Page 66 of Say the Words
They took my answer as a promise and tore back down the stairs and into the yard. Hopefully, I could hold off whatever destruction they had in mind until after the Queen Mother of all awkward family dinners.
I leaned against the stair rail, wishing I could pause time. I wanted to believe my pop’s intentions had been pure when he invited Ty to join us for dinner, but I suspected he was trying to throw some of the attention off his lady friend.
Marilyn.
Anxiety and a newfound spite curled through me but dissolved again when Wade’s wife, Annie, walked through the front door.
“Annie, you are absolutely—”
She raised a hand. “Don’t say it, I know. I’m massive. I’m about to pop. I look like I swallowed a watermelon. I’ve heard it all.”
I gave my sister-in-law a hug from the side. Annie’s pregnant belly stood out front and center these days, but that’s not what I noticed first. “I was going to say you’re glowing.”
Her mouth twisted like I was trying to sell her something.
“It’s true. When I saw you a couple of months ago, you were still a little green.”
“I’m glad that’s over, I guess. Now everybody thinks they can tell me how big I am, like the pregnant woman doesn’t know she’s monstrous.”
“You’re not monstrous.” My oldest brother, Wade, walked in the house carrying two bags I assumed were filled with a combination of diapers, extra clothes, and toys. “You are a glorious vision. Anybody who says different can come see me, and I’ll set them straight.”
He set the bags down, wrapped his arms around his wife, and gave her a luxurious kiss.
“You’ve never looked better to me,” he murmured. She smiled up at him, apparently mollified.
I found their loving display equal parts adorable and sickening. Ten years married and they still looked at each other like infatuated newlyweds. Their relationship set a little ache of longing in my heart, even if I’d never admit it to my brother.
Wade turned to me and gave me a quick hug, patting my back too hard. “How have you been, Junebug? I heard you took a job as a hand on Hardy’s ranch.”
I rolled my eyes. Jed would go blabbing around to Wade. Apparently, I was the only one left out of the family loop. Of course, I was the only one living forty miles away in Austin. “Not quite.”
“But you have been doing work for him, have I got that right?”
I hesitated, knowing how this would go. My brothers weren’t overly protective of me, but they always had their radar up for anything that might prove embarrassing. The more embarrassment they could heap on, the better. “It’s a long story.”
Jed wandered into the living room like he’d been waiting around for his cue. “Ty got kicked by one of his horses, and June’s been trying to stop him from working himself into the grave ever since.”
I would sprain my eyeballs from rolling them so much tonight. “I guess it’s a short story.”
“You already dated one of the Hardys,” Wade said. “After how that ended, I’m surprised you’d want to date the other one.”
I laughed off his little joke, even though it stung for all the poor judgment it implied.
Annie smacked him on the shoulder, but he didn’t seem to understand why.
“What? Someone had to say it.”
This whole dinner would be one long exercise in trying to shut my brothers up. “Ty and I aren’t dating. We’re just friends.”
Wade gave me his Oldest Brother Knows Best smile, all smug condescension. “Yeah, so were Annie and I.” He rubbed her big belly to hammer his point home.
“It’s not like that.” Frankly, I didn’t know what it was like, but denial seemed the best course of action when it came to talking to Wade and Jed.
“But Tyiscoming to dinner tonight,” Jed said with a grin.
Wade gave me another smug look. Christmas had come early for my brothers.
“Pop invited him.”
