She almost second-guessed herself before replying, but decided that if she didn't have to be guarded with Sean, then she wouldn't be guarded with his family, either. "Sean is making me really happy, too."
"He always was the lucky one of the two of us," Justin said with the same easy grin that Sean and Maddie had. "Can I get you anything?"
"No, I was just heading outside to try Maddie's dip."
"Whatever you think of it," he said in a low voice, "tell her you love it."
"Isn't it good?"
"It's great," he said, but he'd clearly felt he had to warn Serena anyway, to make sure that no matter what happened his sister came away feeling good at the end of the day. Without siblings, Serena hadn't had a chance to see into a family dynamic like this. It was as fascinating--and fantastic--as she'd always thought it would be. At the same time, though, it was so much more complicated than she'd ever realized.
On the one hand, Maddie clearly felt pressured by her family's expectations, but on the other, she was obviously totally supported in her dreams. Grant was likely needed in his office this afternoon, but he'd chosen to take these hours off to celebrate his sister. Olivia was wary of Serena and wanted to protect Sean from being hurt because she loved him so much. And Justin...well, Serena didn't have a handle on Sean's twin yet, beyond sensing that he was really nice in addition to being ridiculously good looking.
She could only imagine how the Morrison house must have been overrun with phone calls and visits from all the people wanting to date them over the years. Surely, she thought, as she finally headed outside, Sean wasn't the only one dating someone. But when she looked around the backyard, there was only one other person she hadn't met.
Drew Morrison turned to her with the look of a man who knew precisely the kind of effect he had on women. And yet, though he had BAD BOY written all over him, from his black jeans to his spiky hair and tattoos, she was really happy to find that he didn't put her on edge the way so many other musicians did. Especially those creeps she'd filmed the video with.
"Great to finally meet you," he said as he came across the grass to say hello, even the way he moved rock-star sexy.
He wasn't putting on an act. Drew Morrison just was a rock star. He owned it from the inside out and clearly had found his perfect career fit. Whereas Serena had never been doing more than pretending to be a supermodel.
"You, too." Again, though she felt more than a little shy, she didn't let it stop her from telling him, "I really like your music."
"Thanks. I appreciate that." And she got the sense that he really did.
A moment later, Sean's arms slid around her waist from behind. "Holding up okay? I don't have to beat Drew up for hitting on you, do I?"
She laughed as she shook her head, then smiled up at him. "You have a great family."
He smiled back at her even though she knew what he'd really been seeing since they walked in to Maddie's party was a family minus one very important person. She could see that same expression in all of the Morrisons' eyes in varying degrees. Some of them were probably just better at hiding, at bottling up, their grief. For now, at least.
Even though they were standing in front of his entire family, it was pure instinct to slide her arms around his neck. "When will everyone else be getting here?"
"We're all here."
"But...it's just your family and me."
"Maddie's going to blow it out with her friends later tonight in the city while Olivia drives her crazy by chaperoning. Today is for the family."
"But if it's just your family--"
Sean's mouth on hers stopped the rest of her protest. "I wanted you to be here today. We all do."
Just then, a small bundle of fur pushed against her legs and she looked down to see the cutest little black and white dog looking up at her with big brown eyes. "Oh my gosh, who are you?"
"Don't worry, buddy," Sean said as he scooped up the dog and handed it to her, "I was just about to introduce you. This is Bailey. And something tells me he's going to fall in love with you, too."
The way the cute dog started licking her made her think that maybe Sean was right. She couldn't stop laughing, even as she tried to dodge his tongue.
"Hey," Sean said in a gentle tone to the dog, "coming on too strong is no way to get a girl to love you back." He gave the furball a quick cuddle then put him down on the grass, where he scurried after a piece of food that had just fallen off the table.
"Sorry about that. He can be a little too friendly sometimes."
"Impossible," she said through her laughter as she watched Bailey stare greedily at the plates of food on the table. "No dog can ever be too friendly."
Sean took her hand and brought her over to the table set up in the middle of the lawn beneath the big magnolia tree. "Come sit down with me."
She knew everyone must be able to see that she was glowing from just being with Sean, and she hoped Olivia was the only one who disapproved of her. It had never been so important for people to like her.
"So, Serena," Mike asked, "what year are you at Stanford?"
"It's my freshman year."
"Got your major picked out yet? Or are you still trying things out?"
Clearly, Sean's father didn't have much of a clue about what she'd done before attending college, and she was extremely glad. "I'm planning to major in English."
His eyes shuttered. "My wife was an English major. She ended up going on to teach third grade."
Oh God, how did she keep hurting Sean's father with every word that came out of her mouth? To make things worse, she felt Sean stiffen beside her, too. Each of his siblings also shifted slightly in their seats.
"Is teaching what you want to do, too?" Maddie asked.
Trying to answer as normally as possible, given the fact that she wanted to cry for every one of them, Serena said, "Maybe. Although at this point anything's possible, just as long as it involves books and libraries."
She was so incredibly glad when Sean smiled at her and said, "Serena's on a first-name basis with the entire Green Library staff. And actually, since I've started going so much to meet her there, I've started to think that someone should do some time-release photographs of the architecture and the way the light passes over it throughout the day. Somehow it manages to look different every hour."
"You should do it," Olivia said.
Serena held her breath along with the rest of them, but Sean only shrugged and said, "We'll see," before turning to Grant and asking, "How's the new product launch going?"
She was so amazed by Sean's response to Olivia that she was only able to listen with half an ear to Grant's response. Was he really thinking about doing photography again? It felt like such a big thing--and she knew from his siblings' expressions that she wasn't the only one who thought so.
Had she had something to do with the change? Or was it simply that the passage of time was finally starting to heal him?
Whatever the reason, knowing that Sean was coming alive again filled her with so much happiness, Serena wanted to dance around the yard. By the time she was able to pull her gaze from his gorgeous face, she realized that her plate was loaded up with some of the best-looking food she'd ever seen or smelled.
"You made all this?" she asked Maddie while Sean, Grant, and Mike talked business.
"I hope you like it."
"She will, Mads," Drew said from the far end of the table, ruffling his sister's hair so that she gave him a little mock growl of irritation.
"How many hearts have you broken on this tour?" his little sister asked him.
"Lost count in Miami," he teased her back.
"I'm glad you were able to come home for my birthday."
"Wouldn't have missed it," he said, "even if you're blowing me off to go hang with your friends tonight."
"You know they'd be thrilled if you came," Maddie said.
"Gonna have to take a pass on that one, thanks." His look of horror at hanging with a bunch of eighteen-year-old girls made
Serena laugh. "Besides, I've got that meeting tonight with my professor about the student who wants to go on tour with me as part of her business major."
Olivia shook her head. "Do you really want to let some stranger on your tour bus?"
"My professor basically asked me to do it as a favor. Turns out she's his daughter and she really wants to get an insider's view of the music industry for some project she's working on."
"You can't be serious," Justin said, laughing. "This professor wants to send his daughter on tour with you? Does he know anything about your track record with the ladies?"
"I wouldn't touch the guy's daughter," Drew said, as serious as he'd been so far. "Not in a million years."
Olivia abruptly shifted in her seat to face Serena. "Has it been difficult to fit your modeling and acting commitments around your classes?"
Trying not to act too surprised by the sudden question, or too flustered by the way everyone was now looking at her, Serena said, "I'm not modeling or acting anymore."
Olivia frowned. "But I read just this morning that you--"
"She's done with that," Sean said, cutting his sister off.
"Do you miss it?" Maddie asked.
"No." Serena didn't even have to think about it. "Not at all."
"That's cool," his youngest sister said. "I was just thinking it must be kind of weird to go to college and live in a dorm and go to classes after all the things you've probably seen and done."
"It was weird at first," she admitted. "At least until I met your brother." Knowing she couldn't pretend the tabloid story hadn't come out online with pictures of the two of them, or that there wouldn't be similar things coming in the future, she said, "I know it must have been strange for all of you when those pictures of the two of us came out."
"It wasn't a big deal," Sean immediately said.
Grant, however, was only a beat behind him with, "Actually, it was a surprise, but I don't imagine it's anything you can control, is it?"
"Unfortunately," she said with a little shake of her head, "it isn't."
She could feel Sean bristling beside her, not nearly as bad as he'd been when he'd caught his friends looking at her video the night before, but definitely not pleased with the way the conversation had gone. She wished she knew how to fix things, but before she could figure anything out, help came from the most unlikely quarter.
"Serena, do you want to come help me bring out Maddie's birthday cake?" Olivia asked.
Beyond grateful, Serena nodded and was sliding out of her seat when Sean slid his hand to the nape of her neck and kissed her, long and hard and in front of his entire family. Her head was spinning by the time he let her go, but she somehow managed to make it to her feet without tripping and into the kitchen, where his sister was waiting for her.
"When those pictures of the two of you came out," Olivia said, point-blank, "I told him to be careful."
Serena had barely closed the door behind her, and between the kiss and the roller coaster of a conversation during their meal, she didn't quite have her bearings. "You love your brother. Of course you would want him to be careful."
That was right when Olivia shocked her, yet again, by saying, "You love him, too, don't you?"
Whatever Serena could have imagined that she and Olivia would talk about in the kitchen, it wouldn't have been love. And yet, now that she'd met Sean's family and saw that love was the core of everything the Morrisons did, of everything they were, she realized it couldn't have been anything else.
"I do."
Olivia's smile flashed so quickly that Serena almost missed it. Especially when she followed it up by saying, "Losing our mom...it was hard. So, so hard. But she and Sean had a really special connection." Serena badly wanted to reach out to her as she added, "He's finally starting to come back to life, and I hate the thought of him getting hurt."
"I won't hurt him," Serena promised.
"Now that I've met you," Olivia said, "I know you wouldn't do it on purpose. But what about when you leave to film that movie?"
Serena's chest clenched tight for a split second. "I'm not doing any movies."
"Didn't Smith Sullivan pick you to be in his new movie?"
"He did, but then the project was shelved this past summer."
Olivia stared at her, confused. "But I just read today that it's back on. And that you're in it."
Serena shook her head. "No, I haven't agreed to anything. It must just be old news that someone is circulating again. I'm going to stay at school, not leave to do a movie or model."
Sean came in through the door. "Everything good here?"
Olivia stared at Serena for another few seconds before she seemed to make up her mind and smiled. "Everything's great. I'm glad you came today, Serena."
Serena smiled back at his sister. "I am, too."
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
"I had a great time with your family today."
Drew needed Sean's car for the evening to visit his professor, so Olivia had dropped them off in front of Serena's dorm, and this was the first chance they'd had to be alone since before the party.
"They all really liked you. Just like I knew they would. Even Olivia," he said with a grin, "couldn't help but join your team by the end."
"They're all amazing. And if at least one of them hadn't been just a little bit suspicious of me, well, I think that would have been the weird part."
In fact, the only truly weird thing about the afternoon was that no one had talked about his mom apart from an accidental comment here or there. It was as if they were all walking on eggshells around each other. Or, more specifically, Sean's father.
Was loving someone so deeply worth the pain of losing that love?
But she already knew the answer to that, didn't she? Because even if everything blew up between her and Sean, she didn't see how she could ever regret loving him.
Not, she reminded herself, that things were going to go wrong. Because for once in her life, she felt like she was exactly where she needed to be with exactly the person she needed to be with. And every time she thought about the way Sean seemed to be on the verge of wanting to take pictures again, it made her so happy for him that she knew nothing could possibly crush that joy.
Nothing at all.
As they walked inside and her dorm mates said hello, she could see all of them taking note of the fact that she and Sean were holding hands. She smiled, thinking that as far as she was concerned, every last one of them could take a picture and post it on the Internet.
And if her mother saw it? Well, she'd just have to accept that her daughter had finally grown up. Yes, she knew her mother's terrible track record with Serena's father meant that she would likely be extremely suspicious of Sean's motives, but surely Genevieve would soon realize that Sean was a good person and that he didn't mean Serena any harm, wouldn't she?
Still high on having spent the afternoon with Sean's family, Serena was more hopeful than ever that the two of them might one day be able to connect as mother and daughter, rather than as "momager" and client.
Because if Serena could meet a guy like Sean and fall in love, then surely anything was possible, wasn't it?
Soon. She'd tell her mother all about Sean really soon. Especially since she knew it would be better to tell Genevieve that they were dating before her mother read about it online and saw more pictures of them together.
Tomorrow morning, Serena assured herself, was soon enough. For the rest of today, all she wanted to do was focus on being with him.
"I like seeing you this happy," he said as he pulled her close and nuzzled against her.
It was amazing how different--and magical--everything felt now compared to the first time she and Sean had walked across campus together, both of them prickly and unsure with each other.
"I like being this happy," she agreed. And she was hoping to feel even happier soon. Very soon, in fact.
The plan was to grab some of her books from her room so that they could study back at his p
lace. But Serena knew the likelihood of getting much studying done tonight while alone with Sean was pretty much nil.
She'd finally made up her mind about the two of them. Even if he wasn't ready yet to share absolutely everything with her, she loved him enough to trust that he would one day...and she couldn't wait one more second to be his.
One hundred percent his and only his.
In fact, at this point, she wasn't sure she was going to have the willpower to make it all the way back across campus to his room. Maybe, she thought as she unlocked her door, she'd text her roommate to find out exactly how long Abi would be gone and whether they could have the room to themselves for a while.
The thought of finally making love with Sean made Serena giddy enough that she couldn't wait until they were inside to kiss him. When he put his hands on her hips and pulled her tightly against him in exactly the way she loved so much, it was clear that he couldn't wait another second, either.
By the time her door swung all the way open they were wrapped around each other. After a long afternoon where he'd constantly stroked her back, played with her hands under the table, and teased her with little kisses, she was ready for more.
Beyond ready.
Especially when she had all this joy, all this happiness, to share with him.
But then, in the exact moment that she realized he'd stopped kissing her back, she heard her name.
"Serena!"
She would instinctively have spun away from Sean if he hadn't been holding her so tightly.
"Mom?" She stared at her mother in shock. Genevieve was standing by the window, looking horrified at the sight of Serena in Sean's arms. "What are you doing here?"
Genevieve Britten was a very striking thirty-nine-year-old woman, and Serena was sure she must have turned plenty of heads walking through campus and into Serena's dorm today. People always said it was clear where Serena's looks had come from, though Genevieve's modeling look had always been crisp and angular, whereas Serena had never been able to shed her soft, slightly dreamy appearance.
"You lied to me," her mother said in a voice so sharp it could have carved a diamond. "You told me the tabloid pictures were setups. But here you two are, just like in the photos. Worse."
As the first shock began to wear off, Serena realized her mother hadn't so much as looked at Sean. "Mom," she said in as steady a voice as she could manage, "this is Sean. Sean Morrison."