Page 26 of Not Quite Perfect

“No way.” Drew shook his head. “She’ll be crushed.”

“Tell her what?” David asked, looking between the my siblings and me.

Theo started toward the swinging door, and like always, we followed. Even among family, my oldest brother was a born leader. It had been no surprise when he’d recently been named one of the most promising young CEOs by a prominent business magazine.

Before we stepped into the kitchen, my brother turned to David and whispered, “We all hate turkey tetrazzini.”

Twelve

David

Victoriaand I had strategized how best to handle Family Dinner Night, but so far nothing was going how we’d predicted. For starters, it appeared all of her brothers knew our secret.

She’d filled me in on her conversation with Drew the morning of our parents’ wedding, and I’d told her about Alex’s “I’ll be watching” you speech just before their walk down the aisle, but Theo had been the wild card. Seemed like the only people whodidn’tknow Victoria and I were together were her mom and my dad.

At least now we could forget about a few of the rules we’d concocted for getting through the night with our secret intact. The one we still had to be careful of, however, was me not showing her any preferential treatment.

I pulled Victoria’s chair out, and as she sat, she glanced up at me and rolled her beautiful green eyes. I knew she thought this small act of chivalry was because I was in love with her, but the truth was, I would have pulled her chair out regardless. It was just good manners. My dad might not have set the best example for me growing up, but in this, he’d done well by me.

As we dug into plates piled high with gloppy, monochromatic turkey tetrazzini, the conversation flowed easily from subject to subject. Having attended a couple of these dinners already, Victoria had prepped me on what to expect. Even so, I’d anticipated the meal being more awkward. IfThe Brady Bunchhad taught us anything, it was that combining two families was never an easy thing.

But as it stood, there were no long pauses except to accommodate people’s chewing, no side glances between the Witherspoon siblings that I could discern, and no talk about religion or politics. Which was a good thing since I had a sneaking suspicion my father had voted for Trump, while every member of Victoria’s family had actively campaigned for Clinton.

All in all, it was an enjoyable meal. Except for, you know, the actual food.

Which I nearly choked on when my dad set his utensils down and pushed a remarkably empty plate aside and mentioned my love life.

“It’s been awhile since you’ve brought a woman home, son. Not since Stacia, come to think of it.”

Alex’s head shot up, his eyes mistrustful and his hand fisted around his fork. In that moment, it looked remarkably like a deadly weapon. “Stacia?”

I shot my dad a quick look that I hoped he’d be able to interpret as SHUT THE FUCK UP OLD MAN. Alas, he didn’t.

“Richard’s ex-wife.”

Next to me, Victoria reached for her glass of water while simultaneously pounding on her chest with her free hand. Drew jumped up and started slapping her on her back, while across the table, Theo leaned back in his chair, his eyes darting between his sister and me. His lips turned down in a frown. “You were married?”

I glanced at Victoria, but she refused meet my eyes. I’d never meant to hide my marriage from her, but I hadn’t been in a rush to tell her about it either. For starters, it didn’t reflect well on me, and I hadn’t wanted to scare her off. Everything was so new between us, and while I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I loved her, the truth was, we didn’t actuallyknoweach other that well.

What Ididknow was that she fervently believed in happily-ever-after. Meanwhile, I’d long operated under the assumption that it was a farce Hollywood and romance authors routinely sold to naive women.

I knew better now, of course, but I didn’t think she’d see it that way. Not when I’d already failed at the whole marriage thing once already.

Bringing my gaze back around to her brother, I reached for my wine and took a deep swallow. The food might have been terrible, but Mrs. Witherspoon—scratch that,Mrs. Carstairs—knew her chardonnay. And I needed a lot of it to bolster my confidence during the coming inquisition.

But before I could answer Theo’s question, my dad chimed in again, completely unaware of the havoc he was causing. “For two years. Never liked the woman.”

Something inside of me snapped. I’d always known he didn’t care for Stacia—he’d done nothing to hide his distaste when I’d told him we were getting married, nor his glee when I’d confessed we were getting divorced—but he had a ton of nerve airing my dirty laundry. “Which I should be thankful for, since if youhadliked Stacia, you might have married her instead of me. Although, that probably would have been for the best. Like Jenny before her, at least then she’d beyourex-wife instead of mine.”

“Who’s Jenny?” Alex barked, his eyes flashing.

To my surprise, it was Victoria who answered, her voice detached, as if she were reporting the facts of a story she was working on, and not discussing the moment I’d first learned about heartbreak. “She was David’s girlfriend in grad school.”

Alex’s jaw dropped open for a brief second, while Theo stared hard at my dad. “You stole your son’s girlfriend?”

My dad rolled his eyes. “You can’t steal someone.”

Alex sat back and crossed his arm over his chest. “No, but you can be a good person and not go after your son’s fucking girlfriend.”

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