How the Hitman Stole Christmas - Sam Mariano Page 0,73
but I brought her home with me.
I guess we convinced more than just my family that I’m serious about Autumn.
Tarek stands when I enter the room, drawing my thoughts to the present moment.
“Hey, there you are,” he says.
“Nora said you were looking for me.”
He nods, brushing his hands against the side of his pants a bit nervously. “Yeah. Do you have a minute?”
“Autumn’s making breakfast. I have a few.”
Tom stands now, looking from Tarek to me. “I’ll leave you to it.”
I don’t say anything. My gaze flickers in Tom’s direction as he makes a quick exit, then returns to Tarek.
He doesn’t seem to know what to do with his hands. His nervousness makes me suspicious. Typically, in my world, when a man is this fucking nervous, something is very wrong.
“What’s going on?” I ask, cutting right to the chase. “You got some kind of problem?”
Tarek’s eyes widen slightly. “Problem? No, there’s no problem.”
“You look like a man with a problem.”
That seems to surprise him. He laughs nervously, dropping my gaze and turning around awkwardly before finally sitting down on the edge of the leather couch. “You want to sit down?”
“I’m all right to stand.”
Since I refused to do the polite thing and make him more comfortable, his awkwardness grows. He doesn’t want to sit on the couch if I’m going to stand here, so after a few seconds, he gets back to his feet.
Tension fills the air as he shifts from one foot to the other. I fucking hate the hemming and hawing—he needs to just tell me what’s going on so I can figure out how to deal with it.
“I want to marry your sister,” he blurts.
I blink, rocking back about a half step. “What?”
Tarek sighs. “I know she doesn’t really have a father. Your mom might be married to Tom, but Nora doesn’t look at him that way, and she doesn’t know her real dad. From what she’s told me, you’re the closest thing she’s ever had to that role, so… I wanted to go the traditional route and ask her father before I proposed tonight, but… I thought it might make sense to ask you.”
This is not at all what I was expecting. I don’t really know how to respond to it. “You could have asked our mom,” I say, trying to feel my way around the situation.
“I could have,” he says carefully. “I know Audra seems to have it together now, but while they have a certain kind of relationship now that Nora’s an adult, from what she’s told me about her childhood…” He’s uncomfortable talking about a family that isn’t his yet, so he tries to be as delicate as possible. “It sounds like you raised her, no one else.”
He’s right, I did.
I just never imagined a day when anyone else would acknowledge that, let alone approach me to ask for her hand in marriage.
“And you did a great job,” he says, his whole face softening as he thinks about my sister. “I love the hell out of your sister, and so does Amira. We’re a family in every way that matters, I just… I want to make it official.”
It takes me a moment to absorb everything he’s saying, but when I do speak, there’s only one thing to say. “From what I’ve seen this week, you make my sister very happy. If you want to marry her, you have my blessing.”
Tarek grins, all of his nervousness dissipating. “Thanks, Jasper.”
Pressing my lips together almost grimly, I nod. “You better take good care of her, though. I won’t tell you what’ll happen if you don’t, but it won’t be pretty.”
He laughs, thinking I’m joking.
I smile and let him go on thinking that.
The rest of the day is filled with holiday preparations and family time. Right after breakfast, Autumn makes Arlo’s balish cookies. I keep her company while she works, and she tells me she wasn’t sure she knew how to make them, but once she looked up the recipe, she realized she used to bake the same cookies with her grandma, only her grandma called them something else.
I probably should offer to help, but I don’t have the first clue about baking, so I just watch as she fills half the cookies with cherry filling, and the other half with cream cheese.
“Does this mean you don’t know how to cook?” she asks good-naturedly as she fills another cookie.
“I can cook, I just can’t bake. I’m sure I could figure it out if I had to, but