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Luckily, the sound of a loud, car horn interrupted the uneasy feeling building up inside my stomach. A small, white Ford pulled in the driveway and parked just behind Ryan’s Ferrari. I turned to see two girls hoping out of the car.
Whoa
. They both looked remarkably similar to their mother.

“Ry, Ry!” One of the girls squealed, running up and attaching herself to Ryan. Duke bounced and barked happily around them.

“And the ice queen smiles…
finally
.”

I turned to catch the tall, dark-haired girl, who the voice belonged to, rolling her eyes before stopping next to her mother and giving her a kiss on the cheek. Jeez, they looked like they could be twins.

“Is Gabby
still
in her foul mood?” Annabelle asked quietly.

“Annie, your sister is going through a difficult time right now. We must respect her,” Serafina said, tapping Annabelle’s shoulder.

“She still doesn’t have to act like a total bitch.”

“Language!” Annabelle’s mother warned sternly.

The newest daughter to join the group chuckled before letting her eyes fall to me. “Hi, I’m Chiara, the oldest and most responsible one of the family.” She smiled, holding her hand out. I took her hand and shook it politely. She was an exact replica of her mother and I would bet all my money that Serafina looked just like her when she was her age. Chiara had her long, dark hair tied back into a messy pony tail, so I could see the perfectly structured oval face and thick, full eyebrows that matched her mothers. The only differences I could note was that Chiara’s eyes were greener, she was as tall as Ryan, and of course the age difference between mother and daughter.

“Evangeline,” I replied.

“Nice to meet you. Sera was going insane seeing pictures of Ryan with a
mysterious
brunette everywhere. I’m glad you’ve put her out of her misery.”

“Ara!” Serafina scowled, nudging her daughter with her elbow. Annabelle giggled beside Chiara.

“Evangeline this is the middle sister, Gabriella. Gabby meet Evangeline,” Ryan said walking over hand in hand with the other dark haired girl. Duke happily trotted beside Ryan.

Gabriella, although much shorter than her sister, Chiara, with rounder cheeks and a slightly wider nose, still had the same thick, dark hair and hazel colored eyes with long lashes. Her skin was a fairer complexion than that of her mother and the rest of her siblings; even Annabelle with her blond hair had more of an olive tone to her skin.

I smiled and raised a hand to greet Gabriella once she was standing in front of me. “Hi, nice to meet you, Gabby.”

“It’s
Gabriella
,” she replied icily, shaking my hand firmly.

So far everyone in Ryan’s family had been really nice to me, but it was big, so there was bound to be one sister that didn’t like me. It appeared Gabriella was that sister.

“Don’t start with that attitude again, Gabby,” Chiara warned. “I’ve had to deal with your nonsense all day.”

Gabriella’s narrowed eyes flicked over to her sisters. “
What
? I don’t like strangers calling me by my nickname.”

“Evangeline isn’t a stranger, she’s our guest,” Annabelle pointed out.

“Maybe not to you, but I don’t know anything about her, so she’s a stranger to me,” Gabriella snapped back, making me flinch.

“Enough, Gabby!” Ryan growled, dropping her hand and reaching for mine. He took hold of it and pulled me closer to him. “Why are you trying to pick a fight with everyone?”

Gabriella crossed her arms at her chest, ready to protest but decided to keep her mouth closed.

“Ma, I’m taking Evangeline inside,” Ryan added before turning back to Gabriella. “Gabby, if I hear another smart-ass remark come out of your mouth, I’ll put you on the next flight back to Seattle. You hear me?”

“Whatever, Ryan,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “I’m one year older than―”

“Well for God’s sake act like it!” snapped Chiara.

Without saying another word, Gabriella spun on her heel and stalked towards the house.

“I’m sorry, Evangeline. Gabby is usually a lot nicer than this, I swear. This whole situation with her husband is stressing her out,” Chiara said looking at me apologetically.

Annabelle snorted. “Ara, she has always been the crazy psycho of the family.”

“That’s enough, Annie! Leave your sister alone,” scolded Serafina. “Why don’t we go inside and have some tea. I’d love to hear more about you, my dear,” she said turning to me with a knowing smile on her face. “I want to hear all about how you met this wonderful son of mine.”

“Get used to it. Ryan is the apple of her eye,” Chiara whispered in my ear as she passed and headed straight for the house.

Serafina followed Chiara after Ryan told her we’d be close behind; we just had to get our things from the car. It was sweet of Annabelle to stay behind and offer us a hand but Ryan easily carried both our overnight bags over his shoulders.

Ryan went straight upstairs to drop off our things while I followed Annabelle to the kitchen where the rest of the women― except Gabriella― were already waiting. I had no idea where she’d gone but I was thankful for her absence. At least there was no hostility in the air.

“Sugar and milk with your tea, Evangeline?” Chiara asked standing over the bench pouring hot water into several mugs, while Annabelle and Serafina sat with me at the large, wooden, round dinner table.

“No sugar and just a drop of milk for me, please,” I answered, noting that Ryan had still not come down to join us. What could be taking him so long?

“So, Evangeline, what would you like to tell Sera first? How you and Ry met? Or what about that day we bumped into you at the Grand Trinity and Ry was acting like a lovesick teenager?”

“Annie!” Chiara growled setting a cup of tea in front of me then placing one in front of her mother.

“
What?
” Annabelle grinned mischievously up at her sister. “It’s the truth. You should’ve been there, Ara. I felt like I needed to smack him over the head to snap him out of it.”

“I hope you didn’t hit your brother in public, Annie,” Serafina pointed out.

Chiara, who had just sat down holding two extra cups of tea, looked at me and raised an eyebrow as if to say ‘I told you so’ before sliding a cup Annabelle’s way.

“No, Ma,” Annabelle replied before rolling her eyes. “I said I
felt
like I needed to smack him over the head.”

“None of us would
dare
hurt your favorite child, Sera,” Chiara said mockingly, which earned her a frown from her mother and a laugh from Annabelle.

“He’s not my favorite. I love all of you equally.”

“
Sure
,” the daughters said at the same time.

The girls burst out laughing when Serafina started speaking really fast in Italian and throwing her hands up in the air. I found myself laughing along with them, finding the whole situation between mother and daughters amusing. I was suddenly envious of the kind of relationship the girls had with their mother. If Mom were alive would we have had the same relationship? Would I have been able to joke around like the girls were doing? I took a sip of my tea while I thought about it and watched the girls continue to playfully tease their mother.

“What’s so funny?” I jumped at Ryan’s loud voice suddenly beside me.

I turned just in time to see him take a seat next to me. Gabriella had also returned, taking a seat next to Ryan and her mother, without as much as a glance my way.

“Sera was just explaining to us that you were never her favorite. She claims that you were needier than the rest of us and so she gave you the extra attention,” Chiara explained with a smirk.

A huge grin appeared on Ryan’s face as he turned to his mother. “Mamma, why you have to lie?” he said in a mock Italian accent causing everyone― including Gabriella― laugh. “I bring home a beautiful girl and you try to embarrass me?”

I instantly blushed.

“She’s lying, Evangeline. I
am
her favorite,” he said turning to face me. “My sisters have always been jealous.”

“Yeah right,” Gabriella snorted. “Being the only boy and having three older sisters bullying you around automatically made you the favorite.”

“My point exactly,” Ryan retorted, facing Gabriella. “You bullied me because you were all
jealous.
”

“Well, I was Daddy’s favorite wasn’t I, Ma?”

“Stop trying to bring him up in every conversation, Annabelle! I’m sick of it.” Gabrielle suddenly growled.

“What? Why?” replied Annabelle. “Why do you always do this? Why do you hate him so much, Gabby?”

The room fell into a strange silence. I wasn’t sure why, but it seemed everyone was trying to avoid this conversation. I suddenly felt uncomfortable, afraid to make a sound incase it was the wrong thing to do. Why was Gabby acting like this? I understood she was having problems back home but to take it out on her family? It didn’t make any sense.

Gabby opened her mouth to speak but Chiara beat her to it. “No!” She gave Gabriella a warning look before turning to Annabelle. “Annie, why don’t you and I go upstairs and I’ll help with some of your assignments? Unless you want to help Ma with dinner.”

Annabelle looked around the table at everyone before sighing and agreeing with Chiara to help with her assignments. I kind of felt sorry for her. It was obvious everyone was keeping some type of secret from her.

“Evangeline and I are going upstairs,” Ryan added taking my hand and rising from his seat. “Ma, just call me if you want any help with dinner, okay?”

Serafina nodded without a word before helping herself up from the dining table. There was a troubled look on her face that she was trying hard to hide but couldn’t quite manage. Instead, she just walked out of the room in complete silence.

“Great, so what am I supposed to do?” Gabriella grumbled.

“
You
?” Chiara, who was still watching the doorway her mother had disappeared into, suddenly turned to her sister with an angry glare. “First, you can apologize to Evangeline, then to Annie
and
Mamma and after that I don’t care. Go home if you plan on pissing everyone off!” she snapped.

Ryan pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut as he listened to his eldest sister loose it. My gaze wandered around the room and locked on with Annabelle’s, who looked as though she was ready to burst into tears any minute.

“Evangeline, I’ll meet you upstairs in a moment,” Ryan said without looking at me. “I need to speak to Gabby again. Our room is―”

“I’ll show her where it is,” Chiara said cutting her brother off.

My gaze bounced between Ryan, who was still refusing to look my way, and Chiara, who was now shaking her head at her brother. She waved me over towards her and I followed the two girls out without looking back at Ryan or Gabriella.

“Thank you,” I managed to say to Chiara once we were out of the room and making our way up the staircase.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just sorry you have to witness all of this,” she replied. I couldn’t help but notice that Annabelle had remained two steps behind us and wasn’t saying a word. “Ryan is the only one Gabby listens to when she’s like this. I don’t know how much Ryan has mentioned to you about his past but the two of them are very close because of it.”

The fact that I didn’t know anything about Ryan’s past, except that his father died when he was younger, only made me curious to know more. I’d shared my darkest secret with him, why wasn’t he doing the same? I, of all people, understood the boundless amount of pain that came with losing those you loved. Were he and Gabby close because of their father’s death? But what about the rest of the family? Wouldn’t they have suffered the same amount of pain? And that didn’t explain Gabriella’s strange outburst at the dining table.

“Here you go, honey.” Chiara voice floated into my thoughts. “Annie and I will be right across the hall if you need us or if you get bored.”

“It’d be great to get your thought on my assignment, Evangeline,” Annabelle added forcing a smile on her saddened face.

I smiled back at her. She was such a sweet girl. “I don’t know how much help I’d be but tell you what, if I get bored hanging out in here all alone, I’ll definitely come and annoy you.”