Molly
"Welcome to Dallas/Fort Worth international airport the local time is 8.30 pm. For the safety of the passengers please remain seated with your seat belts on while the seat belt light remains on. Please take caution when removing any overhead luggage and please make sure to take all of your belongings with you. On behalf of myself and the cabin crew, we wish you a great time here in Texas and we hope to see you soon."
"I am so tired!" Tom groans as we stand ready to get off the plane. After almost 16 hours of flying, I'm with the guy, it's been almost 19 since we left the hotel in China and I'm fucked but luckily Tom's home is only 30 minutes from the airport, and boy am I glad for that! "Food, shower, and sleep are all I'm doing as soon as I get home!" He groans again.
"Tom, are you sure that your parents don't mind me coming with you? I can find somewhere else to stay I don't mind."
"I've told you before and I'll tell you again my parents are excited to see you again and more than happy for you to stay, you know how much they've always liked you. I think they may like you more than me." He rolls his eyes causing me to chuckle and end the conversation before he starts whining again.
We haul our luggage out through arrivals and straight away I hear Tom's name being called, I turn my head to see a beaming Jack smiling our way. I haven't seen the guy in 7 years but I'd know him anywhere, he's also a mirror image of Tom too which helps.
"Jack!" Tom calls out excited to see his brother and it's lovely to see. I make my way over and I'm quickly pulled into a hug by Jack.
"Long time no see Molly, I was so sorry to hear about Archie I did try to make it to his funeral but I just couldn't get over there. We did raise a glass at the bar for him." I can see he's being genuine and it means a lot to me.
This past year has been both the hardest and best year of my life. Trying to move on with my life without Archie has been the hardest thing that I have ever had to go through and I honestly don't know if I would be where I am now if it wasn't for Tom.
We celebrated Archies life in every new place that we traveled to and as every month passed I found I could breathe a little easier. Don't get me wrong I will never forget Archie for long as I live and I will always love him and even though I don't see myself with another man ever I am slowly learning to find some happiness in life. Archie wouldn't want me miserable, he'd want me happy and living my life the best I can and that's what I'm going to do.
We get to Jack's truck and he puts my case in the bed of the truck while Tom jumps in the passenger seat and I belt myself up in the back. As soon as we set off my nerves start to kick in again. I know Tom has said that his parents are happy for me to go there but still, I don't want to be in the way.
It's been a long time since I've seen his parents but they are incredible people and it will be nice to see them but I'm also nervous because even though Tom and I have been best friends since we were 14 I've only ever met his brother Jack.
He has three other brothers Christian, Callum, and Zack plus his twin sister Zoe. I've not met any of them and I'm worried In case they don't like me. Zoe's away at college so I won't meet her yet but I'll meet all of his brothers and I'm nervous.
Luckily for me, I don't have much time to dwell on it as Tom's voice pulls me out of my thoughts as we pull onto a little dirt road and I see a farmhouse up ahead.
"Welcome to Bowen's farm Mols!" Tom beams out all thoughts of tiredness clearly forgotten as his excitement of seeing his family takes over while I just feel more nervous but I muster all the strength that I have and smile wide because I don't want him to think that I'm being ungrateful here because I'm really not, in fact, I'm looking forward to being around a family again.
We pull up outside a large wooden farmhouse and the door flies open as two little kids come running towards the truck and I know straight away who they are. One because Tom doesn't stop talking about Brody and Sophie and made sure he FaceTimed with them regularly and two because his brother Christian is the only one of them that has children. From what I know they are a close family even when Tom was in the army he stayed close with his brothers and they are all incredibly close with their niece and nephew.
"Well look who it is!" Tom shouts out getting down on his hunches while the kids run towards him, unfortunately for him, they fly at him so quickly that he's thrown back onto the ground but he's soon laughing along with them and it's one beautiful sight to see.
"Kids I told you to be careful!" I look up to see a guy walking out of the door with a little girl on his arm, that must be Katie. Tom told me about her too. The guy holding her is tall like seriously frigging tall! He must be at least 6ft3 and when you are only 5ft4 it makes him look like a goddam giant!
He's got light brown hair pulled back in a man bun and the same color eyes, a firm jawline, and his 5 o'clock shadow is perfectly shaped add in his frigging muscular body, and it's hard to deny how hot he really is and while he's standing there in jeans, a check shirt and boots I can't help but be reminded of a cowboy out of the many western films that Toms had me watching over the last year.
I look over at Jack and realize that he's about the same build and height but he's got short dark brown hair and green eyes, I must have been so full of nerves back at the airport that I hadn't really taken in how tall and well built he is.
Tom is so different from them all he's got blonde hair and blue eyes and even though he has a 6 pack and is pretty well built his height and build are noticeably different from these two. Jeez, are all his brothers this bloody tall?