Page 74 of Ghosted By Texas

“Victoria Marie, what have you done?” Mrs. Mercer asked as she stood and turned to face her eldest daughter.

“What?” Victoria snapped haughtily at her mom.

“Vic, you should have told me,” Jordan stated calmly, though she didn’t bother moving from where she was mostly hidden behind the elder Mercer sibling.

“Why?” Vic asked as she turned to look at Jordan, which opened up the view for the rest of us to get a good look at her. “You’ve always been welcome to family dinners. I don’t see any need to change that now.” The eldest Mercer child turned her glare my way. “Not for anyone.”

Wow. What had I ever done to piss her off?

“Vic, I don’t know what’s going on with you, but this is just making things worse. Why would you put me in this position?” Jordan cried. Then she glanced over and the pitiful look on her face, as she noticed Austin’s arm wrapped around me, damn near made me feel sorry for her. Damn near, but I wasn’t stupid and certainly hadn’t forgotten what she’d put me and Austin through over the years.

“I’m sorry. You’ll never know how sorry I am that I interfered with things between you.” She was speaking directly to me. I nodded, because it felt like everyone expected me to acknowledge her. I wouldn’t go so far as to invite her to sit at the same table with me, but that seemed to be enough.

“Would you like to take a seat?” Mrs. Mercer asked her.

“No,” Jordan shook her head as she backed up. “I didn’t realize Austin or…” she trailed off, unable to say my name. “I didn’t realize they’d be here, or I wouldn’t have come. There’s been enough trouble from me.”

If that wasn’t the truth, I didn’t know what was. We all watched her leave before Victoria turned back to face her family.

“What?” She asked, as if she didn’t already know the answer to that question. Her brother stood up from the table and I felt the lack of his warmth as his hand trailed away from my back.

“You knew that Becs would be here tonight.”

“So?”

“So?” Austin mocked. “So, you decided to be a complete bitch and invite Jordan without telling her we’d be here? You didn’t bother to warn me so that my pregnant girlfriend wouldn’t be upset?”

“I didn’t know you had a girlfriend anymore, pregnant or otherwise,” she replied snidely.

“You know what I mean,” he demanded. “Why would you hurt everyone this way, including Jordan?”

“It’s not like you care about Jordan anymore,” she spat at him.

“I will always care about Jordan. She’s been in my life since we were babies. I might not like her very much right now, and she won’t ever be close to me again the way we once were, and that’s partly my fault for getting too involved when I shouldn’t have, but that doesn’t mean I want to see her purposely hurt by this family.”

I couldn’t fault him for anything he had to say.

“The worst part of what you did, is that you know Becs is pregnant with my baby and stress isn’t good for pregnancy. You decided to put her in undo stress anyway all because you’re miserable with whatever is going on in your own life and you decided to take it out on everyone else. You might be the oldest, Vic, but you need to grow the fuck up!”

Austin held his hand out to me. “I promised you nothing like this would happen if I brought you to meet the rest of my family. I’ve let you down and I’m so fucking sorry. Come on, we’ll go somewhere else for dinner.”

“It’s not your fault,” I tried to calm Austin, because it wasn’t. I didn’t blame him for this latest bit of drama, and for once, I couldn’t blame Jordan for showing up either. This all fell on Victoria, who hated me for some reason.

“Why are you placating the bitch who helped you cheat on your lifelong girlfriend?” Victoria screamed at her brother.

“Jordan has never been my girlfriend and I have never cheated on anyone. Jordan had expectations that didn’t align with mine and if anything, she was the one who constantly tried to sabotage my relationships with Becs. All three times I tried to date Becs before, Jordan did everything in her power to drive her away. The crazy thing is that Jordan didn’t try to do it this time. My own fucking sister did instead.”

“She said…” Vic hesitantly tried to explain but was cut off by a voice from behind her.

“Sorry, I just realized I couldn’t leave because Vic brought me here. Victoria, the first time they dated, I was angry because he hadn’t said anything to me about our arrangement being over. It felt like he cheated on me, but that wasn’t really true, since we were never together that way. The other times, we weren’t together either. I just wanted us to be.”

“But you said…” Victoria tried to argue with her.

“No. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have misled you, I just needed someone to hear how I felt, not what was true.”

“Are you kidding me?” Victoria lashed out at her friend. “All this time, I thought my brother was doing you wrong and that woman was the one trying to ruin your relationship. Now, you’re telling me it was the other way around? I should have known, I guess, since you faked a Goddamn pregnancy to try to trick my brother.”

“Victoria,” Mr. Mercer warned his daughter. “I think we’ve all had about enough drama. You brought Jordan here on a night when you knew she wasn’t invited, you need to take her home. When you get back, you can apologize for ruining dinner and your brother’s announcement.”

---