Page 83 of The One I Love
“Won’t he start asking questions if you’re engaged too long?” Wes asks.
“I see him twice a year, when he remembers he’s a father. Let’s cross that bridge when we get there.”
“Easy enough,” Shane says as he puts his arm around me. “Do you want me to propose?”
I shake my head. “Save it for the real thing, okay?”
“Gladly.”
Shane comes in for a kiss, which is met with immediate boos and Simon telling us to get a room.
“Get used to it, guys,” Shane says. “I’m not about to stop kissing her.”
I smile as I lean into his hold.
“While this is all sweet and everything, there’s one more thing,” Wes says.
“What?”
“We forgot the biggest problem.”
“What’s that? We figured out the engagement. What else is there?”
Wes looks at all of us with a distressed look. “When, and more importantly how, are we telling Oliver?”
Chapter 25
Shane
“Okay,let’s go over the plan one more time.”
Luke, Mariah, and I all nod our heads at Amelia, who is doing her best impression of a coach getting her team ready for a game.
“I’m lurking around and making sure no one is talking about the engagement,” Luke says.
“Good. And if anyone asks either of you if it’s true, you say?—?”
“It’s Rolling Hills. Do you really think you’d be hearing about my mom and Shane getting married like this?”
“Perfect.” Amelia turns to Mariah. “And you?”
“I’m finding out if Magnolia knows. If she does, I’m shutting it down. And quick.”
“Good. That girl is a loose cannon we need to control.”
I can’t help but laugh, but it’s true. Magnolia will say what’s on her mind on any given day, let alone on a day and a party all about her.
“What about you?”
“To make sure our friends don’t do stupid shit. Or giveanything away. Which again, I don’t know how I’m supposed to stop that.”
Amelia shakes her head. “I don’t care. Bribe them. Pay them off. I don’t want Oliver feeling bad that he doesn’t know, so we need to be the ones to tell him. And we need to do this somewhat discreetly since it looks like half of Rolling Hills is at this party.”
We all break our huddle and damn, Amelia’s right. Sometime in the last ten minutes I think every kid going into first grade at Rolling Hills Elementary has arrived at Wes’s house. Then again, this is the birthday party of the year—or so Magnolia said when we got here today to help Wes and Betsy finish setting up. There’s a bounce house, a face painting station, the swimming pool, and in a little bit, Disney princesses are going to be here.
If this is Magnolia’s party when she turns seven, I can’t imagine what it will be like when she’s sixteen.
“There they are,” Simon says as he saunters in, drink already in hand. “Rolling Hills’ newest couple.”
