Page 62 of Secret Submission

“That is quite a coincidence,” Aunt Ji-woo said, smiling at him. “I’m sure Sandra will make up for it now. She’s talked about you before, but I had forgotten your name because she calls you ‘work hubby’ all the time.”

Okay, well, now was definitely not the time to get jealous. Julie realized that she’d heard Sandra mention her ‘work hubby’ before, too. There was no harm in it. Sandra and Terry were utterly devoted to each other, and she knew it. Sandra had never talked about her work hubby in anything but friendly terms.

It was probably only bothering her a little because she was already out of sorts, knowing John was less than ten feet away, talking to her parents. No, less than less than ten feet away because, for some reason, her mom was bringing him over.

Are you fucking kidding me?

If it wasn’t for Connor standing there holding his ground, she would have walked out. And she wasn’t sure she would have come back again. Ever. There had to be an end to this. Even though she knew it was likely her parents wouldn’t have invited John today if she hadn’t been bringing Connor, the fact they were willing to do so at all made her want to scream. It had been one thing having to hear updates about his life and a whole other thing to have her mom invite him over when she knew Julie was going to be there, but this was too far.

They should have left, and she was starting to get pretty peeved that Connor had taken that decision away from her.

The only joy she got out of this moment was the slightly stunned expression on John’s face as he realized exactly how tall Connor was. Not just tall but muscular. John had always prided himself on his physique, but Connor was taller, his shoulders were wider, and his body was packed with twice as much bulky muscle as John’s.

Not the kind of thing that mattered to Julie, but it suddenly struck her that it was very much the kind of thing that would matter to John. His insecurities ran wide and deep.

“There you are,” her mother said, as if Julie had been gone for a lot longer than the five minutes they had been inside. “This is John. John, this is Connor.”

“I’m Julie’s ex-husband,” John said, seemingly recovered from his shock. He gave his widest, most charming smile as he held out his hand for Connor to shake. “I hope that’s not too awkward. When you become part of the family, it can be hard to leave that.”

“Not awkward at all,” Connor said, sounding completely sincere, despite the fact that this was incredibly awkward. “It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard about you, of course. Julie said you’re a surgeon?” She couldn’t believe that the first thing her mom had done was to introduce her current boyfriend to her ex-husband.

No, wait, scratch that. She totally believed it.

Which was why they should have left.

It was all she could do to stand there seething instead of exploding all over everyone. She was just so damn mad at all of them.

Her mom for inviting John.

John for showing up.

The rest of her family for acting like this was somehow normal.

Connor for deciding they were coming outside.

Herself for feeling like she had to stay here just because Connor wanted to.

At least her dad had had the good sense to make himself scarce once John appeared. Unlike her mom, who had decided to force the issue. Why couldn’t she just turn around and walk away right now? Yes, Connor was holding onto her hand, but he would let go if she pulled away.

But then her whole family would see her walk out, abandoning her boyfriend there.

It would be clear they weren’t working as a unit.

Her mom would see the crack between them and work even harder to push at them.

Which, if she and Connor broke up over this, she did not want it to be because of her parents. It would be because she’d decided that was the best thing to do. And she wasn’t sure yet that she wanted to break up with him over this… but was that because she truly didn’t or because she didn’t want her mom to win?

She couldn’t think. Not with everyone standing right there around her.

“Ah, yes,” John cleared his throat, looking increasingly uncomfortable, which was the only joy she was getting out of the situation. Connor’s obvious confidence in the face of meeting her ex had clearly thrown him. He’d probably expected Connor to react the way he would—with anger or insult. “Head of surgery, actually. I was just telling Sun that we might need to talk about her shoulder.” He pushed his smile back onto his lips. “It’s the least I can do for family.”

“Hopefully, surgery won’t be necessary, but I appreciate the concern,” her mom said, beaming at John as though he’d just offered her the moon. Because, of course, she did. “I don’t even know what’s wrong with it. I didn’t hit it or do anything; it just started hurting one day, and it keeps getting worse, no matter how much I rest it.”

“You didn’t injure it when that started?” Connor asked, frowning.

“No, nothing. I noticed it was sore one morning, so I started resting it, but it doesn’t seem to have helped. I can’t move it as much as I want to, but I don’t know what else to do.”

“Which is why we need to take a look and discuss surgical options,” John said pompously. At least, it sounded pompous to Julie, but her mom didn’t seem to notice, so maybe she was a little biased. Or maybe her mom was.

---