Page 59 of Secret Submission

“Aaaaah!” Out of the crowd, Sandra—Sandra from his work, his work wife Sandra—suddenly jumped in front of both of them, pointing at Connor. Then her finger swung to point at Julie as she let out a second cry. “Aaaaah!”

Now it was Connor’s turn for the jaw drop as he stared at his coworker.

“Sandra?”

Her finger swung back around to him.

“Aaaaaah!”

Julie stepped forward, batting Sandra’s pointing finger away.

“Would you stop that?!”

Instead, Sandra swung around to glare at an older woman, pointing at her. She blinked in surprise.

“You said Jules’ boyfriend’s last name was Connor!” It was a clear accusation of misinformation.

“I thought it was!” The older woman turned to look at another couple, a man and a woman who looked an awful lot like Julie with just a few more wrinkles and grey hair. Her arm was in a sling. “You said his last name was Connor.”

“Of course I did. What kind of first name is Connor?” The woman with her arm in a sling frowned at him. Julie slapped her forehead with her own palm.

“Oh my God, Mom. You set the aunties and cousins on him, and you couldn’t even get the name right?” Julie groaned, shaking her head before lifting it. “And it’s a pretty common first name.”

Ah, shit. Those were Julie’s parents. So much for a good first impression. But Sandra was Julie’s cousin, apparently, so maybe she could put in a good word for him. If she wanted to. Right now, she had her hands on her hips and was glaring at him.

He looked down at her.

“Um. Hi?”

“You’re dating my cousin, and you didn’t tell me?!” She was five feet of total outrage, demanding his focus, which meant he couldn’t pay attention to what Julie and her mom were arguing about. Not that he wanted to be part of an argument about his name. That seemed like something he could let her handle for him.

“In my defense, I didn’t know until just this moment that she’s your cousin. I told you I was dating a Julie.” If he’d given her a last name, she wouldn’t have even needed to look it up on the internet. And she might have told her mom, who would have told Julie’s parents before Julie had the chance to. So, he wasn’t exactly sad at how things had worked out. “You didn’t think to mention you had a cousin named Julie?”

Sandra threw her hands up in the air in obvious frustration.

“We call her Jules! And Julie is a super common name! And… well, Jules never dates anyone, so why would I think she was dating you? Argh!” She stomped her foot in frustration as her husband, Terry, who Connor had met a couple of times, came up behind her. Tall with dark blond hair, he must have been inside or tucked away in a corner when Connor first came into the backyard. If he’d seen Terry, he would have realized Sandra was around somewhere.

“Hey, man, welcome to the family,” Terry said cheerfully, a mischievous glint in his eye as he reached out a hand for Connor to take. They clasped hands for just a moment while Sandra elbowed her husband in the side.

“Hey, now, don’t scare him off. Jules finally brought someone around. We need to keep him.” She brightened. “Plus, if they do get married, we’ll be related!”

“Now, who’s going to scare him off?” Terry laughed, and Sandra scowled at him.

She didn’t get a chance to respond, though, before Julie turned back to them, her parents beside her. The tension in her body was clear; she held herself stiffly. To Sandra’s credit, she immediately moved away, saying something to Terry that had him nodding as they went.

“Connor, these are my parents, Sun and Daniel.” Her smile was a little strained, but she moved back to his side so she could face her parents while holding his hand. “Mom, Dad, this is Connor.”

“Hello, it’s so nice to meet you,” Connor said, putting his hand out. He wasn’t sure who to put his hand to first, so he kind of put it toward their general direction. Julie’s father took it first. He was only a little taller than Julie, so he had to tilt his head back a fair amount to look up at Connor.

“Nice to meet you, Connor,” Daniel said, taking Connor’s hand in a firm grip. Connor shook it before they released, and he offered his hand to Julie’s mom. At his side, Julie had a death grip on his other hand.

Her mom really did look an awful lot like Julie, and he’d seen this exact look on Julie’s face before. Blank, not giving away anything… which meant that she was displeased but refusing to show it.

Great.

“Nice to meet you,” she said in a short, clipped voice. It didn’t sound like she actually thought it was nice, so he was glad that Julie had prepared him for her parents’ lack of welcome. At least he knew it wasn’t personal. They’d gotten to know and love her ex-husband, welcomed him to the family, and were still struggling with letting go.

Hopefully, they’d give him enough of a chance that he could get them warmed up to him.

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