Page 27 of Shameless
Somehow he fit in there, and my heart was stirred.
I went to grab him a bottle of water as the weather was hot, and Ava came up beside me and said, “So you’re marrying nobility, sis. Does he know how you dated half the boys in high school?”
I flinched. The major difference between me and the fictional characters I idolized was that I was way more discerning when it came to whom I brought home.
I met my sister’s gaze and asked, “You actually believed those lies?”
She smiled, seeming very relaxed. “You never denied it before.”
“You never asked me about anything.”
“I was always dealing with the fires you started.”
“You were the one that cared what people thought about you. Why did you do drugs that night?”
She flinched. “You never asked.”
“Ha. I already said that to you.”
She closed her eyes. “I had all this pressure to be perfect, and you acted like my life didn’t matter, ever.”
“It just wasn’t my life.” I hugged my waist as I stood taller. “When you’re known as the bad sister, you don’t get much of a defense.”
She sighed. “Why were we always fighting as kids? You’re pretty honest, which is pretty rare in this world.”
Since Ava wasn’t letting up, I met her gaze and refused to blink. “Because you were perfect, and there was no competition for that. So all I had was the head on my shoulders.”
She shook her head. “You were the smart one even when we were little. I had to work to get the grades that you could have gotten while sleeping.”
My eyes widened. I’d never thought about Ava looking at me in any positive way after I’d found out she snorted drugs with some band member’s guitar’s pick. “That’s not true.”
But I wasn’t the one who tried anything other than alcohol, socially.
She was still perfect, her blond hair in a bun as she watched her children. “It is. It’s how you became as successful as you are and how you’re now dating a gorgeous man like that.”
Michael glanced at me, and my heart thundered. He was wonderful and super down-to-earth. I served a round of burgers to the children. Ava’s husband was making the plates and manning the condiments.
“Billy’s nice,” I said.
She shrugged. “Billy’s a good guy. He’s my best friend since forever, but yours is right out of a fantasy. He even speaks like Mr. Darcy.”
I giggled and warmed as I said, “We watched that together, didn’t we?”
“We did though I preferred Mr. Knightly in Emma as they were friends first.”
So maybe my home life wasn’t as bad as I remembered. I had just been out of place. I took a deep breath and realized Ava could be more like one of my friends. “I’m more nervous about meeting his parents as I have visions of disapproving royals who might want my head for stealing one of their theirs from them.”
She held up my hand and said, “Even if they turn out to be like Lady Catherine de Bourgh, so what? You’ve got the ring on your hand, and you can just steal him back to America, where they’ll never see him again.”
A full laugh escaped me as I imagined that very scene from the miniseries with me instead. Tears formed in my eyes, and I shook my head and said, “Stop! But maybe you’re right.”
She side hugged me. “Relax. I’m sure it’s not going to be that bad. She can’t be half as passive-aggressive as our mom.”
I asked her, “So why did you start being nice to me just now?”
She stood taller, and as she spoke, I felt like we were transported back to being children sitting together in the living room.
“I… am proud of everything you do in New York,” she said. “When my kids are high on sugar and my husband’s sitting around, drinking a beer and watching the games with our dad, I sometimes fantasized about leaving all this and running to you as you’re clearly fancy now.”
