Page 6 of Going All In

“Yeah. Maddox. We went to the diner and talked, and he’s just… anyway.” I clear my throat. “We were going to go out, like for real.” I twist my Oreo apart to get to the cream.

JJ laughs. “It’s so you to turn a one-night stand into a relationship.”

I pause, the cookie halfway to my mouth. “It’s not going to be a relationship.”

“Why not? You like him, right? What happened since then?”

“My dad is getting married.” I take the tequila bottle back. “Christmas Eve.”

JJ’s expression softens. “Oh, Holly. That’s… it must be hard. No one will replace your mom. And Christmas Eve, too?”

That part of things occurred to me, but I haven’t had time to focus on it. I haven’t celebrated Christmas since Mom died. She died on December 2nd, and that was the year Christmas died, too. Dad and I didn’t have the heart to pull out the Christmas things and celebrate without the woman who’d embodied the holiday for us for years.

And since then, Dad has just said that he’ll be ready to celebrate the holidays when I am.

I never imagined him celebrating with a new family.

Judy seems to make him happy, and I want that for him. I really, really do. Dad and I weren’t all that close while I was growing up, but since the accident, he and I have become a lot closer. Not the kind of friend you share tequila and Oreos with—that’s JJ’s department—but I’ve tried to spend more time with him, share more about my life.

Which is one reason why I feel so blindsided by this announcement, and also why I feel so shitty keeping things from him. But how do you broach that subject?

Oh, Maddox and I know one another already. We met at a bar, and by the end of that evening we were exchanging saliva.

I shake my head. “It’s not that. His fiancée seems nice. Judy. She’s really sweet. He seems happy.” I take another sip of tequila. I’m going to regret this in the morning.

JJ looks perplexed, her eyes narrowed. “So what’s the issue? Why are we sitting here killing your liver? What does this have to do with the guy?”

“Judy has kids,” I mumble around the bottle that’s still in my mouth.

“And?”

“And Maddox is her son.” I close my eyes as I say it out loud.

JJ’s expression hasn’t changed. “So? I’m not seeing the issue here.”

Having to spell it out makes it even worse.

“He’s herson. The son of my future stepmother.” I give her a significant look.

JJ trails off. “So that makes him…”

“Yeah. My future stepbrother.”

JJ grabs the tequila bottle out of my hands and holds it out of my reach. “Hold on. You cock-blocked me to tell me that the guy you like is, at some point in the future, going to be your stepbrother? Why is that even an issue, Holly? People fuck their step siblings all the time. Remember Clueless?”

“That was a movie! And I’m not talking about what happens in those dirty books you read. I can’t date my stepbrother. How would I even explain that to people? What would people think?” I reach for the alcohol, but she holds it further out of my grasp.

“It doesn’t matter what people think. Get a grip.”

I shake my head, sinking down onto the carpet. “You know I care. It just feels wrong. And it’s not like we’re actually dating, JJ.”

She lowers the bottle and looks me pointedly in the eye. “Listen. You do you. If you want to date him, fuck what everyone else thinks. But if you don’t want to pursue it with this new situation, that’s fine too. I’m here for you no matter what, girl.”

I let out a sigh. “I need a date for the wedding now, too.”

JJ, ever the fixer, pulls out her phone. “That we can do.”

* * *

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