, and when they didn't blink when Ethan threw an arm around me and I leaned into his shoulder, I sighed in relief.
