Page 85 of The One I Love
“Wait, what?” Amelia says. “You hit Paul? I always thought it was Shane who hit him.”
Simon gets a smug look on his face. “Oh Amelia. When are you going to learn that this guy isn’t the knight in shining armor? It’s been me all along.”
Simon gives me a pat on the shoulder, then kisses Amelia on the cheek before he walks away.
“He’s really the one who hit Paul?”
I nod. “He was. I didn’t even know he did it when it happened. Apparently after we got you out of the bar, Simon went back. The story goes that he walked in, tapped him on the shoulder, then laid him out.”
“Wow,” Amelia says. “Maybe Simon’s right. Maybe he has been my Prince Charming?”
I pull her in, choosing at this moment to not care who sees us. “Don’t you dare.”
She smiles up at me, a smile that I know has a promise attached to it for later. “I wouldn’t dare.”
“Break it up, kiddos, the eagle has landed.”
Simon’s words break us apart as we watch as Oliver and Izzy walking into the party. They only get a few steps inside before Magnolia runs over and seemingly steals Izzy.
“Are we ready?” Amelia asks.
“As we’ll ever be.”
“He’s alive!” Simon exclaims, handing Oliver a beer as he makes his way to us. “We thought you went dark again on us.”
“Sorry. Just been a little hectic after we got back.”
“How’d it go?” I ask.
“Good,” Oliver says. “Well, not good. But good.”
“You’re going to have to use more words than that,” Amelia says.
It’s at that moment I see Oliver look at us a little funny. I’m not touching her, and she’s not touching me. Are we standing too close? I don’t feel like we are, but maybe?
I slightly take a step away from Amelia as Oliver recounts their time in Nebraska for Izzy’s father’s funeral. The main takeaway: Izzy’s family is horrible.
Soon, Wes and Betsy come and join us, both of them looking worse for the wear.
“Are you two okay?” Amelia asks.
“No,” Wes says. “Kids are exhausting.”
Betsy falls into one of the chairs. By the looks of it, she might not get back up. “Be a nanny, they said…it will be fun, they said…They didn’t tell you that you might fall in love with your boss and then have to be a bonus mom and plan extravagant birthday parties.”
“Hey, you’re the one who said we needed face painting. This was after you already convinced me to hire princesses.”
Betsy snaps her head to Wes and shoots daggers at him. “Wes. I love you. I love the kids. But right now I’m going to need you to stop using my own actions against me and just support me when I’m ignoring the problem that I created.”
We all laugh as we take seats on the patio, away from the chaos. Amelia and I sit next to each other, but since I can see Oliver trying to catch glances at us, I do my best to keep a little distance. As we all find seats, Emerson comes over and plops into the seat I’m assuming Oliver left for Izzy.
“You okay, Em?” Betsy asks.
“I just need five minutes,” she says through her heavy breaths. “Five minutes away from the kids. I just…I need this.”
“Who says you can sit at the big kids table?” Simon teases. Except I’m not laughing at Simon. I’m laughing at the look of death he’s now receiving from Emerson.
“I’m a teenager now. I’ve earned my place in this circle. Plus I don’t see you taking a turn as event coordinator.”
