Page 99 of The One I Love
“First of all, why are you keeping that boy in the dark?” Mom says. “And second, why are we in the dark? We should have been the first people you told. How long has this been going on?”
Amelia and I look at each other and nod. This part is easy. This we can tell the truth on.
“I told her how I felt in the spring,” I say.
My mom narrows her eyes. “Whenin the spring?”
I brace myself for the impact from what I’m about to say. “At Jake and Whitley’s wedding.”
I see the moment of recognition on my mom’s face. “Shane Thomas Cunningham, are you meaning to tell me that I asked you if anything happened at the wedding and you lied to my face?”
I nod, and internally wince from the use of my middle name. “I’m sorry, Mom. I promise though, at that conversation, nothing was happening. We were figuring things out.”
“How could you not tell me? And even after that, once this started? How could you keep this a secret?”
“Don’t be mad at Shane, Mrs. Cunningham. It was my idea to hide it,” Amelia says.
“Why?” Tammy asks. “You had to know we’d be excited. Even though we’re mad now, we’re happier than pigs in slop.”
“I know…it’s just….” Amelia looks at me. Her eyes are a little sad, and I get why. Our bubble has just burst wide open. I take her hand in mine, holding it on top of the table.“At first, we wanted to make sure this was the real thing. That we both felt the same way for each other. We didn’t want to tell people, and then quickly realize that we weren’t compatible.”
“But clearly you are.” Tammy makes a gesture to our joined hands. And the fake engagement ring. “So why the secrecy after? And how do you not tell us you’re engaged?”
“Because we wanted some time to ourselves,” Amelia says. “I know that was probably selfish, but we knew what the reaction was going to be.”
“Reaction? Do you think we’d have a reaction?”
Amelia looks at me, and if she’s wondering if this is a trick question, we’re on the same page. “Mom, in second grade you made sure that I had a special card for Shane for Valentine’s Day because the ‘cheap ones weren’t good enough for my future husband.’”
“You two dressed us up in couples Halloween costumes until we were five, and you only stopped because Amelia refused to wear another princess dress,” I add. “Can you blame us for wanting to delay the freakout?”
Mom and Tammy look at each other, their faces still blank. I’m holding my breath, and I’m pretty sure Amelia is too. We don’t have to do it for long though, because our mother’s faces turn from angry to the happiest I’ve ever seen in a blink of an eye.
“This has been my dream, our dream, for so long,” Mom says as she reaches over to grab my hand.
“When you had to marry Paul, I knew it was the right thing at the time,” Tammy says to Amelia. “But in my heart I always wanted it to be Shane for you.”
“Thanks?” Amelia says. “We’re very happy, but you need to know something about the engagement.”
“Yes, the engagement. We want to hear all about that later,” Tammy says as she stands up out of the booth. “But not now. We have so much to do.”
“What is there to do?” I ask. “Because we’d really like to talk to you both more about it. Now.”
“Oh, Shane, you just sit back and be the groom. Which means show up when we, or Amelia, tell you.”
“Um, but we need to tell you something.”
Amelia and I quickly jump out of the booth. We need to stop them.
“It can wait,” Mom says. “We have to start making calls.”
“I’ll get a hold of Whitley,” Tammy says. “So nice now to have an event planner as a daughter-in-law.”
“Good. And I’ll go find that binder we started making a few years ago. It has all the samples of things we liked.”
“Binder?” Amelia asks with a touch of panic in her voice. “Mom, Mrs. Cunningham?—”
“Oh Amelia. Cut that Mrs. Cunningham crap. You’re about to be my daughter. You call me Barb. Or Mom. Whatever you like. Hopefully soon it will be Gigi.”
