My First - Jason & Katie by Melanie Shawn Read Free Book Online Page B

Jason’s arms before she did something she would end up regretting.
    “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” she said with a decisiveness that she did not yet feel. Still, she pulled open the screen door and stepped inside.
    “Katie, you’re here!”
    “We’ve missed you so much!”
    “Honey, you look so pretty.”
    “Oh, my, gosh, it’s really you, Katie!”
    “Can you believe this one’s getting married?”
    “Katie, you’re so beautiful”
    “You’re all grown up!”
    “I don’t believe my eyes!”
    Katie's head swam as all the voices and people came flooding at her all at once. The room was a sea of faces, but several stuck out from the crowd.
    Katie saw Nick’s parents, Grace and Mike. She also spotted Alex, one of the other Sloan Boys, as well as their cousins, The Quad Squad. Jessie, Haley, Becca and Krista had all been born within a five-year span. Katie always thought Jason’s Aunt Sandy was a saint!
    Grace immediately pulled Katie into a warm embrace. Katie tried to return it, but so much was going on. She barely heard Grace's warm voice say, “It’s so good to see you sweetie, we’ve missed you so much.”
    Katie couldn’t catch her breath. She felt the room starting to spin and there was a growing sense of dread in her gut.
    Wouldn't having a panic attack in front of all of these people she hadn't seen in ten years just be the PERFECT reintroduction?
    It was starting to begin in earnest when she heard a gruff voice break through the melee.
    “Now, now. Let’s give the girl some breathing room. She’s had a long flight, and besides – you all know she is only here to see me anyways.”
    “Grandpa J,” Katie whispered as she finally exhaled, and relief flooded her body like a soothing balm. The crowds parted, and she saw him sitting in the same brown recliner she remembered always seeing him in.
    Emotion flooded her and, before she knew what she was doing, she ran up to him threw her arms around him and tears started falling down her face. Talk about forward momentum! She didn't care how silly she looked. This was Grandpa J.
    Colonel James Hunter, or “Grandpa J” as everybody called him, was really the only grandfather Katie had ever known. Her grandfather on her mother’s side was gone even before she was born, and her father’s parents had passed when Katie was a toddler. She wasn’t sure if she had ever met them or not...but if she had, she didn't remember it.
    When Grandpa J came to live with the Hunters the first Christmas after they had moved to Harper's Crossing, Katie had naturally gravitated toward him. It wasn't just the idea of having a grandfather, any grandfather at all, that had drawn her to him – Grandpa J was special.
    And for his part, Grandpa J had no problem adopting Katie as his own honorary grandchild. He always said that he was enough Grandpa to go around.
    Katie loved listening to him talk for hours about his time in the military – the fun he and his friends would have going out on the town, all dressed in uniform and looking as dapper as could be, and the shenanigans that would ensue.
    He talked about hitchhiking from Florida to New York and all the interesting people he met along his two-week journey. But Katie’s favorite story to listen to was the one about the very first time he saw his future wife, Marie Elise Gallo.
    Katie never got to meet Grandma Marie, who had passed away before Grandpa J came to live in Harper's Crossing, but from what she heard, Grandma Marie knew how to keep Grandpa J on his toes. She had always felt a special connection to Grandma Marie, even though she had never met her.
    Katie's middle name was Marie, and growing up she used to fantasize that she was named after Grandma Marie. She couldn't imagine a higher honor. It wasn't until much later that she realized that the coincidence was actually fate giving her a much more special nod – the assurance that her connection with this family had been pre-ordained.
    There were so