Page 94 of Third Wheel

On the way home, however, he had one more conversation to have, and that one he could do on the phone.

He started the call before starting to drive.

“Hello?” Krista’s voice was amplified through the car dashboard.

“Hey.” Zach pulled out of his parking spot and started heading home. “I just wanted to call and let you know that I just told Mom and Dad about me and Kincaid.”

“Huzzah! Finally!” Even though he couldn’t see her, it wasn’t hard to imagine Krista throwing her hands in the air—or at least one hand if she was holding the phone with the other—as she cheered. “Took you long enough!”

“Yeah, yeah… a little too long, actually.”

“What does that mean?”

Since he didn’t know whether or not he still had a boyfriend, Zach wanted to prepare Krista for the possibility that Kincaid was going to dump him after this morning. It was no less agonizing going through it for a second time. Maybe a little more agonizing because his sister was a much less sympathetic listener than Brian.

“Oh my God, you are such a stupid little shit sometimes,” she groaned when he got to the part about telling their parents that Amy was his girlfriend.

“Yes, just keep kicking me while I’m down, thanks.”

“Thatismy job as your sister. If I don’t tell you when you’re being a dumbass, who else is going to?”

“I can tell myself plenty, thank you.”

“Apparently not, since you’re still doing dumbass shit.”

“Anyway. I got them out of there as quickly as I could before Kincaid got home, but then as soon as they were gone, Amy started yelling at me about using her as a beard.”

Krista groaned. “Oh, no. Don’t tell me. Kincaid came homethenand heard her.”

“At the worst possible time.”

“Maybe not theworstpossible time. The worst possible time would have been if he’d come up and heard you telling Mom and Dad that Amy was your girlfriend. Hearing about it secondhand is probably less painful than hearing you actually do it. Plus, this way, Mom wasn’t there to make things even worse. And you know she could have.”

“You know, that’s a good point,” Zach admitted. He could only imagine how that would have gone down, and to be perfectly honest, it was worse. His mom definitely would have tried to get involved, both trying to understand and attempting to play peacemaker without actually understanding.

He wasn’t sure how his dad would have reacted.

Maybe by hiding in the car until it was all over.

Huh. Maybe he was more like his dad sometimes than he thought.

“I’m glad you told them, though. Maybe that’ll help make things up to Kincaid a little.”

“Fingers crossed.” Zach sighed as he pulled into his driveway. “Things probably can’t get worse, right?”

“Dude, never say that. Things can always get worse.”

“You’re such a ray of sunshine. Thanks,” he said dryly.

“You sure Mom didn’t beat you over there to reintroduce herself to Kincaid?” Krista joked, making Zach shudder.

“Don’t say that, even as a joke.” He wouldn’t put it past his mom to do something like that with the best of intentions.Crap. The likelihood of her doing something wildly outrageous to ‘welcome Kincaid to the family’ was a lot higher after today’s debacle. She was probably going to feel the need to try to make up for the misunderstanding, even though it wasn’t her fault. “Have you ever thought about the fact that our mom is the definition of chaotic good?”

“Good intentions, questionable methods? Oh, yeah. That’s her all over.”

At least he wasn’t the only one who saw it.

“I’m home. I’m going inside. Wish me luck.”

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