Sunflower (Clyde Logan x Reader)

Chapter 31

Your POV:

Oh god. You weren't ready to meet the family, were you?

You'd been wavering back and forth ever since Clyde had casually dropped that bomb on you as if it were any other regular type of date idea. Wasn't he nervous? If he was, he sure wasn't showing it to you.

All you could think about was that snippet of time at the fair where you had spotted Clyde, back before you'd even known each other, back when you were nothing but a small-town prison librarian and he was nothing but a stranger. He'd been with what you now knew was his niece, Sadie.

He'd looked so happy then, carrying her in his arms and smiling and laughing. God, if nothing else, seeing Sadie and Clyde together would surely be a prize for whatever hell came with meeting someone's family. Right?

You were trying not to be too outwardly anxious about the meeting, doing your best to recall anything you could about what Clyde had spoken about concerning his family. You knew his family was important to him and you wanted to make a good first impression.

Doing this would be taking your relationship past its happy little private bubble, though, and you weren't sure how you felt about that. You knew that eventually it would have had to happen - you couldn't live in isolation - and honestly, you were surprised you hadn't met his sister at the bar yet. Clyde said sometimes she randomly popped by.

A fresh wave of unease rushed through you as you thought about that. She wasn't avoiding you, was she? Had Clyde told her to stay away?

No, no, that was ridiculous. You were overthinking, again .

You scrubbed your hands down your face, trying to shake these intrusive thoughts from your head, focusing on the warmth that was Clyde. He wouldn't be taking you to meet his family if he didn't think it was time. He would never do something to put you on the spot or embarrass you.

You had to trust him, just like you'd been trusting him since the start of your relationship. You had to believe that he cared, that Clyde was just hoping to share more of himself with you, uncovering more of his life for you to explore and learn and be a part of.

Your refocused attention brought a smile to your face as you felt yourself calming, nodding to yourself. Yes, that was it. This was right. Things with Clyde were good, better than good. This was a natural progression in your relationship and you welcomed it, just like you welcomed everything Clyde had to give.

No matter what, you would face this together . You would trust . You could .

***

Clyde's POV:

Saturday had finally come around and Clyde was beginning to wonder if he was really as big of an idiot as he was to land himself in a situation like this.

Turns out, yes, he was.

What was he thinking? A barbeque at Mellie's with his whole family all at once? And now Jimmy was rumored to show up and everyone was just supposed to be easy and relaxed and somehow not blow Clyde's biggest secret?

It's not like he expected his family to betray him - not everyone was even in on the heist, to begin with, anyway - but Clyde still felt cold sweat prick at the nape of his neck every time he thought about it. You couldn't find out. Not like this.

He still needed time to figure out how to tell you - figure out if he wanted to tell you. Things were going so good - he couldn't risk this. He couldn't risk you. Least of all risk his family telling you before he was ready.