Falling

45

Carson Hughes

I saw Vinny pull up to the house through the living room window and met him at the front door, greeting him with a kiss.

"How was dinner with your family?" I asked him and I pulled him inside.

"Sucked," he said, leaning into my side. "Me, Logan, Dana, and our parents ended up eating in the living room."

"That bad?"

Vinny shrugged. "I was just sick of their shit before it even started."

I looked down at him, his brow furrowed and his mouth in a frown. I wanted to be able to smooth all that tension away and hide him from anything that put that look on his face.

I stopped the two of us before we entered the kitchen where Mom, Paul, and Spencer waited. I barely saw the look of confusion on Vinny's face before I leaned down and kissed him. His frown melted away against my lips and his hands found their way up to my hair.

"What was that for?" he asked breathlessly as I pulled away.

I smiled. "I just wanted to."

I could see red creeping up his cheeks as he looked away from me with a sheepish smile. When I saw him like this, it was hard to imagine that the two of us had fought just the other day.

I pushed that thought out of my head. We were going to have a good night and then we would have a redo date tomorrow and everything would be fine. We would be fine.

"Spencer in there?" Vinny asked, the smiling fading from his face.

I nodded. "Is that okay?"

Vinny took a deep breath. "I'm fine."

He grabbed my hand and started toward the kitchen. I couldn't help but watch him and swell with pride as we moved forward. Vinny was trying harder to make this work than I ever gave him credit for. Despite his feelings about Spencer or their rocky history, he wanted to be here for me. I had never thought about how hard this could be for him, to spend time with Spencer despite what had happened between them.

"Hey," I said, stopping us just before the entrance to the kitchen. "If you want to leave at any time, we can."

Vinny raised his eyebrows at me. "I told you I'm fine."

"I know, but just thought I'd throw that out there."

He rolled his eyes but then leaned upward to catch my lips with his briefly.

"You're cute," he said before pulling me into the kitchen behind him.

Mom, Paul, and Spencer sat at the kitchen table with various desserts resting on the table. All their eyes turned to us as we entered the kitchen. Mom immediately got up from the table with her arms held out for Vinny.

"Vinny!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him. He stumbled slightly with a laugh before putting his arms around her. "It's so good to see you. I'm so happy you could make it. Now we can have some dessert!"

She pulled away, but kept him at arms length, her hands on his shoulders.

"You could have started without me," he told her.

"Absolutely not," she denied. "How is everyone? I haven't seen your parents in forever."

"They're good," he replied as Mom led him over to the table. I followed behind the two of them, taking the seat beside Spencer while Vinny sat across from me and beside Mom with Paul on her other side.