“We have plenty of time,” I said to him. “And you look great.”

Merry appraised him. “You actually do.”

He looked down at himself. “Do I actually look like a potato?”

Merry rolled her eyes and ignored him. “You look great too,” I told her. “Love the dress.” It was purple, and her yellow cardigan and orange shoes somehow kind of all worked.

“Thanks!” She said, shoving her hands into the pockets. “It has pockets!”

“Okay, let’s go,” Jordan said, patting down his pockets, double checking for the fifth time that he had his wallet, phone, and keys. “We ready?”

I nodded and held out my hand for him to hold. “Relax. They’ll love you.”

“How do you know that? You can’t know that. You just wait until I open my mouth and word-vomit all over everyone. It’ll be a disaster.”

“They’ll love you.” I kissed him. “Because I do. Now come on or they’ll wonder where we are.”

And the funny thing about Jordan was that he definitely had two varying degrees of nervousness. There was the ordinary kind of nervous where incessant rambling ensued, and then there was the petrified, holy-shit kind of nervous where he went unusually silent.

He’d stopped talking when we got close, barely made a sound when we got out of the cab, and as we rode the elevator up to their floor, his lips were pressed into a thin, very-shut line.

“You okay?” I asked, pulling on his hand.

He nodded, then shook his head, then nodded. Then the elevator pinged and the doors opened and he shook his head. “Nope. Not okay.”

We stopped just outside Michael and Veronica’s door, and I cupped Jordan’s face and kissed him softly. “They will love you because you’re an amazing guy. Because I love you, because Angus loves you. You have nothing to worry about, okay?”

He nodded but hardly looked convinced. I pressed the doorbell anyway, and Michael answered. He wore jeans and a white button-down shirt, looking handsome and casual and very, very happy. “Hey, come on in,” he said, opening the door wide. He didn’t even wait for introductions. He just stuck out his hand and said, “You have to be Jordan. The guy I hear about all the time, from Hennessy, from Angus.”

“Oh,” Jordan said, shaking his hand. “Yes, the one and the same. It’s nice to meet you.”

“And this is Merry,” I said, making introductions.

Once that was done, Michael waved his hand inside. “Come on in and let’s see if we can find my beautiful wife.”