A/N: SO GLAD YOU GUYS LIKED THE SHORTEST CHAPTER SO FAR LOL.

JOANNRBB – I HOPE SHE DOESN'T PASS OUT EITHER, THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED ENCOURAGEMENT/COMPLIMENTS

MOTHERFAER – THANKS! I'M GOING TO GO BACK & READ ALL YOUR STORIES AGAIN JUST TO R/R THEM ALL IT'S THE LEAST I CAN DO FOR YOUR KIND WORDS

FRENCHI – I AGREE! POOR BO, CAN'T HELP BUT FEEL BAD FOR HER AT THE SAME TIME LOL

JUNETWEED – THANKS!

KK – I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU SAID. LAUREN FLIPPING BO WAS HILARIOUS! I LOVE CONTINUING THE STORY FOR YOU GUYS SO IT'S MY PLEASURE. ALL THE SUPPORT KEEPS THE STORY GOING.

FYI: REMI & CHRIS FROM THE DATE CHAPTER IS MINE. LET'S SEE HOW DINNER WITH THE FAMILY GOES! R/R & ENJOY!

BO'S POV – 4pm

So, earlier today I took down a 6ft hairy gorilla looking brute with Kenzi's help since he is my main suspect in my newest case. I rather do that again than what I'm doing right now. I have nothing to wear for dinner tonight with Lauren's parents!

Everything I own is too tight, too revealing, too causal or just too…too…just wrong! "KENZI!" I call out, panicked. "What's up, Bobo?" She asks as she strolls in, taking a seat on my bed.

"I have no clothes!" She looks at me like I'm being ridiculous; making me sigh. "I mean of course I have clothes but, not 'meet the parents' clothes, ya know. I want a dress, I NEED a dress. I've never done this before, this has to go well."

Kenzi stands up and comes in front of me. "Bobo, they're not the fashion police. They don't care what you're wearing. They just want to get to know you. Mr. and Mrs. L are actually really cool peeps."

I stare at Kenzi for a moment before walking towards the door; everything she just said went in one ear and out the other. "I need a dress!" I yell out as I head to my car, hearing Kenzi trail behind me.

LAUREN'S POV – 6pm

After moving some furniture around, we finally got the table for 9, well technically 10, ready. Mom made her famous pot roast and pork chops with green beans, salad, sweet potatoes, greens, peas, mash potatoes with gravy. She even brought three different flavors of ice cream for dessert; chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.

We're definitely going to have leftovers even with Kenzi. Mom has superpowers when it comes to cooking and her family. She even got all of us to take off work early to help setup.

Well…it's easy to get Tamsin to take off. But, nearly impossible to get her to do any manual labor that doesn't involve violence. I rarely take off work, let alone leave work early since I love my job. Vex, of course isn't employed right now but even if he was, he'd take off if our mother asked him to because he's a big momma's boy. I mean that in the nicest way possible, of course.

There's a knock at the door so I walked over to answer it; it's show time.

I opened the door to reveal…a goddess. I'm pretty sure my jaw hit the floor like in the cartoons. Bo is absolutely beyond stunning.

I never thought it was possible for her to get even more beautiful but she's definitely proving me wrong right now. She has her hair pulled back to expose that delicious neck that I love to kiss. She's wearing a maroon color dress with straps. The dress flowed perfectly down to her matching beautiful new red dress heels.

She has a bouquet of carnations in her hands. No doubt for my mother since she called and asked me what my mother's favorite flowers are. I noticed Bo is fidgeting and that her other hand is behind her back.

"Hi" she says to me as she brings her other hand out of hiding to reveal a single long stem red rose which she presents to me. God, I love this woman.

I just wish I could tell her that. Hell, if I'm wishing for stuff, right now, I wish I could rip that dress off right off of her and plunge right into her and make her scream my name over and over till she loses her voice or passes out or both.

I shook my head to force myself out of my dirty thoughts as I took my rose in one hand and her hand in the other, guiding her to my parents. Bo shakes both my parent's hands with a firm grip, her nervousness coming off of her in waves. She hands the bouquet of carnations to my mother.

My mom is absolutely delighted. I told my parents we'd be right back, I just needed to return a case file back to Bo. They bought the lame excuse and so I led Bo to my room.

When we get to my room, Bo walks in front of my full length mirror to look herself over as I shut and locked the door. I walk up behind her, wrapping my arms tightly around her waist. I made a trial of gentle kisses on her neck and shoulder, instantly feeling her relax and let out a happy sigh.

"Bo, baby. It'll be fine." I say softly. She turns her head to look me in the eyes. "What if they don't like me? I didn't go to college. I don't even have a stable job." She says with the saddest tone and eyes I've ever seen which breaks my heart.

"They're going to love you and even if in some crazy universe, they hate you, I won't care; I absolutely adore you, Bo. I don't care about anyone's approval especially when it comes to you." She smiles at me but, I can still see a small amount of fear in her eyes. So, I resume placing more kisses on her shoulder and neck when her hand cradles the side of my face tilting my head back up to meet her eyes before giving me a hard passionate kiss which causes us both to moan into the kiss.

Dinner was a success for the most part. Initially, my dad decided to have some fun with Bo by making her sweat, asking her about her life goals, ambitions and intentions with me. Bo shuddered through her answers due to her nerves which calmed down a bit once I held her hand under the table.

She told my father that she's not too sure about life goals at the moment. But that her ambitions are to help people and her intentions towards me are to love me and be with me for as long as I let her. I wanted to cry and tell her what I've wanted to tell her on multiple occasions now, that I love her.

But, I still can't. So instead, I kicked my father under the table in the shin and gave him a warning look as he had a look of pain on his face while trying to silence a groan. After that, he stopped playing games. My mother was the one to get Bo to relax. Ugh, my mother and my father are always playing good cop, bad cop.

As the night drew to a close, we started to notice how quiet and short Vex was being. He excused himself right after dessert and headed towards my gym. My parents, Tamsin, Karen and I shared a look to decide who should go talk to him.

Karen decided to try first. She looks a lot better than she did in the hospital. Her weight is at a healthy number, she's still slim but not in an unhealthy way.

She dyed her long hair to brunette and her smiles reach her eyes more now. She definitely looks like me now minus the hair color and toned muscles. She also made polite conversation with Bo and Hale all evening which is huge because she's been pretty shy lately.

I kind of wonder if she likes Hale…They honestly seemed to hit it off more than Kenzi and Hale did. But anyway, Karen came back shaking her head side to side.

She couldn't get through to him. I wanted to go next but was hesitant to leave Bo's side. Bo gave me a gentle hand squeeze sensing I wanted to go check on Vex. She nodded in his direction and told me to go and that she'd be alright. I gave her a kiss on the cheek and headed to the gym for Vex.

I find Vex punching the punching bag like it owed him money. Looking at him, sometimes I still can't believe he's not that skinny kid anymore. Now, he has muscles that compliment his height and his short hair neatly combed to one side and his clean shave. The Goth attire replaced with jeans and t-shirts, suits or uniforms.

"Want me to steady the bag?" I asked and got no answer. "Want to talk about it?" Still no answer...

I'm about to turn and leave to tag the next Lewis in or Kenzi when he suddenly bursts out, "What's he got that I don't, huh!?" I'm at a loss to what he's talking about…not that he noticed.

"What makes that bloke better than me! Why him and what kind of stupid name is Hale." Ohhh, Vex loves Kenzi. Wait, VEX LOVES KENZI. This is why he wouldn't share a bed with her weeks ago or won't hang out with her if Hale is with her!

"How long?" I asked, he shrugs as he looks down "Not really sure, maybe always."

"Maybe you should tell her…before she gets too serious with Hale." He scoffs at my gentle suggestion. "Easy for you to say, you got your girl. All lovey dovey, the perfect couple."

I winced at that perfect comment. "Vex, we're not perfect. She is; I'm not. I'm so damaged. You know I've wanted to tell her that I love her multiple times. So far, the closest I've gotten is 'I adore you' all because I've had horrible past relationships that have nothing to do with her but, I can't help it. I'm scared."

Vex takes a deep breath. "So you and I are both scared idiots, huh…" I can't help but chuckle "Yeah, I guess we are."

I take a sit on the bench press and he takes the seat next to me. "You should tell Kenzi." I advised him, gently.

"You should talk to Bo about your past." He retorts back to me. "I will if you will." We say in unison which makes us laugh as we both agree to do what we each have to do to free our hearts. We sit in a moment of silence before we headed back to the dinner party which is pretty much over now.