Page 40 of Reckless

“She did?” I was genuinely surprised. And intrigued. “What did she say?”

Chloe listed some words I would never imagine leaving Hannah’s smart mouth in a public place, when Liam appeared and asked who she was talking to. She answered him and he started yelling.

“What does he want?”

“What do you think?” Chloe laughed. “He wants to talk to you.”

She passed the phone to him and even though I missed a lot of the words he was saying simply because he was three and was talking so fast, I couldn’t always distinct one word from another, I enjoyed the conversation more that I wanted to admit. At least until I heard voices coming from the front door and realized my sister, her best friend, and one more unidentified female invited themselves in. They didn’t even bother to ring the doorbell. They just walked right into the living room.

My eyes drifted to Hannah. She smiled at me. A friendly smile as always. Her calm expression changed into a disgusted one when I made a show of checking out her legs.

Good. That was what I was aiming for. I knew how to handle disgusted, disappointed, angry women.

New daily task: Keep Hannah Spencer irritated at all times.

Clementine approached and gave me a quick hug. She must have had heard Liam’s voice through the phone, because she made a confused face and sent me a questioning look before she went back to Hannah and the other woman.

“Ace?” I used the nickname I gave the little guy when he was still a baby and cut his speech off. “I have to go now. Tell your mom I will call her later, okay?”

“Okay,” Liam simply said and killed the call. He loved to press the red button and he never held a grudge when I wanted to end our conversations. I wondered if that was a guy thing or a toddler thing.

Probably a guy thing.

I glanced up and saw that my sister was looking at me with interest. I strolled over to the women and introduced myself to the one I didn’t know. She turned out to be from the catering company my mother mentioned the previous day.

“Who was that?” Clem asked and pointed at my phone. “You were talking to a child.”

I shot Hannah a quick look. I didn’t know why. I just wanted to see if she was paying attention to us. She wasn’t.

“The son of a friend of mine.”

Clem looked at me funny. She was probably sensing I tried to hide something, but our relationship was based on giving each other space to stew in our own shit undisturbed, so she didn’t push.

Hannah led the woman from the catering company to the backyard, blabbing about the wedding again.

What was with women and weddings anyway? The moment someone in their immediate circle got engaged everything started to revolve around dresses, decorations, and cakes.

“We can’t book anything because we don’t have a wedding date yet. And the wedding date depends on the venue. But we will figure something out. I know it.”

“I don’t want to burst your bubble…” the woman from the catering company started. “But finding a place to have a wedding with two hundred guests in August? I don’t see it happening. But I can promise you a great engagement party.”

I rolled my eyes at her stupid joke, then meddled without being asked for my opinion.

“We should call Madison. That is what she does for a living.” Our older sister had organized events for years now and she had helped organize a few pretty important weddings for high-profile clients. “She might know someone,” I continued.

“She never worked here, Tyler. I doubt she has any connections,” Hannah answered me glancing at Clem who ignored my suggestion.

I had no problem with Maddie’s barking and her demonstrations of superiority, but she was indeed a difficult person to deal with. She was demanding and authoritarian and Clem was not the obedient type.

We spent the next hour in the backyard. The girls talked about shit that could be decided in ten minutes. I tried not to burden my brain by accidentally remembering the difference between the types of rolls they discussed. Finally, a phone started ringing and I sincerely hoped it would put a stop to this endless procrastination.

Hannah fished her phone out. Looking down at her screen, she hesitated. Then she picked up.

“Nick. Hi.”

She walked away from us, looking happy to speak to him and I felt strangely irritated by that observation. The man was a scumbag. She deserved better. Even I had enough emotional intelligence to see that.

“That’s her boyfriend,” Clem clarified. Not to me obviously, because I already had the profound pleasure of meeting him. “If they are anything like Lucas and I when we first started dating, this conversation won’t end soon.”

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