Page 67 of Catching My Dreams

“I cut my parents out of my life today, so I’d say you’re doing alright,” Ella told them, causing a few pairs of eyes to widen. “Comparatively speaking, of course.”

“Yes, Montgomery, but your parents are selfish assholes who left you to raise yourself after you were old enough to fend for yourself,” Chris pointed out. “The comparison is hardly a compliment.”

“I think I need a drink,” Noah’s dad said with a weary sigh.

Chris hummed. “Me too.”

“You’re underage,” Noah’s dad reminded him.

“Which, of course, means that I’ve never had even a single sip of alcohol,” Chris said with a smile that he probably thought was charming. “But I can now see why people turn to it.”

“I promise it’s not always this awful,” Noah’s dad said to Ella, his expression tired.

“At least the food is good,” she joked after taking a bite of her vegetarian taco.

“There is that,” Asher agreed, taking a bite of his own food.

“Get out!”

Olivia’s scream was followed shortly by the sound of her bedroom door slamming, and Noah exchanged a concerned look with Riley. It appeared Olivia had found a new person to be angry at—her boyfriend.

“How’s Liv?” Chris asked Drew when he came back into the dining room.

Olivia’s boyfriend grimaced. “She’s really upset. I tried to tell her that you all love her, but she didn’t want to hear it. She said she just wants to be left alone.”

“Thank you for trying, Drew,” Edith said.

“Sure.”

He shifted on his feet and put his hands in his pockets. He had the broad shoulders of a football player, and he always looked like a giant beside Olivia, but he seemed somehow small then.

“I think I should probably head out,” he said.

After getting screamed at by his girlfriend for all to hear, Noah didn’t find it very surprising that he’d want to leave. He almost felt bad for the guy.

“Alright, well, thanks for coming,” Noah’s dad said, rising from the table to shake his hand. “Drive home safe.”

“Thank you, sir.” He turned to the rest of the table and sent them a wave. “Bye, everyone.”

“He’s such a lovely boy,” Edith said once he’d left.

Noah had to contain his eye-roll. Drew had done the bare necessity. He still wasn’t winning any awards for being an outstanding citizen.

“Who wants dessert?” his dad asked, making it clear he’d given up on their now-cold dinner. “There’s ice cream in the freezer.”

“I’ll grab the bowls,” Riley said, managing to sound very unexcited about the prospect of frozen deliciousness.

???

“That…was a trainwreck,” Noah said once he and Ella were back in the car.

“It was certainly something,” she replied.

He groaned and rested his forehead against the steering wheel. “That wasn’t at all how I wanted to introduce you to my family.”

“Hey, it could have been worse.”

He lifted his head and stared at her. “How could it have possibly been worse?”

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