Page 99 of The One I Hate
“Be mean and snarky to them?”
“Might work on my dad.” This makes her laugh, and I give her leg one more squeeze before taking her hand. “You’re going to be fine. My parents are going to love you. I guarantee you’ll be picking out baby names with my mom by the end of the night.”
Charlie quickly turns to face me, and from the quick glimpse I take, my words have not reassured her. “Simon. What are we going to say when they ask us how this happened? We can’t tell them that we were both drunk and hate-fucked.”
“Hate-fucked is a little drastic. I prefer to say angry-banged.”
“This is not the time for jokes, Simon! This is serious.”
I turn my car into the driveway and put it in park. “We’re going to say the truth. That we knew each other in college. We recently reconnected. The rest is history.”
I lean in and place a soft kiss to her forehead. “Ready to meet the parents?”
She lets out a deep breath. “Can I say no?”
“Nope.” I hurry and exit the car, running to the other side to help her out. She yelled at me yesterday when I did this, saying she could do it on her own just fine. Today nothing.
Damn, she really is nervous.
“This place is huge,” she says, staring slack jawed at my parent’s six-bedroom house on the outskirts of Rolling Hills.
“It’s just a house.” I do my best to calm her nerves, remembering that our difference in tax brackets has alwaysworried her. The only problem with me calming her is that no one is calming me. Especially when I realize that there are extra cars here.
“Fuck…”
“What?”
I squeeze her hand. “I’m so sorry for what’s about to happen.”
As soon as we walk into the front door, I hear voices down the hall in the living room. As we walk closer, my suspicions are confirmed.
The whole damn fam is here.
Chants of “Oh my God!” and “She’s real!” fill the air as three of my four sisters rush over to us.
“Hi. I’m Ainsley.” As this sister does, she wraps Charlie into a hug that she didn’t get a choice about. She’s a hugger. “Oh my gosh, you are absolutely stunning. I’m going to need the shade of that lipstick immediately.”
“Um…it’s red?” Charlie replies as she tries to get her bearings once Ainsley lets her go.
“Sorry, she’s a little overeager.” This comes from the baby of the family, Stella. “But for real, that lipstick is great.”
“Y’all, back off. Give the poor girl some room.”
I look to Charlie and watch every ounce of color drain from her face as she sees Maeve for the first time. Yes, we’ve all grown and changed over the past fifteen years, but Maeve has perfected how to get older yet still look exactly how she did in her twenties. And that’s even with having a kid.
“Hey, Charlie,” Maeve says.
“Hi, Maeve.”
The two stare at each other for a beat before Maeve leans in and whispers something in Charlie’s ear. I can’t hear what it is, but it visibly relaxes Charlie, judging by her loosening the death grip on my hand.
Maeve makes her way to me and brings me in for a hug.
“Did you all drive in from Nashville?” I whisper.
“Of course. Did you think we were going to miss this? Not a chance.”
“Now now, we can all get to know each other over dinner. Which is ready.” Mom comes over and snags Charlie away from me, looping their arms together as she leads her to the dining room. “Girls, go pull everything out of the warmers. Charlie, I’m Demetria, but you can call me Demi. Oh! Maybe the baby can call me DiDi!”
