Total pages in book: 230
Estimated words: 217798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1089(@200wpm)___ 871(@250wpm)___ 726(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 217798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1089(@200wpm)___ 871(@250wpm)___ 726(@300wpm)
She’d been in the kitchen all day cooking for Pilar, who was set to come over for dinner to meet my parents and have a proper meal with Asher, Tamara, and Jack.
“Are you nervous?” My mother swatted me away with a wooden spoon.
“A little.”
“Because of us?” Dad asked over the newspaper in his hands.
“Because of everything. I just want everyone to get along.”
“Are you going to propose?” Dad raised an eyebrow.
Mom gasped, turning around. “You’re going to propose?”
“Not tonight.” I looked at both of them. “No talking about proposals.”
“We can’t talk about proposals, we can’t talk about weddings, we can’t ask if she wants children,” Mom checked off. “What can we talk about, Benjamin?”
“Just normal stuff.”
“She’s a princess. I doubt she ever talks about normal stuff,” Dad said. “What is normal stuff anyway?” He looked at the paper again. “Should I ask her why her brother is raising taxes?”
“God, no. Please no politics.”
“We’ll be mutes, Uri.” Mom looked at Dad. “We’ll be mutes.”
“Better mutes now than mutes because our tongues got cut off by the king, Esther.”
“He’s not going to cut off your tongues.” I closed my eyes briefly.
As much as I absolutely loved my parents, having them here every minute of the day was definitely testing my patience. It was the main reason I hadn’t asked them to stay for once. I was grateful when the front door opened, and David walked in with a bottle of wine. He lifted it up.
“Brought wine instead of champagne. I wasn’t sure if you were going to propose, but this was on sale, so I went with this.”
“Jesus.” I shook my head and turned around.
“See? Even David thinks you might propose,” Mom said.
“I’m hoping you don’t scare her off.” I looked at the three of them, and back at the front door when it opened again and Tamara, Jack, and Asher walked in.
“Are we early?” Tam asked.
“You’re fine.” I waved a hand.
“We were just discussing Benjamin proposing to the princess,” Mom said.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered.
“Is the princess going to be my stepmommy?” Asher asked excitedly, then looked back at his mother. “It’s okay, Mommy, you’ll always be my real mommy.”
“I’m fully aware of that, Ash.” Tamara laughed. “And quite frankly, I’m a bit excited about the princess joining our family.” She winked at him and looked at me. “Are you proposing today?”
“No. No. No.” I brought both hands up and looked at the ceiling. “Why is this happening?”
“I’ll tell you what, if she sticks around after today’s lunch, you should probably propose,” Jack said, laughing.
“Brother, you read my mind.” I looked at him and shook my head.
The doorbell rang, and that was when I froze. It was her. She’d been here a million times now. I’d given her a key to my place, and she’d given me one to hers. We’d been together officially for months, but she’d never been here when all of the most important people in my life were here. Suddenly I felt extremely nervous.
“Can I open it?” Ash asked, jumping up and down.
“Yes.”
He ran over and opened the door, bowing. “Welcome, Princess.”
She laughed. “Ash, you don’t have to do that every time you see me.”
I smiled wide at the sound of her voice. I hadn’t even seen her yet, and my heart was already beating a mile a minute. When she did step inside with Amir in tow, she smiled at everyone. She crouched and hugged Asher first, giving him a kiss on the head. It’d been so beautiful to watch them together. For all of her reservations about children, Pilar treated Ash as if he were her own, and kept in touch with Tamara about everything. I’d always thought people with blended families were a little crazy. How could that ever work? But for us, it did. We all tried very hard to make it that way. Jack and I texted back and forth and watched some matches together. Tamara and Pilar had become friends because of Asher, but now spoke even when Asher wasn’t involved. My mother and father shared a look that said they were weirded out by all of it but smiled, and I knew as strange as this was, they were proud. After Pilar said hello to Tam and Jack, she greeted David, and finally, walked over to me. It was obvious that she was nervous to say hi to my parents. I kissed her hard and grabbed her hand.
“Mom, this is Pilar. Pilar, this is my mother, Esther.”
“So pleased to meet you, Esther.” Pilar smiled and laughed when my mother pulled her into a hug.
“You’re lovely. Thank you for coming over. I wanted to personally thank you for putting this goofy smile on my son’s face,” my mother said.
“Mom,” I warned.
“You’re blushing,” Pilar said, laughing as she looked at me. “I didn’t think that was possible.”