"Yes."
He sips his coffee and thinks for a moment. "Okay, I'll go first. Favorite color?"
I laugh and shake my head in amusement. "That's the first thing you want to know?"
"Yeah."
"Purple. Yours?"
"I'm gonna go with black." He starts to dig in to the waffles next. "Do you work?"
Geez. He goes from colors to career in two seconds. "I work from home. I make clothes and accessories, belts and scarves and whatnot, and some jewelry. I also make homemade soaps and bath products like body scrubs, lotions, and lip balms."
He raises his eyebrows in surprise and approval. "That's pretty wild. Did you put those little gem things on your shirt?" He points his fork at me.
"I did."
"I like that. I dig creative stuff. And I like that you're home. I won't have to worry about you."
"Do you do anything else for work?" I inquire. "Or just the band?"
He looks offended and leans back a little in his chair. "Really? That's not enough?"
"I didn't mean it like that. I just wondered if you were involved in anything else."
"I've done some modeling."
"See? That counts."
While buttering up some toast, he fires his next question at me. "I noticed my brother dragged you down the aisle. Where's your family?"
Taking a deep breath, I try to find the best words to explain my family and decide to just spit out the truth. "My father and brother are both in prison, and my mom took off when I was seventeen with a guy she met. I've only heard from her twice since, when she was hoping to get some money out of me—which I don't have." I raise my gaze to meet his, hoping he's not disgusted by me, and his eyes soften as he nods a little for me to continue. "I had to drop out of school my senior year so I could try to work and take care of myself. I didn't go to college or anything like that."
He puts his fork down and runs his hand through his hair, tucking it behind his ear. "Whether you went to college doesn't matter to me. That's a shitty thing to have to go through, though, especially so young. As you saw at the wedding, I have a big family, and we're all pretty close."
"You're very lucky to have them." I'm envious, actually. Although I met them all briefly in the flurry of crazy yesterday, they seemed extremely nice and welcoming. And I could tell they actually cared about each other, unlike my own family.
"You have them, too. My family is your family now."