8 chapter seven | its just a house

The rest of the drive was in silence. The last house we passed was ten minutes ago and I've only seen one other mailbox on the way. I'm starting to think he's driven me out to the middle of nowhere to kill me, but those thoughts left my mind once we pulled down a long driveway. It is a large beautiful house overlooking a vast vineyard. I always pictured the people who owned vineyards as stuck up snobby people, with their pinkies permanently stuck out, and going around checking the time on their pocket watches like they have something massively impressive to do latter. But Austin is nothing like that.

Before we make it to the huge house- or mansion- when we quickly skid to a stop. Confused I look over at Austin and see him looking in front of the truck at a little girl running and screaming right where we would have been if he didn't stop. She is the perfect combination of a flowered dress and scraped up knees. Her blond hair pulled away from her face in pigtails and couldn't be older than 11. I almost get out to help her till I see the reason for her screaming, a boy about the same age chasing after her. "Hey, careful! i almost hit you this time!" Austin yells out his window at them.

The boy skids to s stop right in front of the truck and crosses his arms in a pout "But she stole my candy bar!"

"Well, in that case, go get her!" Austin yells and they continue running "that is my brother, Braxton, and sister, Olivia, they're about 11." he said as we pull in front of the house.

"They're adorable," I say.

"Oh don't make up your mind till you meet them all."

"There's more?" my question making him smirk.

"You ready to meet the rest of the gang?" he asks while he opened the door for me.

The entryway was beautiful with a large staircase, marble floors, and a chandelier hanging in the middle. "mi casa' su casa" he says casually. Which I highly drought is true. I don't belong in beautiful places like this.

"It's beautiful" I whisper but he must have heard me.

"Good lord it's only a house." he laughs "but thanks. My mom's going to love you," oh lord I can't tell when he's serious or not.

The next person I meet is someone that I assume is his younger brother. He's sitting on the couch in the living room on his phone but once he sees us he stands up.

"Well who do we have here?" the younger version of Austin asks. It's disgusting how his eyes rake over my body. Why do men feel they have my permission to do that? It is not a compliment and I don't know how it ever could be.

"Jason this is Samantha, she'll be staying with us while her cars getting fixed. Samantha this is Jason, my little brother." Austin introduces us.

"Only by one year," Jason smirks taking one step closer to me as I take one small step back. "There's something wrong with my eyes. I can't take them off of you" he uses the cheesy pickup line with the family trade smirk plastered all over his smug face. Somehow when Austin smiles at me it's more natural then when Jason does, it's almost like he's trying too hard.

"I'm having the same problem with mine too! I can't see you getting anywhere with me" I smile triumphantly. I can hear Austin laughing beside me.

"Well I was going to tell you a joke about my dick, but it's too long," Jason says, trying unsuccessfully to make me blush. It's going to take much more to make me blush.

"To bad, I'd tell you a joke about my pussy, but you'd never get it" I can see his smile growing; maybe he knows he's met his match.

"Is that all you have Jason?" Austin goats his brother. Jason holds up one finger silencing his big brother.

"Alright," he says "if I saw you naked id die happy."

"If I saw you naked I'd die laughing"I laugh at the end to make my point. it's been all fun and games until he takes two steps towards me and puts a hand on my waist. Then as a reflex, I can't help but catch my breath and start to breathe quickly. I try to move away but I'm against a wall. Feeling cornered I put my hands up in defense and close my eyes tightly.

"Jason! back off!" Austin practically growls as he pulls his brother off of me. I give him a thankful glance but mostly keep my eyes on the ground trying to get into the walls after that episode. Austin has seen me freak out twice now, now he'll definitely be asking questions. He slowly and carefully pulls me closer to him and farther away from his brother. Being held by Austin is not much different then by Jason but it feels different. Jason touched me in a very demanding way that makes me feel unsure, but Austin holds me in a protective way and as crazy as it sounds I do feel safe around him in a way I haven't felt in a long time. "Don't touch her again," he tells Jason.

"I'm sorry I didn't know she would react like that!" Jason tells his brother defensively.

"It doesn't matter you still won't do it again, understood?" Austin tells his brother while staring him down. Although they're only one year apart Austin seems to take his position as 'older brother' very seriously. Instead of acting like a 20-something-year-old he's acting like a third parent. This incident seemed so natural that I would bet this is a regular occurrence. I can see that Jason resents being treated like a child but something in him is holding him back from standing up to his big brother, it could be love, it could be respect, even pride.

But these are all small observations compared to how I've noticed that Austin is acting protective of me. The way his hand on my back has not faltered since placed there or the threatening tone in his voice. The most shocking thing about this is the way I have not tried to stop him. Even that I cannot explain.

"I won't," Jason says, and with that Austin turns towards the kitchen incidentally taking me with him. The counter is covered with assortments of food like pasta, breadsticks, and a huge Caesar salad. An older woman is setting the table, she must be Austin's mom. Whoever she is she is undeniably beautiful, she doesn't look like all the other moms I know. While she does have dark circles under her eyes she doesn't have a permanent scowl on her face, instead, she has her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth in a funny-questioning face accompanied with laugh lines, and Instead of a glass of wine in one hand she balances a toddler on her hip. The adorable baby smiles at Austin and I as best he can while also trying to fit both fists into his mouth. He has Austins back hair, which I assume came from their dad because their mom is blond and every James child I've seen so far has the charming black hair.

Once his mom looks up and sees us it startles her and she quickly straightens her dress "Oh hi! I'm Austin's mom, Autumn " she says smiling ear to ear.

"Hello, I'm Samantha. You have a lovely home" I compliment her trying to remember all my manors.

"Oh thank you, Samantha! You're a keeper." she smiles softly "Austin told me someone was going to be staying here so I got your room ready but unfortunately I haven't had much time to clean anything else. You're both here just in time because dinner's ready once I get this little guy ready." she said pulling her hair out of his tight grip "sorry to rush off right when as you arrive, but I'm sure you're in good hands. You both go ahead and sit anywhere" she smiles once more and walks out.

Austin points to two seats on the side of a long wooden dining table and we sit down forced to make small talk until his dad walks in. Justin's father is tall and an older replica of his sons. His hair is graying on the sides making a kind of gray halo through his signature black hair but not balding. When he sees us his eyes light up and picks up his step to come sit down at the head of the table, to the Right of his son.

"So Austin you brought home a girl" he jokingly wiggles his eyebrows "How long have you two been going out?" He asks.

"Oh no, it's not like that" Austin lightly corrects.

"Oh my apologies, how could I have read that wrong" he quickly apologies.

"This is Samantha, She'll be staying here for a couple of days while her car is fixed" Austin explains.

"Excellent. Did you ask your mother?" his father stops putting food on his plate to look over at his son.

"Yes, sir. She said it was more than fine."

"Of course she did." he laughs jokingly "your mother would open our doors to murders as long as they complimented her cooking" he laughs.

"What were you saying about my cooking?" Austin's mom asks while walking into the kitchen. she must have put the baby to sleep because now she isn't holding him.

"Oh, I was saying how good it smells," Austin's dad tells her smiling lovingly at his wife.

"Damn straight it does," she says bringing the food to the table. By this time the twins Braxton and Olivia, and Jason had sat down. the whole family is laughing at some joke one of the twins made. The whole family is undeniably happy and it took my breath away. Like some type of cliche daytime tv show, They all shared about their day. But it wasn't in a cory way, they all generally wanted to talk to each other. They even included me when I thought they were going to exclude me. I've never met anyone like these people, it's extraordinary. I can't even remember the last time someone made dinner for me.

After dinner, the twins ran off to go take their bath and Austin's mom, autumn, went to help them. his dad had some leftover work to do but promised to tuck the twins in (not missing the chance to embarrass his older boys saying he'll come up and read them a story too), and Jason went to go do whatever 19-year-old boys do. Leaving me and Austin alone, it felt a little awkward to be left alone because it was now quiet in the house, but if Austin felt it he didn't let it show.

"Well, you're probably tired. Want me to show you your room?" He asks me after upsetting the table.

"yes, that'd be wonderful."

"Okay, this one is yours. There should be a bathroom in there with fresh towels. If you need anything I'm right across the hall" Austin tells us as we get to my room.

"Thank you, Austin."

"It's no problem" he brushes it off about to go into his own room.

"No, I mean for everything. You've been amazing and you didn't have to be. I didn't even know there were still people like you and your family," I tell him losing confidence and looking down. I guess he didn't want me to feel bad so he lifted my chin with his pointer finger and thumb. The contact shocks me but not in an altogether bad way.

"Maybe you weren't looking hard enough" he smiles "have a good night's sleep Sam" and with that, he turns around to leave.