Chapter Text
The party was a success. Well, that was what Katie hoped because she was so tired of playing girlfriend, especially in front of Lance's family. She was 100% sure his father didn't like her, but the others were welcoming and warm, despite all the things Lance had told them about her in the past. It didn’t help that Lance just decided to announce their engagement without even consulting her. Yes, he did say that he wanted to do it on his terms, but Katie was expecting something more…intimate. The kiss was also something that Katie hadn't expected, especially the lingering feeling of Lance’s lips on hers and the blush on her cheeks that didn’t go away for the whole night.
“And here is your room,” Nancy said, as she pushed her and Lance into the bedroom. “Of course, you are not fooling anyone if you’re going to tell me that you sleep separately.”
“Really Ma, my old room?”
“What? It is big enough, stop complaining. I didn’t get to clean the guest bedrooms.”
It was a big room indeed. Located on the last floor, Lance’s old bedroom had its own bathroom and balcony. Katie could get a better glance at Lance’s past - sports trophies and finance books still on the bookshelves, movie posters and photos of friends on the walls.
“Hope you have a good night darlings,” Nancy said before she left the room.
“Can’t believe you had a king-size bed,” Katie said, moving her luggage to one part of the room.
“What’s the problem in that?”
“Just saying. Still can’t believe you didn’t say anything about all of this…empire?”
“How could I, when we were stuck talking about you the past 3 years,” he answered sarcastically.
“Hope we don’t bicker like that in front of your parents because nobody would actually believe we are engaged!”
“I think they got the memo after that kiss,” Lance said, ending the conversation. The room fell into an awkward silence.
Oh yes, that kiss…
“So can I take some of your pillows to sleep on the floor?” Katie asked, taking off her cardigan and putting it on a chair.
“What? No. C’mon I won’t let you sleep on the floor,” Lance said laughing, but Katie didn’t respond. “I won’t strangle you in your sleep, I promise. The bed is big enough for each one of us to have our own little corner. Plus if someone comes in and sees you sleeping on the floor our all cover is blown.”
“Fine. But I want my own blanket,” Katie sighed.
Lance tossed her a spare blanket and went into the bathroom to change, leaving Katie alone with her thoughts. She opened her phone to check any new messages - with all of the things happening she didn’t even manage to check in with any additional work. Thankfully there wasn’t any stupid coworker needing any kind of assistance so she changed into some warm pyjamas and tucked in. She was already so exhausted and the weekend didn’t even properly start.
I’m going to die and my cause of the death is going to be the McClain family…
~~~~~~~
The sun was barely up when Katie woke up - it was her usual waking up hour after all. Lance was still sleeping peacefully on his side of the bed. She was thankful that she didn’t move in her sleep so she would wake up millimetres from him. In the end, he was right - they both slept comfortably in their own corner.
The morning was pretty chilly, so Katie got up silently, put on some jeans and a hoodie and went downstairs to get some water. She tried her best not to wake Lance up and finally breathed out when she was out of the room. She wasn’t sure when the others would or if they were already up so she made her way silently to the kitchen. The door was closed, so she slowly opened it, afraid of the sounds it would make, only to be hit by the amazing smell of fresh bread and pastries.
“Oh Katie, good morning!” Nancy said as she put a tray in the oven. “I was just making some - “
“Garlic knots,” Katie said at the same time. “Lance’s favourite.”
Nancy smiled. “I’m glad to know he still enjoys them, it had been a while since he had been home.”
Katie wanted to ask why but decided against it. She shouldn’t pry into his personal life.
“Would you like to help me finish everything? I think people are already starting to wake up and I need to finish the preparations.”
“Oh, I’m not the best at cooking…”
“Oh, don’t be shy, Katie! I’ll teach you everything there is to know. If you’re going to be part of the family, you need to know the family recipes!” Nancy said with a warm smile.
Katie’s heart ached. It had been a long time since she had been to family gatherings. “Of course.”
The preparations went on fast and Katie caught herself having fun. Lance’s mother was the sweetest person and now she could see why Lance was so talkative - he inherited his mother. Nancy loved talking about her children, especially Lance.
“I am so glad my little Lance found someone to settle with. I was scared that he was lonely there in the big city all by himself,” she said, as she placed the last tray of pancakes on the table, while Katie set the cutlery down. “And especially you! Lance had admired you for so long!”
Katie blushed as Nancy continued dreamily. “I have always known that behind that bickering he was always telling me about something else! Katie, I am so glad he has you in your life!” she finished, grabbing her into a warm hug.
~~~~~~
Katie knew that Lance had a big close family, but seeing everybody around the table made it 100% clearer than ever. Everybody was enjoying the breakfast prepared by her and Nancy, talking and laughing. Katie had been seated with Lance at the head of the table and she felt overwhelmed by all the things happening around her - Lance’s nieces and nephews were jumping around, one of his sisters was asking too many questions, his father was throwing them daggers, while his grandma was pushing more and more food on her plate.
“You ok?” he whispered, grabbing her shoulder gently. Katie turned, underestimating the distance between their faces, and for a second, as she met his intoxicating blue eyes, the world seemed to slow down and get silent. She could breathe again.
Before she knew it the moment was over, and she averted her eyes fast, a blush on her face. “Yes, still a bit jet-lagged from the flight.”
“It happens,” Lance chuckled, drifting his eyes to the garlic knots in his plate. “Oh Ma, you don’t understand how much I’ve missed your garlic knots! They are divine!”
Nancy smiled sweetly. “Don’t flatter me, boy. Katie also helped me prepare everything for this breakfast.”
Lance gave her a surprised look.
“I just kept you company, don’t need to exaggerate!”
“Oh sweetie, you worked hard, own it up!” she smiled.
In the meantime, Abuela kept pilling pancakes on Katie’s plate. “Sweetie, you didn’t tell me how Lance proposed! The way a man proposes tells a lot about his character!”
Hearing these words, the whole table turned to the couple and Katie felt her heart stop. How could they be so stupid? They hadn’t even discussed this before and she couldn’t tell everyone that the proposal was nothing more than her getting on her knees in the middle of the sidewalk in front of the immigration office.
“Oh, Lance loves to tell the story! Don’t you, sweetie?” She exclaimed, glancing shortly at Lance. She knew he was a romantic at heart - she wasn’t blind and after all, they had been working together for 3 years and she picked up on his personality. He liked flirting with Jenny from reception and Sammy on the 3rd floor; on the plane, he always watched some kind of rom-com, and of course, he usually came into the office with a phone number written on his coffee cup. He always daydreamed and when she could hear his music it was always love ballads.
Lance pinched her hand under the table.
Yes, McClain, I hate you too.
“Oh, yes. Well, we had been stuck at the office for so long in the months upcoming to the proposal, that I knew I needed to use the first window that I could. So the first weekend when we were both free I planned a surprise trip and took her to dinner at the restaurant we had our first date at, a cute Italian place close to the office .”
The whole table went ‘aawww’ while Katie tried her best not to roll her eyes. They did go to an Italian place when they started working together but it was only because it was Katie’s birthday, and even if she wanted to spend her night at the office looking over some new investments while eating Chinese takeout, Lance had insisted that they at least went to a restaurant downtown to eat something proper and then come back to work. It was a pretty fun night, even if it was a simple dinner, mostly because it was the first time in years since Katie had celebrated her birthday.
“Then I drove her around the city and then to the hills. Katie loves looking at the stars, so we star-gazed above the city. That’s where I got on one knee and popped the question!”
Abuela clapped happily and took a look at her ring. “Very unique ring!”
Katie blushed. She couldn’t just say it was her mothers. “I come from an Italian family and Lance wanted to incorporate as much of my culture in it as he could.”
She could see the surprise flashing on Lance’s face. It wasn’t a total lie. Her mother had been Italian, an immigrant to Canada as much as she was an immigrant to the US. She worked in a research university and that’s where she met her father.
“That is so sweet! I knew I raised you to be so considerable,” Nancy said, smiling warmly at her son.
Katie laughed.