Free Pushing the Boundaries (Picking up the Pieces #3) by Jessica Prince Page B

took in the scene in front of me. My mom, dad, Aunt Suzy, her husband, Uncle Dan, Aunt Katherine, and her partner, Aunt Lucy were all arguing loudly and talking over each other.
    Ah, just like old times.
    Nana came bustling out of the kitchen carrying a platter of what looked to be pot roast and vegetables.
    Huh, what are the odds of that ?
    My Nana was something else. Where Pop Pop was tall, Nana was a tiny little thing. She wore her white hair in a short cut which she always styled like a football helmet, and she constantly dressed to impress. Sunday best was my Nana’s twenty-four/seven style, complete with pearls and red lipstick. She looked like a harmless, sweet old lady, but then she’d open her mouth. Imagine June Cleaver mixed with Betty White. That was my Nana.
    “Trevor!” she squealed after putting the platter on the center of the table.
    “Nana!” he shouted excitedly before scooping her up in a bear hug and spinning her around.
    What the hell was happening?
    “How are you doing, darlin’?” she asked once he’d placed her feet back on the ground.
    “I’m fantastic now that I got to lay my eyes on you.”
    “Oh, you,” she blushed, giving Trevor a playful slap on the shoulder.
    “What the fuck is going on here?” I didn’t realize I’d spoken that out loud until everyone got quiet and turned to stare at me.
    “Lizzy-Lu. That’s no way for a lady to talk,” Nana admonished. Please ! Like the woman didn’t cuss enough to make a sailor cringe!
    I shook my head violently to try and clear my confused brain. I wasn’t sure what was happening in front of me. “I’m sorry, but why are you two acting like you know each other?” I asked, looking between Nana and Trevor.
    “Because we do know each other, honey bunch. We’ve instant messaged on Facebook every day since you two got married.”
    What?!
    “What?!”
    “Don’t look so surprised, cher ; I told you I loved her,” Trevor said with a smirk, causing Nana to giggle like a school girl.
    “Seriously?!”
    “Oh, pull the stick out, honey,” my mother stated as she and my father stood to give me hugs. After my mom got hers, she all but pushed me out of the way to get to Trevor. “Oh, my, aren’t you just a walking wet dream,” she said, staring up him dreamily.
    Oh, gross.
    “Standing right here, love of my life,” my father deadpanned as he pushed my mom out of the way to shake Trevor’s hand. Introductions to the rest of my family followed before we were able to sit down to eat.
    Once seated, we all dug in, loading our plates up with Nana’s amazing-smelling food. Trevor couldn’t stop gushing over her for making his favorite meal. I kept biting down on my cheek to keep the smart-aleck comments from slipping out. The damn man was acting like he’d been a part of the family for years. What happened to getting to watch him squirm uncomfortably? I had really been looking forward to that! Trevor talked politics with my Dad—fortunately they both had the same opinions—and he flirted with my mom and nana. He talked fishing with Pop Pop and Uncle Dan, and even got into an argument with Aunt Katherine about which football team was better, the Cowboys or the Texans. When I jumped in with my opinion that the Texans were better because they had JJ Watt and women around the world would tune in just to stare at his butt in those pants, they both just looked at me with disgusted expressions.
    Jokes were passed around, the conversation never stopped, and by the end of the meal Trevor had won over every person at the table. I should have known that his off-color sense of humor would have been right up their alley.
    “So,” my mother said, talking over Aunt Lucy. Something that was common knowledge with my family was that you needed to be the loudest and never afraid to interrupt if you wanted to be heard. “I know you two have been friends for a while now. What made you decide to get hitched in Vegas?”
    There it was, the question I’d