“Get. Out. Of. My. Way.” She shoved the cart menacingly and Melanie finally moved aside. “I’m Tate Murphy and I’m better than a thousand of you, Melanie Deeds. You know it too. If money bought worth, I’d still be better than you.”

She blew past them and managed to finish her shopping instead of running out the doors in tears like they’d wanted her to.

Still, there’d been several cancellations for the rest of the week. It’d cost the shop several hundred dollars. But not her pride. Never, ever her pride.

Chapter Eight

Matt chuckled to himself as they approached his parents’ front door. They were a sight to behold, Tate and Matt along with three of her siblings. His momma would be in hog heaven.

Add to it the bonus of having Tate be more comfortable because her family was with her for that first dinner at the Chase household. And it was a big night, they were celebrating Kyle’s birthday, too. In another three weeks Nicholas would be a year old.

He remembered back to July of the year before, Maggie was heavy with pregnancy and Liv was just about to admit to herself that she loved Marc.

It’d hurt then. Just a bit. To see his brother finding love before he had, and with the woman Matt had been with a few years before that. But part of the hurt had been Matt’s frustration that he just hadn’t ever loved Liv, even though he’d wanted to. He’d wondered if he’d ever find what his brothers had found and here he was, his arm around the shoulder of the woman who made him whole.

Not that she made it easy. The woman was a pain in the ass. Skittish as hell. Defensive and so damned strong. He loved her so much and he knew she felt deeply about him too, figured it was love even. But she was scared and he couldn’t do much more than ease her into life as his woman.

Thank God for her siblings who’d supported his relationship with her totally.

The door opened before he could reach the knob and his mother stood there, a great big grin on her face. Rushing onto the porch, she pulled Tate into a hug.

“Hey there, Tate. Don’t you look pretty tonight?” Polly stood back and Matt realized his mother and Tate were roughly the same height. He stifled a laugh but looked up to see his father making the same discovery as he stood in the doorway.

Tate blushed. “Thank you so much for having us, Mrs. Chase. I know it’s a family occasion and all. I told Matt we should come on a different night but he insisted.”

Polly waved a hand at that. “Pshaw. Piffle even. Come on in. Hello, Anne and Beth, it’s nice to see you two. And you’re Nathan, right? We’ve met once at a town hall meeting about the new high school. Come on in!” She shooed everyone into the front hall.

Edward looked at Matt and then down at Tate, his face softening. Matt wanted to sigh with relief. His father would temper his mother’s enthusiasm and make Tate feel at ease.

“Hello, darlin’. I’m Edward, Matt’s daddy. Welcome to our home.” Edward took her hand and kissed it and damned if Tate didn’t actually emit a girlish giggle.

Edward winked at her and Polly snorted. “Edward, don’t you go trying to trade me in on a younger model.”

Edward shook his head at his wife, smiling. “My darling wife, I’d never trade you in. But I do hear Tate’s quite the cook. I was just hedging my bets.”

Tate laughed and Polly grinned at Matt.

Edward introduced himself to her siblings and put Tate’s hand in the crook of his arm, escorting her into the family room where the other Chase boys and their assorted wives were already seated.

Tate saw Kyle and handed him a present, wishing him a happy birthday. Shane moved to her with purpose, giving her a kiss on the cheek and a hug as Cassie followed in his wake. Matt loved that his giant of a brother was so gentle with her. He supposed part of it was Cassie’s doing.

Nicholas saw Tate, squealed in delight and toddled over. She knelt at his level and within moments lay on the carpet, driving cars around.

“My sister is a good person. Kind, smart. She’d do anything for the people she loves.” Nathan stood with Matt as the rest of the group mixed and chatted.

“I love your sister, Nate.”

“I know. She’s afraid of it.”

“Why? I’d never hurt her. She has to know that. I’ve never been violent or even angry with her. I’m always gentle.” It tore him apart that she’d fear him.

Nathan sighed. “Matt, that’s not it entirely. She’s afraid to truly love you and have everything that makes the two of you so different come back to cause her pain. She’s afraid that once you know all of it, everything about our parents, how we came up, you’ll reject her.”

“That’s silly. I don’t care about any of that stuff. Nate, I don’t care where you grew up.”

“You don’t. But others do.”

“Who cares about them?”

“She didn’t tell you.” Nathan hesitated and Matt tore his eyes away from Tate and Maggie playing on the floor with Nicholas to face her brother.

“Tell me what?”

“She’s going to kill me. She needs to tell you herself.”

“Fuck that. Come on, Nathan, you opened the subject up, just tell me.” Matt kept his voice down, not wanting to alert her.

“Melanie and her friends cornered Tate at the market earlier this week. Taunted her. Said she was a gold digger. Called her a whore. They’re boycotting the salon. She’s lost some business.”