t w e n t y f o u r

"I missed you."

Aurora sat in her seat, across from Xavier with a pout on her face. She had desperately missed his gentle touches and kisses this week.

It had been a couple of days since the two had last seen each other, but to the couple, it felt longer. Aurora had gotten busy with clients as well as finalizing everything for the Knight hotel and getting it approved by the city. Xavier was also swamped with work, attending meeting after meeting, even going on a short two-day business trip to oversee a project at one of the branches in Seattle.

Even though they had not seen each other, they made sure to text, call, and FaceTime each other while being apart. They usually ended their nights FaceTiming, both falling asleep with their laptops next to them.

Xavier had gotten back earlier that day and immediately asked her to join him for dinner, wanting to spend his evening with her.

"I missed you more, love," he held her hand in his, giving it a gentle squeeze. She gave him a happy smile as she looked him over.

He looked tired, which made sense since he had just landed back in Los Angeles over an hour ago. She had tried to convince him to go back home to rest, but he managed to convince her to let him take her out for dinner.

They were currently at a nice restaurant that Xavier and his family dined at often. Since they arrived at the restaurant during the peak of dinner time, it was quite packed, but being the Xavier Knight meant he was able to get them seated rather quickly.

"I'm sorry again about my mom on Saturday," She apologized once again, looking down at their entangled hands. "I completely forgot my mom was going to stop by."

"Sweetheart," he gently coaxed. "How many times do I have to tell you that it's not anything you have to apologize for."

"But-"

"No buts," Xavier gave her a scolding look. "Even though I was surprised, your mother is a very lovely woman. I was actually more worried that I wasn't leaving a good impression—I mean, you did spend the night at my house."

Aurora felt her cheeks warm up as her heart melted. "Why were you worried? You had nothing to worry about."

"Of course I did," he sheepishly said, bringing his free hand up to rub the back of his hand. Clearing his throat he continued. "It was the first time I was put in this situation and I really wanted your mom to like me."

Giving him a gentle smile, she rubbed soothing circles on his hand. "You've never done this before?"

Xavier scoffed, looking into her eyes. "Of course not, love. You know how I am."

"Well," began Aurora, as she leaned forward, placing a small and gentle kiss on his lips before sitting back down on her seat. "If it makes you feel any better, I think you did an amazing job meeting my mom on Saturday. She loved you and she won't stop raving about you whenever she calls. I had to make sure she kept quiet about us."

"You promise?" He asked, showing his vulnerability. She was one of the only ones who sees him without his guard up.

"I wouldn't lie to you," she gave his hand another squeeze. And she didn't. Every time her mom would call, all she talked about was Xavier, wondering how he was doing. It seemed like Xavier managed to charm her mother. She just hoped her brother and dad would like him as well.

"That's a relief," he muttered. "You didn't tell your dad about us?"

"Not yet," she answered, knowing that her father was overprotective of her and that she had to tell him herself. "I want to tell my dad and brother about you in person. Connor's coming home next weekend for Lunar New Year, so I'm planning to tell them both at the same time. If mom accidentally spills it, my dad will sulk for days."

Xavier nodded in understanding before chuckling. "Looks like that got passed down to you as well."

"What got passed down?" She was confused before coming to realization as her nose scrunched up in disagreement. "I don't sulk, do I?"

He raised his eyebrows in questioning. "What are you doing now then, love?"

Aurora denied his claims again, a small pout forming on her face. "No, you're wrong. I don't sulk." She paused. "I sulk, don't I?"

Before she could continue, she was interrupted by the waiter who had finally brought them their main course. She ordered a salmon dish with a lemon garlic cream sauce while Xavier opted for a fillet mignon. They shared their sides— mashed potatoes and a salad.

Immediately, Aurora's focus was on the food and Xavier seemed to disappear from her eyes. Xavier watched, eyes softening as she happily ate her salmon, occasionally stealing pieces of meat from him, which he didn't mind, of course. In return, she fed him some of the salmon on her plate.

It wasn't until halfway through dinner that Xavier noticed two familiar figures in his peripheral vision. Shifting his eyes subtly, he focused in on the figures that were walking towards the exit of the restaurant.

Right as they turned in his direction, Xavier's eyes locked onto the woman's, causing both his and her's to widen in recognition.

Since it was a restaurant he and his family frequented often, it was no surprise that his older sister and her husband would be eating at the same restaurant.

Stephanie Knight-Hayes was the younger twin of Damien Knight and the wife of Ethan Hayes. All three worked with Xavier at Knight Industries as executives and heads of branches. Since they seemed to be alone, Xavier assumed it was date night and that his parents were probably watching his nephew, Colton.

As soon as Stephanie noticed that there was a woman with her brother, she froze, causing Ethan to run into her back. Ethan, who had his hand intertwined with her's, looked down at his wife in question. She said something quickly in his ear, causing Ethan's eyes to snap to where Xavier sat with Aurora.

They had never seen Xavier with a woman, especially not out with one on a date. With a determined look, Stephanie began to drag Ethan towards her brother's direction, causing Xavier to subtly shake his head. It seemed like only Ethan noticed the gesture and he immediately halted his wife, causing her to glare daggers at him.

Xavier looked back at Aurora who seemed to zone out the world as she continued to eat happily. She looked up, giving him a content smile, before going back to her salmon. It was then Xavier appreciated the fact that Aurora tended to zone out the rest of the world around her whenever she ate.

Meanwhile, Ethan frantically spoke to his wife, suggesting that maybe Xavier didn't want her meeting the woman yet. Stephanie gave him an exasperated look before turning to glare back at her brother.

"What are you looking at?" Wondered Aurora as she began to look behind her.

"No one," he said quickly, bringing her attention back to him, preventing her from turning to look at whatever he was looking at.

She gave him a weird look before feeding him a bit of her salmon. He took the bite, muttering a thank you as his eyes slowly darted back to the couple who now had their mouths open with shock.

When Aurora's attention was back on the food, Xavier rolled his eyes, causing the two to snap out of it and gave his sister a hard look that confirmed what Ethan had said. Huffing, Stephanie returned a dirty look as if telling him that he better tell her what was going on later.

Ethan began to direct his wife back to the exit, causing Stephanie to huff with annoyance. Before they left, as Ethan turned back, Xavier gave him a grateful nod to which he returned with a smirk and wink, causing Xavier to shake his head with amusement.

Immediately after they left, his phone began to buzz with notifications. He quickly put his phone on do not disturb, not even bothering to check the messages as he already knew who sent them.

It wasn't that Xavier wanted to keep his family from knowing about Aurora. He just didn't want Stephanie to scare her away.

Because believe it or not, the women in his family could be a little pushy.

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"Elijah, can you please pass the salt?"

Elijah reached over to pass the salt to Megan, who then passed it to their father. It was their weekly Knight family dinner and as usual, it was bustling with talk, arguments, and laughter.

Xavier sat next to Liam, who was not a Knight but had somehow sweet-talked their mother into let him attend their weekly family dinners. Liam was happily chatting with their mother, buttering her up with what Xavier believed to be nonsense while their father grunted with annoyance at Liam's tactics.

"Mrs. Knight, the chicken is baked to absolute perfection," Liam gave the older woman a charming smile. "This is what gods eat in heaven."

"Liam, dear, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Isabella," she blushed, giggling like a schoolgirl.

Alexander looked over at his wife with disbelief before rolling his eyes.

Meanwhile, Maddie chatted with Stephanie about her new makeup line—a topic that none of the boys would ever understand. Lucas' sole focus was on the food, nodding whenever Maddie would ask if he was paying attention.

"Do you think I should go with shimmer or matte?" Maddie brought her phone up to show Stephanie the colors.

Stephanie looked over at the phone, bringing the small spoon of mashed potatoes up to Colton's mouth as the toddler continuously dodged her attempt at feeding him. "For the new palette?"

"Yeah, I was thinking shimmer, since I already have some mattes picked out," added Maddie.

"Yeah, go with the shimmer. The gold really complements the reds in the palette," replied Stephanie as she turned her attention back to her son.

"Thanks," Maddie slapped her hand onto Lucas' thigh, causing him to jump with surprise. "Are you paying attention, Lucas?"

He nodded absentmindedly as he looked up at her with wide eyes and a mouth full of food. "Of course, baby."

Xavier talked about hockey and the company with Damien. Lucas would occasionally chime if he wasn't too busy stuffing his face or trying to keep his girlfriend from yelling at him. At this rate, he should be awarded for being able to keep up with everything that was going on.

"Did you see the game last Saturday?" Asked Damien, stuffing his mother's delicious roast into his mouth.

"Would I ever miss a game?" Grunted Xavier, feeling a bit offended that his brother would even ask him that question.

Lucas looked up at them with excitement at the mention of hockey, making sure to chime in."Did you see that last 5-second play? My man literally scored a last-minute goal from the fucking corner."

"Lucas, are you even paying attention to what I'm saying?" Asked Maddie, sending her boyfriend a glare, causing the other two to snicker at the position their friend was in.

At the sound of their snickering, Maddie directed her glare to her two older brothers, causing them to immediately divert their attention back to the food.

Being one year apart from one another, Elijah and Megan were arguing like typical siblings. Megan was quiet when it came to outsiders, but with her family, though still on the quiet side, she could still hold an argument. Elijah was probably the most outgoing out of all the Knight siblings, but like the typical older brother, he was protective over Megan. In fact, all the Knight boys were extremely overprotective over their baby sister.

"I don't get why you won't tell me how you got those bruises on your arms, Megs," Elijah glared at his sister, pushing the subject. "And don't use the 'I tripped and fell on the curb' excuse."

"Because it's none of your business," argued Megan, shuffling to pull down the sleeves of her sweater. This wasn't an unusual response as the whole family often pestered her on where she got her bruises from. There were suspicions, but none were brought up because Megan didn't want to tell them anything.

Out of all the siblings, Megan was the closest to Elijah, yet even with him, she refused to tell him anything.

They continued to glare at each other until their mother broke them up, telling them to stop arguing or else they were on dish duty. Elijah gave his baby sister a warning glare, making sure it was known that the conversation was far from over.

In the corner, both Ethan and Stephanie, who was still conversing with Maddie, were trying to coax Colton to eat dinner. At the age of two, getting him to eat was a real struggle, since all he wanted to do during dinner time was play and watch videos on his iPad. He was now in his talking phase, speaking in broken sentences and repeating the words he hears. His current favorite word was "no".

"Colton eat."

"No."

"Papa's going to take your iPad away."

"No."

"Then, you have to eat, Colton."

"No."

Ethan groaned, wanting to strangle whoever taught his son the word "no".

This was definitely just your typical weekly Knight family dinner.

In the middle of dinner, Xavier looked up to find Stephanie staring at him with an intense stare. It was then, he knew what was about to happen. Hoping to change her mind, Xavier gave her a pleading look.

Almost like she couldn't hold it back, Stephanie finally spoke out. All the Knight women seemed to have trouble keeping their mouths shut.

"Xavier has a girlfriend," she blurted.

Immediately, the entire room fell silent as every head turned to look at Xavier. He glared at his sister who gave him an apologetic smile. It was difficult keeping this information to herself and the fact that she lasted a few days without saying a word was a real achievement.

In his highchair, Colton looked up from the iPad for the first time that night with a carefree grin on his face. Sensing his chance, he happily grabbed the spoon out of his father's frozen hand and threw it onto the ground, screaming his favorite word, breaking the silence.

"No!"

And then, there was chaos.

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Happy Friday my loves! I am so sorry for the lack of updates this past week. I just started summer classes on Monday, so I've been busy. It's an intensive 3 week course and there's a lot of assignments I have to complete. So, for the next two weeks, I will only be updating on Friday, but don't worry! After 2 weeks, I'll be back to updating on Tuesday and Friday. I hope you guys understand and I hope this chapter was worth waiting a bit. Thank you so much for reading and please let me know what you think in the comments; I really love reading what you guys think!

I hope you have an amazing weekend and I'll see you next week! Stay safe loves <3