Page 128 of The One I Hate
Simon: I know. I’ll tell her. Soon.
Emmett: You better, because I’m tired of lying for your ass.
Simon: I will.
Emmett: I’ll believe it when I see it.
“You okay?”
I hurry and put the phone into the pocket of my bright pink suit—yes, the suit from Oliver and Izzy’s reception—as I turn to Charlie. She, as to not give it away that we know the gender, is wearing a baby blue dress that hugs her curves, and baby bump, perfectly. The color matches her eyes, and along with her now strawberry blonde hair, I don’t know how she could look more beautiful.
“Yeah.” I pull her into me, taking the opportunity to steal a kiss. “Just putting out a fire.”
She gives me another concerned look, but I take that away with another kiss. The only problem is, this kiss doesn’t stop. I didn’t mean for it to keep going. But what started as an innocent peck to deflect is quickly turning into a heated one that is two seconds away from us needing to sneak into a broom closet.
“Watch it. Children are here. They don’t need to see how the baby was made.”
We pull away, guilty looks covering our faces, as we turn to Connor and Lila.
“Sorry,” Charlie says, quickly trying to fix her red lipstick that I’m sure I smeared. “Are you both having a good time?”
“Yes!” Lila claps. “I was playing with Jayce.”
“That’s fun,” I say, kneeling down to her level. “You know, that’s my nephew. His mommy is my sister.”
“Wow, really? He’s my boyfriend!”
I nearly choke on my own spit. Charlie can’t hold in her holler. And as I sneak a peek at Connor, his eyes are about to bulge out of his head.
Charlie steps forward and takes Lila’s hand, still stifling her laugh. “How fun is that? Can you introduce me to him?”
Lila doesn’t think twice as she leads Charlie away. I stand up next to Connor and give him a pat on the back. “Welcome to the family.”
“I never thought you’d be in my family, let alone my daughter furthering the ties.”
We chuckle and go take a seat, which gives me a view of the entire banquet hall. The band I hired has kept everyone on the dance floor all night. The betting tables have been busy as people have been placing their wagers on the gender, the date of birth, and the other prop bets we’ve put in place, like whether or not I’m going to pass out in the delivery room and how long Charlie will be in labor.
But the best part of all? Everyone in my and Charlie’s life who means anything to us is here. My entire crew of friends and their children; my whole family, including Maeve and Jayce, Stella and her fiancé Duncan, Ainsley, and even my sister Quinn came in from Arizona; and of course, the people in town who are like family. Mona took a break from her retirement travels to be here. Regulars from the diner are here. The icing on the cake for Charlie was that Connor and Lila made it down from Nashville.
“Thanks for being here,” I say to him. “I know how much it means to Charlie.”
“We wouldn’t have missed it.”
There’s a pause in his words, and I feel like he wants to say more.
“Let me have it,” I say, helping him along.
“Have what?”
“You paused, which usually means there was a ‘but’ coming. Or in this case, whatever it is you’ve been dying to say to me for months now.”
Connor chuckles as he sits back and crosses his foot over his knee. “There were days back then that Charlie never stopped crying. If you didn’t know, one would have guessed it was because Mom was dying. But I knew it wasn’t just because of that. And sometimes it wasn’t because of that at all.”
“I wish I knew,” I say. “Believe me, I tried to reach out. I wanted to talk to her. I hated how things were left.”
“I know. Well, I know that now. But that doesn’t change the fact that for years I thought you were the asshole who broke my sister’s heart.”
“I get it,” I say, nodding to where my sisters are all out on the dance floor, dancing to a cover of a popular song from our youth that they used to drive me insane with. “If I knew any man fucked with my sisters, hating them would be the bare minimum of my feelings toward them.”
