Mia had to confess that she felt nervous, as if she were a child again, heading off to her first day of school and meeting her new classmates. And how she hated going back to that time, especially because it was a period when she had gone through so many problems, including with her own classmates—with the exception of Luna. She had always defended her, no matter who it was, and that was one of the reasons Mia felt the blonde would be her best friend forever. If it weren't for her, Mia probably would have hidden from everyone in one of the classrooms or even the bathroom. If it weren't for her, she didn't know whether she would have managed to finish kindergarten. If it weren't for her, she didn't know how she would have gone on after the death of her beloved mother.
Mia had been and would always be eternally grateful to the former Quinn.
As she waited for her cousins with her friends at the Italian restaurant she and Luna adored, she wondered whether Aurora was still the same shy little girl as always, whether she still had short hair, and whether she still could barely say a word without stammering. Mia had always thought she was beautiful. She remembered the first time she'd seen her; they had been only five years old. Aurora had been sitting on the stairs while her mother hugged her cousin and daughter, before finally calling Mia over to introduce them. The little girl with blue-black hair and the pearly eyes every Devlin had approached cautiously, completely shy—just like Mia.
She saw herself in that girl the instant their eyes met.
She met Noah Devlin that same day. He had short brown hair and the same eyes as the rest of the family, but unlike his sister, he wasn't shy at all. He had a beautiful smile, was affectionate, and extremely protective of his twin sister. He had been raised to be polite, and he even invited Mia to see the sprawling backyard, which also had a flower garden. Beautiful, she confessed to her cousins that day.
Her father had never been present during her visits to the Devlins, and because she knew he didn't care much for the serious but extremely affectionate man, her mother hardly ever came along. Mia could count on one hand the number of times she'd seen her cousins when she was little. Later, when she grew older, her mother began getting sicker and sicker and rarely left the house. And because Mia knew her father didn't like the Devlins, her cousin only visited them when he wasn't home. She had never asked her father why he disliked the Devlins, and she regretted it, since she'd always been curious.
“Are you nervous?” Luna asked, drawing her friend's attention.
“Judging by how her feet won't stop moving, I'd say definitely.”
“I last saw them when we were six and a half.” She answered, looking both of them in the eyes. “We were children, and their mother was still alive... Hanna, I mean.” She sighed. “So yes, I feel a little nervous.”
The next moment, when her eyes wandered toward the entrance, she spotted a woman beside a young man. She recognized her cousin because, despite her long, straight hair, the pearly eyes she and her brother shared gave away who they were.
And when Mia saw them and realized they had both looked directly at her, she felt even more nervous than before. She brought her hands to her lap and squeezed them together while biting her lip—the telltale sign she always showed when she was nervous.
“Hey, Devlin.” Connor stood up to greet his friend.
“How are you, Aurora?” Luna did the same with the pearly-eyed woman.
“I’m good. And you?”
“She gets more nauseous every day,” the redhead answered for his wife.
“She’s always been like that.”
“Ha-ha-ha.”
Noah laughed when he saw her glare daggers at him.
The next moment, both Devlins’ pearly eyes fell on Mia. She stood up, even though she was trembling—not because of the cold at that time of day.
“I don't need to introduce you two, do I?” Connor asked with a mischievous smile.
“I remember you from when we used to play together.” Aurora was the first to speak, a smile on her lips.
“There were so few times that I didn't think you'd actually recognize me.”
“Well, your hair used to be blonde.”
The best friends looked at each other.
“Blame the pregnant woman for all of it.”
“Oh, now you're going to complain?” Luna said indignantly. “You liked it so much that you never changed the color again.”
And the other woman had no comeback.
“It was you?” Aurora’s eyes widened.
“Hide your shampoo when she’s at your house, because she might pour hair dye into it.”
“Wow, how can you be so vindictive?”
The others laughed.
“It’s good to see you’re doing well, Mia,” Noah said suddenly. “I heard your father had gotten married again and that you’d moved out.”
“Unfortunately, the woman’s vile.” Mia commented as she sat down after the others had done the same. “We fought every day, and years after that macabre marriage took place, I decided to make it on my own.”
“I’m sorry,” Aurora said. “My brother and I were lucky. When our father decided to marry our mother, I was very happy, especially because I knew she was marrying him for love.”
“I, on the other hand, wasn’t very happy at first,” Mia confessed.
“Why not?”
“Because I still couldn’t accept anyone in my mother’s place. But I learned to love Haley, and over the following months, I learned to accept her with my father.”
“And now he gets along with her better than anyone could imagine,” her brother’s sister added, clearly happy about it.
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen Aunt Haley.”
“She had twins almost seven years ago,” her cousin explained. “A boy and a girl.”
“She heard we were going to meet you and asked us to bring you by the mansion. She’d really love to see you.”
“Ah, that’ll only happen if someone has a crane.”
“Ha-ha-ha,” she said, looking into her friend’s blue eyes as she listened to the others laugh.
Connor, seeing the confusion in his friends’ eyes, explained.
“Mia hardly ever leaves the house.”
“She’s going out more now, but only because she needs to find a job,” the pregnant woman added.
“Are you having trouble?” Noah asked, concerned.
“Unfortunately,” Mia murmured. “But we don’t need to talk about that.”
The others understood, especially the former Devlin.
“I heard you have children.”
“Yes. Twins,” Noah answered. “The two of us,” he added, pointing at himself and his sister.
“Twins run in the family, don’t they?”
The others laughed, and she joined them.
“Yes, yes,” Aurora said. “Eighty percent of our family are twins.”
“You could have twins yourself. After all, you have Devlin blood.”
Mia grew uncomfortable at her cousin’s words. Memories invaded her mind, and the others immediately realized that something was wrong with the pink-haired woman.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“No,” Mia answered quickly. “No, no.” She shook her head. “It’s just that I... lost a child four years ago.”
On the same day she was abandoned by her fiancé, she found out she was pregnant. More specifically, he had shown up an hour after she took two drugstore tests. She had been so happy, already imagining the happiness of the man she loved, that she could barely contain herself. Even so, she wanted to wait before telling him because she knew he must have been worried about college. And then he showed up, and her world fell apart. She had no one besides Connor and Luna, and she'd just been hired by a law firm.
She thought about going to her father, but she knew he would call her irresponsible, so she decided to take care of the life that had been conceived in a moment of love—at least on her part. Her friend supported her and helped her over the following weeks, until one ordinary day at work, during her sixth month of pregnancy, she started bleeding and discovered that she had miscarried. It had been the worst day of her life after her mother’s death, because she had already grown attached to the baby, who had a lovingly decorated room and even a name.
“I’m so sorry, Mia.”
“It’s okay. It just wasn’t meant to be.” She shrugged, looking into her cousin’s pearly eyes. “It was difficult because my fiancé abandoned me around the same time, but I got over it.”
“He abandoned you?” Aurora asked sorrowfully, while Noah spoke indignantly.
“That bastard went to New York with someone else.” Fitzgerald still felt his blood heat whenever he remembered Callahan, and his fiancée felt the same way. “He’d been cheating on her the whole time, and I don’t think he would’ve gone through with the engagement.”
“And your father?”
“My father only has one important person in his life now, Noah,” Mia said bitterly. “Mabel Shea. Or rather, Mabel O’Grady.”
“He turned his back on you? His own daughter?”
“Aurie, why don’t we change the subject?” her brother asked, imagining how sensitive the topic was for their cousin.
“Of course. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” The pink-haired woman smiled at her. “It’s not something I like talking about, but I understand why you’re upset. I still don’t understand it myself.”
“Then you should arrange to get together at one of your homes so she can meet Anelise, Ryan, and the children.” Luna changed the subject, putting a smile on her face.
“Ryan.” Mia said the young man’s name slowly. “You really are married to Ryan Maher. Blonde, blue eyes, an infectious smile...”
“Yes. I heard you met him.” She smiled. “You saved my godchildren, and he gave you a ride.”
“They’re your godchildren?”
She simply nodded in confirmation.
“They’re adorable,” Mia said with a smile.
“They’re little brats, that’s what they are.”
And Connor readily agreed with his friend.
“But putting the mini Kavanaghs aside...” Noah smiled. “How about lunch tomorrow at my place?”
And Mia, who loved children and truly wanted to reconnect with her beloved mother’s family, readily accepted with a smile on her face.