Page 41 of Beautiful Thing

His kind words feel so foreign to me. Let’s just say Razor was never generous with the compliments. No one in my life has ever been. My mom always seems disappointed in me somehow. My dad is mostly indifferent. Thank god for my girlfriends or who knows how low down my self-concept would be after all I’ve been through.

“I…um, well…” I clear my throat, still struggling for words. In the end, I settle for, “Thank you.”

Grandma Brighton interrupts the moment. Thankfully. My attention follows the sound of her voice as she approaches us. “So Archer, what about your wedding date situation?” she asks, grabbing everyone’s attention.

All the zipping and buttoning and bundling up in the room slows to a halt. The Brighton siblings gather round, preparing towatch their oldest brother get raked over the barbecue. Archer looks around and the joy drains off his face.

Now I’m starting to understand why he was trying to rush me out the door a half hour ago. I’d almost thought we might just make it out of this house without him getting hounded about his dating life. Looks like I was wrong.

“You can’t go alone,” his mother is saying.

“Yes, Archer,” his grandmother agrees. “How would that look?”

He just scowls. “I really don’t care how it looks.”

“Weddings are a time of love,” his mother goes on. “You really need to bring a nice girl.”

“Oh, I know just the girl. I will call up an old friend of mine. Mary. You remember Mary, right? She’s the one who used to play piano at church until her arthritis got bad. Poor soul,” Archer’s grandma goes on and on, while the man’s eyes go dead. “Anyway, her granddaughter just got divorced. I’ll see if she’s free to be your date. I’m sure you’d like her. She’s awfully pretty, and she—”

“I already have a wedding date,” Archer growls, surprising all of us with his interruption.

His mom’s eyes narrow with suspicion as she slips Sky into my arms. “Who?” she asks, her undivided attention fixed on her son.

Archer scratches the back of his neck. He’s panicking now. He’s sweating. I can tell. “Sheesh. Can I keep anything to myself?”He zips up the front of his tan-colored bomber jacket.

But his mom won’t stop prying. “Of course, Archer. But it’s just that—”

“It’s me,” I blurt out. “I’m Archer’s wedding date.”

Silence falls around the room again. This time, everyone slowly turns my way.

My body freezes. I think I’m in shock.What did I just say? And why did I just say it?!

Crap. Time to run.

I hitch Sky up higher on my hip—he’s getting way too heavy to be carried around everywhere—and then I loop my arm through Archer’s. I paste on a big grin. “Good night, everyone! Thanks for dinner!”

And then I drag him out the front door and down the steps.

15

LAYLA

Archer cuts the engine once we’ve pulled into his front yard. Sky is fast asleep in the back seat. The ride across town was deafeningly silent. In fact, Archer hasn’t said a word since I dragged him out of his parents’s house.

“You’re mad…” I say dumbly from the passenger seat.

He remains silent, hands on the steering wheel as he stares forward out the windshield.

“I’m sorry.” I wince. “I shouldn’t have said what I said. I shouldn’t have lied to your family about being your wedding date.”

Still, he says nothing.

Internally, I’m kicking myself. I really should have kept my mouth shut. If I thought things were awkward before, now I’vereallyscrewed things up between us.

He just continues to give me the silent treatment. Gradually, I begin to feel annoyed and defensive.

“You know what? I’mnotsorry.” I fling off my seatbelt and twist in my seat to face him. “They were all hounding you! I could see you didn’t like it. You’re always defending me, so I defended you. And I don’t care if you’re mad, because you’realways bossing me around and saying you’re doing it to protect me. So how about a taste of your own medicine?” I’m breathless by the end of my little rant.

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