Healed Read Online Free PDF Page B

fingers. The feel of her hand in mine was perfect.
    “You’re learning already,” Ben called back to us.
    Inside the restaurant was simple, yet elegant. I scanned the lobby for my parents and just like I’d assumed, they were already there, seated at the table. The minute her eyes landed on mine, my mom jumped up and ran over to us—and I literally mean ran . She wrapped us both in a giant hug.
    “Congratulations, you two, I’m so happy for you both.”
    “Hey, Mom.” I bent down and kissed her on the cheek. Both my parents were tall, but my mom still had nothing on me and my dad.
    “Oh, honey, I’m so proud of you,” she said, placing a kiss on my cheek.
    Emily smiled up at her. “I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”
    “Oh no, sweetie. I’m used to waiting, since Mike always makes me leave the house way before we have to.”
    “That’s because if we didn’t, they’d still be waiting for us,” my dad said, coming up to stand behind my mom.
    He reached his hand out to me and when I took it, he pulled me into a hug. “I’m so proud of you, son. You’ve picked a wonderful woman,” he said, looking at Emily over my shoulder. “I know you will have many happy years together.”
    “Thanks, Dad.”
    It was weird. I couldn’t stop smiling. Everything seemed perfect as we all took our seats and looking around the table, I realized I had nearly my whole family here. The only person who could have made the day any better was my younger sister, Jessica.
    I looked over at my parents while everyone else studied the menu. “Have you guys heard from Jess lately?”
    “She sent me a text last night. She really wanted to come today and say congratulations, but she’s a bit overwhelmed with her physics class at the moment and wanted to stay on campus to study.”
    “Why didn’t she call me? I would have helped her.”
    “She knew you had a lot on your mind,” Mom said, giving a pointed look at Emily.
    I smiled down at the beautiful woman seated next to me. “True, but I still would’ve helped her. It’s not like I haven’t already taken that class, and ones even harder.”
    As an engineering major, I was quite familiar with all of the sciences. However, knowing my sister as well as I did, I knew she’d want to do it on her own. She was always Miss Independent, even when she knew I could easily help her. I’d have to have a chat with her later about her ridiculous excuses.
    “I know, Andrew, but you know how she is.”
    “I do.”
    Once the waiter had taken our order, Emily’s dad opened the champagne her mother had ordered and proceeded to fill all of our glasses. Well, all except Jamie’s.
    “Dad, that’s not fair,” she whined.
    “Oh, it’s fair all right. You’re the only one under twenty-one.”
    Everyone laughed at that, and Emily’s dad raised his glass. “A toast to our beautiful daughter and the wonderful man she has chosen to marry. Emily and Andrew, may you have many years of happiness to come.”
    Clinking glasses were combined with a round of, “Cheers,” before our mothers started with the questions.
    “Have you guys set a date yet?” my mom piped up.
    I laughed. “You do realize that I only asked her a few days ago, right?”
    Her brows drew in as her head tilted to the side. “I know, but you’ve had time to pick one since then.”
    Emily’s hand covered mine on the table. It wasn’t like we hadn’t talked about dates, but that was because we knew this question was going to come up. I knew it shouldn’t frustrate me because I wanted to marry her more than anything, yet it was almost like we couldn’t even stop to enjoy our engagement and what it meant to our relationship, before they were pushing us down the aisle.
    “Yes, we’ve picked a date. The first weekend in April, the year after we graduate.” Emily smiled. And just like that, my annoyance disappeared.
    She’d said the other day that I had a huge impact on her personality—in a good way. Well, she