A Story Worth Telling

Episode IV

Sarasota, Florida

I WASN'T THE BIGGEST FAN OF flying, but I had to admit that I loved business class. I wouldn't admit it out loud to Gabriel, ever probably, but I was glad I'd let Con pay for my ticket. Well, 'let' was a bit of an overstatement, since he'd done it without giving me much say. A transatlantic flight was never fun, so it was nice to have leg room, great food, and a chance to sleep comfortably for most of the trip. Nicer still was the fact that none of this was on my dime.

Weirdly, I had a feeling Conrad loved me more than Gabriel did. Our relationship hadn't been the easiest to build. In fact it had been very debilitating the first time I'd had dinner with Gabriel's family. Gabe was the third of five siblings, three boys and two girls. I'd only ever really had Simon, despite the fact that our house had been filled with a lot of our friends growing up. But the relationship between friends was different from the dynamic among siblings, something I'd absolutely felt unprepared for. Looking back, I think Conrad had zoned in on how out of place I'd felt the second I'd walked into the room, and he'd immediately gone out of his way to make me feel comfortable. With all that, it had still taken me a while to warm up to him. Conrad was an open, tough, loving, affectionate father, which was the polar opposite of what I'd grown up with. I didn't know how to interact with that kind of father figure: what to say, how to act, what to do...

He'd extended the warmth he had with his own children - and their partners, those who'd been in relationships at the time - to me almost the second after we'd met. Because of the unfamiliarity of it all, we'd gotten off to a rocky start. But with time, I'd blossomed under it. He'd made it perfectly clear that I was a member of his family and as such he was my father too, and he acted as such. Once I got to know him, once I understood what having a real father felt like, it was very easy to open up to him. And the more he knew about how I'd grown up, the more...just more his behaviour became - almost like he'd decided I needed a real father and he would be that in its entirety.

I loved having siblings-in-law, but I would always treasure the relationship I had with Simon. What Gabriel gave me that I valued the most was the relationship I had with Conrad. He acted like he was the lucky one, having me in his life. But I'd grown up with a non-entity for a father, even worse since he seemed to exist to make me hate everything about myself. Conrad helped me grow into myself, and that was something I could never thank him enough for.

It had been Simon's idea for me to ask Con to walk me down the aisle when I married Gabriel. I think that by far was one of the best moments of my life - Con had cried, really cried actual tears, and told me that it would be the proudest moment of his life.

So, all things considered, that and the big emotional guns Con pulled to convince me to let him pay for this trip, I really needed to get used to letting the family I was marrying into use everything in their arsenal - including their money - to spoil me when they wanted to. The Lord knew they had enough to do it and weren't careless with their money, and I knew both Gabe and Con loved taking care of me.

I'd called Simon when we were off the train and headed to our terminal at Heathrow airport, and he'd offered to pick us up from when we arrived. But I told him he wouldn't have to, seeing as Gabriel's family had already taken care of it. His compromise was that we were to report – his words, not mine – to his home for dinner when we arrived. I was hoping he hadn't planned to invite company - the last thing I wanted to deal with while fighting jet lag was a large group of people. Even if it was my extended 'family'.

It took about an hour forty five minutes for us to get through immigration, grab our luggage and finally exit the airport. Yet another reason to dislike flying.

I was bone tired when we finally settled in the back of the car Lara had sent for us. So I snuggled into Gabe's side, lifted my legs and curled them on the seat. Gabe's arm wrapped around my shoulders and pulled me closer to him, and I sighed. His lips brushed my temple. I tipped my head back and gave him a small smile, and he lowered his head to kiss me. He brushed his nose against mine before lifting his head, making me smile.