Paul was late; he should be home by now as they had to leave in less than forty five minutes, "Come on Paul, where the hell are you?"
He knew that he was a lot later than he said he would be but he wasn't expecting to open the front door and to see Stephanie stood on the other side waiting for him. "I'm sorry, I'm really really sorry that I'm so late but the meeting overran by a long way. I'm here now though and just need to change and I'm ready to go." As he passed his girlfriend he quickly kissed her before he climbed the stairs to get ready.
Once he was changed he made his way back down the stairs and went off in search of his girlfriend eventually finding her in the kitchen, "Don't tell me you're turning to drink already."
"Don't tempt me today. I am stressed out enough as it is and then you end up being hours later than you said you would be as you said that you would be home before I was."
Wrapping his arms around her waist he rested his chin on her shoulder, "I'm sorry Steph, I didn't mean to make you think I was skipping out on the meal or anything. I genuinely was caught up in a meeting; the person could talk for the entire world and didn't know how to answer anything in less than a ten minute monologue. If you don't believe me feel free to ask Chris but I can promise you that I am never ever going to meet with him again unless I get a pay rise first."
Her eyes slipped closed as she leant back into his arms allowing his touch to relax her. "You promise me that you didn't have any second thoughts? Or maybe third or fourth thoughts?"
"I promise that I haven't had anything but positive thoughts about this evening, one of us has to. We can do this, you just have to believe and relax you know because if you don't your brother will probably tease you mercilessly."
He made such a good point; her brother would get great pleasure out of teasing her so she had to figure this out. She turned around in his arms and placed her hands on his shoulders, "Please tell me one more time that this is the right thing to do."
"This is the right thing to do. Step one we tell your family, step two we tell my family on my next visit, well my parents."
Did he just say he wanted them to tell his parents too? "Let's survive tonight and then I can think about telling your parents because I am sure that they will be a lot saner about it than my family."
He couldn't help but laugh at the way she was so confident that his parents would take it easier on them than her family, she was probably right though. "Okay, I can agree to this so let's get going or whatever."
Stephanie made sure that the house was locked up before they left to go to her parents, she was sure that her brother would already be there so that he could maximise the time he had to interrogate them both.
Stood outside her parent's front door she was clutching his hand tightly, she was right that her brother would already be here and she was terrified, he had to like Paul and he couldn't scare him away.
The circulation to his fingers was slowly being cut off as she gripped his hand like a vice. Raising their hands to his mouth he pressed a gentle kiss to the back of her hand, "Maybe release the grip a little bit please, I don't want to lose the use of my hand."
Quickly releasing her grip on his hand she blushed furiously, "Sorry."
Sliding his fingers back through hers just as the door opened he wasn't going to start this evening with her feeling guilty, "Don't be."
When the doorbell had rung Linda insisted on getting it as she did not trust her husband not to tease their daughter. As she opened the door she noticed the way her daughter's face lit up and she was certain that she was not the cause of it. "Good evening you two, it's so nice of you to join us."
Reluctantly releasing her boyfriend's hand she stepped forward and hugged her Mom tightly, "Thank you for inviting us. Mom I would like you to meet my boyfriend Paul, Paul this is my Mom Linda."
Paul swallowed down the anxiety that had suddenly hit him and reached his hand out to shake the older woman's hand, "It's very nice to meet you Mrs McMahon." He noticed the way his girlfriend quickly grabbed hold of his hand again once he had shaken her Mom's hand.
"Linda, please call me Linda. It's very nice to meet you though, I would say I have heard a lot about you but that would be a lie as I only knew you existed on Monday."
"Mom!"
"What? It is true isn't it? Do come in though, I know Shane is excited to meet you."
As they walked through the front door Stephanie couldn't help but shake her head muttering, "Kill me now."
Tugging sharply on his girlfriend's arm he pulled her into his side and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "Play nice, I know you don't mean that."
"But I do, I really do." She couldn't help but lean in to him as he pulled her close, "Can't we just hide out or something?"
"No hiding, we need to do this." He pressed a kiss to her forehead knowing that she wasn't going to argue, she would actually lead him to wherever her family was going to be.
Observing the couple silently from the side Linda could tell from the subtle touches and the way that his daughter reacted to him that she likes him a lot. She would personally do harm to her husband or her son if they tried to ruin this for her.
Sadly they couldn't hide or stay in the foyer forever so she reluctantly led Paul towards the lounge, "Of course the two of you are in here and the women are left to cook the dinner and answer the door as you're too lazy to get off your fat asses."
Shane jumped out of his seat and ran over to hug his sister, "Girl please, my wife isn't even here yet. Why have you been avoiding us?"
"I haven't been avoiding you, it's called working, you should try it sometime."
"Please, I work harder than you do."
Paul couldn't help but snigger at the siblings fighting, "Are the two of you normally like this?"
Having stood up to greet his daughter and her boyfriend Vince shook the young man's hand, "Yes they are. They will act like grown-ups soon. It's good to see you again though Paul."
"What?! You know him Dad?" No longer interested in teasing his sister he cared more about finding out why he was so far out of the loop.
"It's nice to meet you Paul; apparently I am the last person in the family to do so." He reached to shake the other man's hand whilst giving him the once over, he looked tidy but he still had questions.
Not hesitating to shake his girlfriend's brother's hand he didn't know how to take him though, "It's nice to meet you too. Will your wife be joining us?"
"She will be, she got stuck in a meeting but is on her way." Just as he said that the doorbell rang, "And that is probably her. I will just go and see."
Whilst her brother went to answer the door Stephanie led her boyfriend over to the small couch and took a seat, "If Shane causes trouble I'm disowning him."
"You don't mean that." He took a seat beside her and rubbed her arm, "He is your brother, your annoyingly overprotective older brother but still your brother and you still love him."
Okay so she didn't really want to disown her brother but he was getting on her last nerve already. Her parents were talking between themselves so she rested her head on his shoulder and enjoyed the silence.
Marissa walked into the living room and immediately noticed the way that Stephanie was with Paul. "So did you miss me too Steph?"
It had been so long since she had seen the other woman that Stephanie jumped out of her seat and ran over to hug her sister-in-law, "Oh my God, somebody sane has arrived. I've missed you so much."
"I missed you too Stephie, you'll always be my little sister only I'm the cool older sibling that is relaxed about everything."
"Can you put your husband on a leash then please?" She pulled away from a hug and gave her her best puppy dog eyes.
She got the distinct impression that her daughter was too scared about being around her boyfriend, her Dad and brother so Linda was going to take her out of the situation. "Girls, why don't you help me in the kitchen? Vince hasn't exactly been helpful."
The idea of leaving her boyfriend alone with the other two men in her life terrified her but as she glanced over at Paul he only smiled reassuringly like he could actually read her mind. "Okay, I guess I can help out. Play nice boys or you won't like me."
"I don't anyway." The sharp smack he received to his arm from his wife was a shock to the system, "Ow, that was mean."
"You haven't seen mean yet. Play nice or the couch has your name on it." Leaving her husband to lick his wounds Marissa walked over to the other man in the room, "I'm Marissa, it is very nice to meet you. If my husband misbehaves in any way feel free to tell me, he isn't quite house trained yet."
Paul couldn't help but hug the other woman as he laughed at her comment, "Don't worry, I think I can handle it. It's nice to meet you though, I'm Paul."
"You're the reason Steph has been so much happier recently. I look forward to getting to know you and finding out what is so special about you."
"Why wait, I'll let you in on the secret now, nothing. My main priority is Steph's health and happiness so I'm not anything special."
"Of course you would say that." Shane rolled his eyes; his sister's boyfriend was apparently a suck up.
Stephanie practically skipped over to her boyfriend knowing that her brother was annoyed by it all, "You are the sweetest, thank you." She pressed a kiss to his cheek, "I'll be in the kitchen if they cause you any problems." When she turned around she pointed accusingly at her Dad and brother, "Be nice or you will both be sleeping on the couch tonight." She didn't give them a chance to answer; she just looped her arm through Marissa's and dragged her out of the room.
He waited until the women left before Paul took a seat, "I am guessing that the two of you want to grill me so go ahead before our better halves come back and tell you off."
Although they were impressed with the other man's words as they sat down both Shane and Vince were intrigued by how open he was being.
"How did you meet Stephanie?"
"College, she was my best friend for a couple of years before we got together. We were only together for a couple of months before I received the offer for the internship at my current job."
He was learning a lot more about the young man and his daughter's relationship and exactly how long it had been going on for, he just didn't understand why he hadn't learned about him before now. "So if you were together since College why have we only just heard about you and why did she irregularly go on dates?"
"Because we split up before I left and only got back together very recently. I didn't want to put her through the pain of such a long distance relationship when I knew that she had a job and I didn't know if or when I would return back to the east coast to live."
"But you still work for the same company and they don't have an office over here so what exactly has changed?"
Fuck, he didn't think before he spoke then, now he had to get out of this or swear them to secrecy.
Naturally suspicious already as he was his sister's boyfriend the silence that followed his Dad's question made him doubt him completely. "You're not worthy of being her boyfriend, you're stringing her along and I will not stand for it."
"I'm not!" No wonder Stephanie was so worried, her brother was savage. "I can't really say anything as I haven't actually said anything to Steph yet as it may not happen and I don't want to get her hopes up if it won't happen any time soon."
"And then you tell us in English and not gibberish."
"My one boss is from the east coast, his parents are getting older so he wants to move back to be closer to them so they are looking at the potential of opening an office on this side of the country. I have already said that if it happens I want to move too."
Vince and Shane exchanged glances, this man in front of them was incredibly committed to Stephanie for only being together a short period of time.
"I don't get it. You have been together again all of five minutes and you want to move to be closer to her?"
"You really are suspicious of me aren't you?" If he could magic his suspicions away he would but there was only so much that he could tell them when there was a lot he hadn't told Stephanie and she should hear those things first.
His wife had told him that he should be gentle and not scare away the first guy that Stephanie had been with that they had met but when he didn't trust him Shane couldn't be gentle. "I'm not going to lie, I don't like or trust you and I am not supportive of your relationship with my sister."
"Okay hold up there Shane." Vince did not think that he would be the one having to be reasonable but maybe it was because he had met Paul a couple of times that he was more relaxed about it but his son was like a dog with a bone and if he wasn't careful he would scare the other man off and then he would be the one everybody was mad at and he would be in the dog house. "You have literally just met Paul and are suspicious about everything, maybe you should talk to your sister too and then decide if he is good enough for her or not."
Grateful to Vince for sticking up for him he gave him a small smile, "I promise you both that I'm treating Steph right, I have enough people, including my sister who works for her that would be after me if I didn't."
"Tell me more." Shane was intrigued by how many people were watching out for his sister so if he could pump information from this guy he was going to.
With great relief the focus was off of his actual relationship with Steph and had moved on to how many people were looking out for Steph but he was okay with that because it gave him room to breathe and with any luck it might be another way to get in the good books of Shane.