“Then I would have told you, Mom, but honestly . . .” Ren takes a deep breath. “You need to learn to let go. I’m a grown woman and can take care of myself, and I did after the accident. I love that you care about me so much, that you’re the loving parents any child deserves, and I’m so lucky to have you. But there also comes a time when you need to let go and let me live my life.” She leans forward and puts her hand on mine. “Let me be the one who takes care of someone now.”

Tears well up in her mom’s eyes, but the understanding is there as Gloria slowly nods her head, Harry’s hand wrapping around his wife’s shoulder. “I don’t want you hiding things from me, but I will tell you the fact that you’ve been so open and honest about Griffin makes me think I can learn to slowly let go.” She brushes a tear off her cheek. “You have never looked happier, Ren, which is all I want as a mother: for you to be happy.”

“I am, Mom.” Ren looks at me. “So happy.”

I walk along the harbor and into my parents’ backyard to a round of applause, accompanied by obnoxious cheering from Reid and Brig.

Word spreads fast. When my mom called us all to dinner, I should have known that she had one goal in mind: to talk about the new development in my life.

It looks like an intervention, with my family sitting around in a circle on the back deck, waiting for my arrival. Earlier today, we all received an emergency group text from my mom calling for all Knightlys to show up at the house at seven on the dot.

But instead of worried and concerned faces greeting me, there is a CONGRATULATIONS banner hung up behind them, a plate of cookies on the table, and beers all around—my favorite local brew—and are those IT’S A GIRL napkins?

“There he is, the man of the hour. Have a seat,” Reid says, offering me a chair and reaching to place a construction paper crown on my head.

I toss the crown at Reid. “I’m not wearing that.” I flop on the chair, relenting to whatever ridiculous shit is about to go down, and take the beer in front of me.

“That crown was made by your nephew, and you hurt his feelings.”

“That crown was made by you. I saw you in the back of the shop trying to staple it together earlier. Nice try, dickhead.” I slouch in my seat and get comfortable, scanning everyone’s gleeful faces. Well, besides Rogan. I’m not sure he knows what a gleeful face is. “And what’s with the ‘It’s a Girl’ napkins?”

“Because it’s a giiiiiirl you finally started dating,” Reid coos.

“There is something seriously wrong with you.”

“Settle down, you two,” my mom says. “We’re expecting company, and I don’t want any bickering to distract from what we’re celebrating.”

Company? Celebrating?

Oh hell.

“Mom . . .” I swallow hard. “What are we celebrating?”

“Your new relationship, of course! This is a special day, and we need to make it known.”

I shake my head and sit up in my chair. “We don’t need to make anything known. Can we for the love of Christ just act normal and—”

The doorbell rings from inside the house, and my mom starts clapping her hands while my dad abruptly leaves to answer it. “Oooh, they’re here.”

“Who?” I look over my shoulder. “Who’s here?” I turn to Jen, who gives me a pitying “I’m sorry” look. “Mom, who’s here?”

No one answers me. Instead, I hear the cheerful voice of Mrs. Winters being greeted by my dad.

Jesus Christ.

“Right out here.” The sliding glass door opens, and I turn to find Ren, a nervous smile on her face, her parents trailing behind her.

I could seriously die right now.

This very moment.

Die of utter embarrassment as, once again, everyone starts clapping.

Ren was nervous about me meeting her parents. Well, she had no idea what was in store for her when it came to my family.

I stand awkwardly as Ren shifts on her feet, hands clasped in front of her. We stare at each other as silence falls on the deck.

Do I kiss her?

Do I shake her hand?

Do I jump off the deck into the harbor to end my misery?

From the corner of my eye, I catch Rogan smirking and taking a sip of his beer. I know exactly what that look is. It’s the “I’m glad I’m not you right now” look.

Out of all my family members, he’s the one I’m most mad at; he could have tried to stop this, or at least taken down the godforsaken CONGRATULATIONS sign.

Finally my mom steps up and starts introducing everyone, going around in a circle while I stare at the ground, so humiliated that I can’t even begin to face Ren. Does she want to kill me? Does she want to run for the hills? I wouldn’t blame her.

The IT’S A GIRL napkins would get my ass moving immediately.

“Well, are you two just going to stand there and act like you don’t know each other?” my mom says after all introductions are over with.

You know, my dad could have done something to stop her, but as I take him in, take in the happy look on his face, I have a feeling no one is going to side with me on this.

“Kiss. Kiss. Kiss,” Reid starts chanting, and I shoot him a death glare before the chant can catch on. My eyes speak murder, and thankfully he’s smart enough to realize it.

Knowing this isn’t going to end until I say something, I step up next to Ren and take her hand in mine. My mom sighs, and Jen squeals; my dad nods in appreciation.

Clearing my throat, I address Ren’s parents first. “Mr. and Mrs. Winters, thank you for making the trip to my parents’ house for this extremely odd and embarrassing get-together. Please excuse the decorations; my family has issues. And as for everyone else, I’m going to say this once and only once. Yes, Ren and I are dating, and yes, you all must be chomping at the bit to ask unwelcome questions. That’s not going to happen. I really like this girl, and I don’t need you to scare her away with your antics. So please, let us just do our own thing without your interference.” I bring Ren’s hand up to my mouth and kiss it. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, I need to speak privately with Ren about something. Mr. and Mrs. Winters, make yourselves at home. My family might be overly invasive, but they’re good hosts. Ask them for anything.”

With that, I guide Ren through the sliding glass door, out of the front of the house, and down the side of the yard to my thinking spot, a large, flat stone I loved to escape to as a child. It’s far away from the house and will give us some privacy. I sit us both on it and let out a long sigh.

“I’m so sorry. I had no idea that was happening.”

Ren stares out at the ocean and doesn’t answer right away, making my nerves heighten. Is she mad? Hell, I will renounce my entire family at this point if they made her uncomfortable.

Although I wouldn’t blame her if she wanted a second to take all that in. To work out what she just went through. No one should have to blindly walk into a “congratulations for dating my son” party. That’s not normal. Nothing about my family is normal.

Finally, she looks at me. “So I really am your first since your wife?”

“Yes,” I say, unsure of where she’s going with this.

“You never even went out on a date?”

I shake my head. “No.”

“Why not?”

This is not the conversation I was planning on having with her today . . . or ever, for that matter. How can you tell someone that you believe in a curse that was cast upon you, a curse that maybe even took your wife away from you?

It’s absurd.

Ridiculous.

And yet oddly I think she needs to know where I’m coming from, why I was so hesitant around her at first.

I pull on the back of my neck, feeling awkward as shit. “Have you heard about the Knightly curse?”

She slowly nods. I should have known. There is no way she could have lived here for a few months without hearing about it. Most likely from the same girls who told her about Claire.

“I don’t know much about it, though.” She turns toward me. “Can you tell me more?”

“I really don’t want to, but it’s probably necessary at this point.” I lean back on my hands and look out toward the ocean, the laughter of our families mixing together in the distance. “It was for Brig’s twenty-first birthday. We were down in New Orleans, drunk off our asses, and got mixed up with the wrong person. A palm reader. Pretty sure she was into some shady black magic type of stuff. I can’t remember too much, but what I do remember is her casting some weird spell on us. I honestly didn’t think much about it—I’ve always been super skeptical of that kind of shit.”

“What kind of spell was it?”

“Something about broken love and it not being cured until our minds matured. Honestly, I tried to block it out until a few days after we got home. I was changing smoke detectors for Senior Row, and I got a call from Claire’s phone. It was one of the EMT guys I worked closely with. Claire had had a massive heart attack.” I shake my head as the memories wash over me. “She was so healthy and young. The curse—it was all I could think about as I went through the steps of grief. Broken love. That’s exactly what the curse foretold and what happened to me. So I’ve spent the past two years keeping as far away from women as possible. I didn’t want to inflict my curse on anyone else. But then you drove down a ditch.” I dryly chuckle. “I had no clue you were going to flip my world upside down.”