"It wasn't what my parents wanted, but Vera seems alright with the verdict."

Two months later and the judge had finally ruled on my sister's domestic violence case, ruling that Aidan would have to serve six weeks in the state prison and pay a fine of $1,000. They had also granted Vera's restraining order against the man.

My parents had wanted a more severe punishment, but Vera had maturely pointed out that he had only hit her twice, and although the second time had resulted in visible injuries that took a good deal of time to heal, they were still only bruises. He hadn't attempted murder.

"Well I guess that Vera's opinion is the most important here." Andrew commented, his eyes remaining on the road. "Right?"

I nodded.

"Yeah."

We continued to drive. He was taking me to Austin to meet his extended family and childhood friends, which I was simultaneously nervous and excited about. His immediate family lived in Houston with him, since they had just moved there, and I had met them on multiple occasions. His mother was an absolute doll and his father cracked so many dad jokes that I could see steam coming out of Andrew's ears whenever his father opened his mouth. I positively loved it; his family was beyond kind to me and I couldn't ask for them to treat me any better.

But extended family and friends were sure to be a bit more judgemental, at least in my previous experience.

I looked over at Andrew as one of my favorite songs came on his Spotify playlist that was blasting through the car stereo: "Our Song" by Taylor Swift.

Call it Texas stereotypes, but I was a huge fan of Taylor Swift.

"You're lucky I added this to the list." Andrew grinned as he looked at the giant smile on my face. "It was a close call between wanting to not rip out my ears and seeing your beautiful smile."

I leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before leaning my head out of my window and yelling the lyrics as loud as I could.

"I was sitting shotgun with my hair undone in the front seat of his car!"

"Sam, you're killing me."

"He had a one hand feel on the steering wheel, the other on my heart!"

"You clearly didn't inherit your father's singing abilities."

"I look around, turn the radio down, he says 'baby is something wrong?'"

"Yes, your singing."

"I say 'nothing, I was just thinking how we don't have a song.'"

"It's definitely not this song."

"And he says,"

I looked over at Andrew in the split second between the song transitioning from verse to chorus and saw a slight smile on his face as his mouth opened to sing along with me.

"Our song is the slammin' screen door, sneaking out late, tapping on your window. When we're on the phone and you talk real slow, 'cause it's late and your mama don't know. Our song is the way you laugh; the first date 'man I didn't kiss her and I should have'. And when I got home, before I said 'amen', askin' God if He could play it again!"

I had never been so happy in my life. I had never wanted to be with someone more than in that very moment, speeding along the freeway, singing at the top of my lungs to my favorite song in the world, with my favorite person in the world.

I was completely and totally in love with him.

<><><>

"This is Samantha Carter."

I tried composing myself as I heard Andrew's voice introduce me to the person who opened the door of his grandparents' home in Austin: a woman who appeared to either be an aunt or older cousin.

"Samantha! I'm Andrew's Aunt Hilary. His favorite and coolest aunt, might I add." She grinned before grabbing me in an enormous hug that knocked the wind out of me. I returned the hug, albeit in a less harsh way, before stepping into the house and letting Andrew close the door behind me.

"Do you like peach cobbler? I made peach cobbler because that's all my parents had ingredients for. They tend to forget about things in the house." She rolled her eyes as she led us past the foyer and into the kitchen. "My older sister usually stays with them, but she's on vacation for the week and won't be joining us. The house is falling apart with her gone."

"I'm sorry to hear that." I shook my head. "The home looks lovely to me, though."

"You're too sweet." Hilary laughed as we sat down around the kitchen counter. "I'll get everyone in the house." She cleared her throat. "Guys! Andrew's here!"

A thunderous bout of footsteps echoed through the house as kids and adults alike came running into the kitchen from above and below the main level of the house. Andrew's grandparents' home was far smaller than my family's multimillion dollar mansion, but it was far nicer than most of the homes I saw in Houston, consisting of three levels with multiple rooms on each level, some of which looked hardly used.

A line of people filed into the kitchen, all with the same dark brown hair and mild-mannered looks. None of them were particularly attractive or ugly, and none of them were frowning; it was as if the facial expression didn't run in the family.

I went through a long line of Andrew's family, starting with the youngest cousin up to his 87-year-old grandparents who came hobbling into the room halfway through the introductions. The youngest cousin was 9 years old and started tugging on my shirt right after being introduced to me, asking if I would play Barbie dolls with her.

The whole family shook my hand, one at a time, smiling and complimenting some aspect of my appearance. I nodded and thanked them, trying to compliment them back as quickly as I could.

After shaking sixteen hands and having Andrew gently scold the cousin yanking on my shirt a few times, the introductions were done and Andrew looked ready to explode.

"We're actually headed out to see a few friends." He told his family as they all began to talk at once. "We'll see you all later."

"You can't stay for cobbler?" His grandmother asked quietly, "Hilary worked mighty hard on that cobbler."

He shot me an apologetic glance before nodding.

"Of course we'll stay for cobbler, Gram. But after that, we have to get going."

"That's fine dear." His grandmother nodded, a smile stretching from ear to ear.

We all sat down around the kitchen, some of the kids sitting on the floor as we dug into the peach cobbler that Hilary had made. A few of the younger cousins talked to Andrew about Houston and asked if things were different, to which he answered to the best of his ability.

One question caught my attention in particular.

"So have you gone to a Lincoln Carter concert yet?" The ten year old asked.

Andrew shook his head and shot me a wink.

"Nah, I'm still warming her up to me." He laughed. I laughed along, realizing that it was a joke.

But it still put me on edge.

A/N: Hey guys! I'm so sorry for missing so many updates. I had family up for the weekend, and I was trying to get the Dear Sydney giveaway up and running (Dear Sydney hit 2M reads on Sunday and there's a giveaway going on on my Instagram, @officialkatherinepowell if you want to check it out!) so I didn't have time to update. But today is the day for me to update my two running books, so I did!

Thoughts on Andrew? Is he bad news? Or is Sam just paranoid? Let me know your thoughts!

Also, I wrote out all the "Our Song" lyrics without copy and pasting because Taylor Swift is my love and I know every word by heart. Just wanted to brag.

-Katherine