Page 38 of If This Was a Movie

“So you’re going to go for it,” Sloane says with a smile, now understanding.

“I’m going to go for it,” I say with a nod. “But she’s scared, and I’m afraid if I go too hard, I’ll scare her off. So for now, I’ve convinced her to pretend we’re a thing as a favor to me, to help with Sophie’s wish.”

“Ooh, good call. She says no, she’s ruining Christmas magic,” Sutton says, nodding.

“So what’s your plan?” Sloane asks.

“What?”

‘Your plan of attack. How are you going to convince her to stay forever?”

“I don’t think I should be?—”

“She swore off men because of you, you know,” Sutton says, instantly quieting my protests.

“What?”

“I got drinks with her and Claire a while ago. She told me this whole story about this guy she met, thought he was it. Her romantic comedy come to life.” My gut drops knowing where this is going now that I’ve got the full picture. “Then she saw him out and about with his wife and kid.”

“It was Sloane! I don’t have a wife!”

“I know that dumbass. I’m just saying, that was…it was her final straw, according to her. She’s had some shit luck with men, and I think there’s some daddy issues there, too. She decided it’s not worth her time. Dating. Men. The whole nine.”

There’s silence as I take that in before my mother cheerfully says, “So now it’s your job to fix it.”

“I’m sorry?”

“You messed it up, now it's your job to fix it. Show her she wasn’t wrong to believe in whatever is so very clearly sparking between you two.” I open my mouth, and she says, “No, not that I want to know about any of that, Nathan Donovan.”

“So again, I ask what you’re going to do to convince her to stay forever?” Sloane asks, bored with the subject.

“Well, for one, I’m not going to try and get her to stay forever,” I say with a shake of my head. I just want her to give me a chance to make things right. Maybe if we got past that first hurdle, we could take things further, but step one is getting her to trust me and trust in me again.

“Why not?” Sutton asks, aghast.

“Uh, because she’s an adult with her own thoughts and feelings.”

“Shmoughts and shmeelings, Nate. She’s your dream girl, and she’s Sophie’s Christmas wish! It’s meant to be,” my mom says with a wave of her hand.

“Mom—”

“No, listen to me. You’re telling me your daughter makes some obscure Christmas wish out of the blue when she has never once told any of us that’s something she wants and you walk out to find exactly that and it’s not some miracle?”

I sigh, reluctant to agree, even though that same thought kept me up half the night. I just know if I do, my mom and my sisters will never stop pushing.

“I want to keep things easy. Yes, I like her, yes, she’s the girl I thought I’d lost, but she’s also incredibly hesitant, and it’s not just my emotions at play here. If I bring her into the fold, it’s her emotions and Sophie’s.”

“Okay, so what’s your plan?” Sloane says impatiently, and I groan. Maybe this was a terrible idea. I should have known better than to think my family would be levelheaded in any sense of the word. “Look, I get it and I agree—we should play things safe. But you need a plan.”

“You can’t fuck this up, Donovan,” Sutton says. “Or you’re going to have all of us on your ass. Even Sophie.”

“She’s right, Nate. I’m going to be very disappointed if you fumble this,” my mom says.

“Why can’t I have been born into a normal fucking family?”

“If you were, you wouldn’t have Jules sleeping under your roof right now, would you? You can thank Claire for that.”

She has a point, though I don’t want to give it to her. Long moments pass before finally, I let out a sigh in resignation. “Fine. What do I do?”

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