I See The Light (Chris Evans AU Fanfiction)

Chapter 11

"Uncle Chris! Uncle Chris!" The little voice shouted through the house, making Chris smile as soon as he stepped through the doorway.

A little blonde haired girl came bouncing into the room and giggled rapidly as her uncle effortlessly scooped her up in his muscular arms and held her tight while he kissed her face. She kept on giggling while she rested her little chubby hands on his face and let him kiss her.

"How was preschool today?" He asked, carrying her deeper into the house to find his family.

"Good. I drew you a picture," Emmy announced to him as they walked into the kitchen, happily pointing at the drawing that was hanging on the fridge.

Chris' sisters and mother were busy getting dinner ready but he waited to greet them so he could carry his niece to the fridge where the picture was hanging. She had drawn a picture of the two of them holding hands with a little heart above them. The reward she got from her uncle was a big kiss on her cheek before he told he was going to hang it on his wall in his office.

After he had put Emmy down, Chris came over to hug his mother and sisters and gave them all a kiss on the cheek before they finished up dinner and sat down at the table. Chris had barely taken his first bite of food when his mom said, "Okay so tell us all about your second date with Allie!"

His cheeks tinted pink while he stared down at his food and grinned, "It was good."

"What did you guys do?" Carly, his eldest sister, wanted to know.

"Well we went to the children's hospital to draw with the kids and then I just took her out to dinner and then we took a ride on my bike."

Claire, the middle sister, quickly announced, "Okay I really want to meet her since I only got to say hi that one day."

"Yeah we should come see Chris at work again," Carly added in.

Lisa, Chris' mother, shook her head and put a warm hand on her son's shoulder and told him, "No, no, you need to invite that sweet girl over here and I'll cook a big nice dinner. I want to meet this sweet girl who's made my Chris all starry eyed."

The women all got excited, quickly making plans and Carly suggested, "Maybe we could do next Friday! All of us could come over here and I'll help you make dinner."

"Oh I could make that really good cake for dessert," Claire added in, talking at the same time.

"Yes! That sounds perfect, let's do that!" Lisa decided.

Chris wasn't saying anything thought.

He just sat there picking at the food on his plate and keeping his blue eyes looking down at it. Chris was very close to his family and normally was open with them but not this time. They all noticed the way he shut down and his mother decided to prod, "So Chris, will you ask Allie if she's available next Friday?"

He was silent again. Chris just kept pushing his food with his fork while he muttered, "I don't know if that's such a good idea."

"Why?" She plainly asked him.

Chris let out a long sigh before he quietly muttered, "Because I don't know if I'll go out with her again after our date tomorrow."

His soft words made the three women all whip their head toward him as their eyes grew wide. They were surprised by his words and didn't totally understand so naturally, the questions came. Carly wrinkled her eyebrows up in confusion, "I don't get it... I thought you really liked her."

"... I do,"

"So then why don't you want to go out with her again?" Claire couldn't understand.

"I do want to go out with her again."

Lisa just shook her head and told him, "Honey, you're not making any sense."

Chris let out a sigh as he leaned back in his chair, forgetting about his dinner for the moment. He rubbed his hands over his face as he explained, "I ran into this guy at work that Allie had gone out with and he said that a bunch of guys had gone out with her and she would always seem into them and then be done after the third date."

"Are you afraid that's going to happen to you after your third date this weekend?" Lisa asked her son.

He just nodded. The emotions he was feeling were evident on his face and the women all sympathized with him but Carly tried to assure him, "Chris, how do you know that's even true? And even if it is, that doesn't mean that will happen to you."

"I guess... " He trailed off.

The family was all silent for a long moment before Lisa spoke the words she knew they all were wondering and said, "...You really like her, don't you Chris?"

Chris slowly looked at his mother, his blue eyes full of a mixture of emotions that stirred and taunted him before he ducked his head and nodded. He twiddled his thumbs in his lap while he confessed, "From the first moment I met her, I started feeling something I hadn't ever felt before."

"Sweetie, falling for someone isn't easy. There's no guarantee that they'll feel the same but you have to take the risk," His mom encouraged him. "Try not to borrow tomorrow's troubles though and cross that bridge if it comes to it. Like Carly said, you don't even know if that's true or not, that guy may have just been jealous and trying to cause a problem."

"And Chris, if it's any consolation, I don't even really know Allie but that day that she came into your office, I saw the way her eyes lit up when she saw you," Claire added in.

At that, Chris couldn't help but smile softly to himself. He knew his family was right. He didn't even know if what Jason said was true, but it didn't stop the gnawing in his heart at the frightening thought that he might just be another one of Allie's past dates that went nowhere. He looked inside himself and realized why he was so afraid and looked at his family while he admitted, "I'm just falling so hard for her.... And I don't want that all to go away."