Page 100 of One Night Only
She has a point. Damn her. Dallas and I are in love. We’re way past the defining the relationship stage, but is he my boyfriend?
I eye Tess’s glass curiously. “Is that an Aperol Spritz?”
“Yeah,” she says, smiling around her straw as she takes a sip.
“Can I have one?” I ask, fully aware that I’m deflecting.
Tess just laughs. She’s so annoying.
“I’ll make you one,” Bron says, squeezing my arm as she walks around me and down the hall toward the kitchen.
I can hear my mother regaling Dallas in the living room, showing him around where I grew up, and as nervous as I am, I can’t help but smile at the way he gives her his full attention. Dallas Shaw is insanely sweet.
“That’s Emmy at her high school graduation!”
I stop dead in my tracks, my spine stiffening as a cold chill runs through me. The photos on the mantle. Specifically my graduation photo. Oh. My. God. I turn and practically run back down the hall and into the living room, nearly tackling my mother to the floor, but it’s too late. Dallas holds the frame, and by the look on his face, he’s seen more than enough. And I want to die.
“In my defense, I was going through an emo phase,” I say, as if the girl with the black box dye, copious layers of eyeliner, and ripped fishnets staring back from the photo isn’t a glaring indicator.
Tess walks in through the archway from the kitchen,laughing out loud as she eyes the photo in Dallas’s hand. “Emmy really thought she was going to marry Pete from Fall Out Boy.”
Dallas flashes me a devious smirk and, leaning in, he pulls me close, whispering in my ear, “What is it with you and ripped tights, Goldie?”
I feel my face flush from the memory of last night, when he’d locked us in the bathroom at Starlight, ripped my tights and fucked me hard and fast against the counter. I playfully shove him, snatching the frame and placing it back on the mantle. He chuckles and grabs me around my waist from behind, kissing my neck and making me giggle, and when we turn around with me still in his arms, it’s only then that I remember Mom and Tess are both still very much here, both watching on with nearly identical expressions on their faces—Mom, mentally planning the wedding announcements, and Tess probably designing the bridesmaid dresses.
I clear my throat, reluctantly stepping away from Dallas and smoothing down my sweater. “Is that Aperol Spritz ready?” I ask, breezing past my sister and into the kitchen.
Half an hour later, we’re all in the dining room, my father sitting at one end of the long table, sipping his beer in silence, regarding Dallas with an unreadable expression on his face. At the opposite end, Dallas sits, sipping his own beer, offering my father a casual grin. It’s awkward to say the least. All I can do is stuff my face with my mother’s lasagna because maybe carbs will help quell the anxiety coursing through me.
“So, Dallas,” Mom starts. “What’s Texas like at this time of year?”
I meet Tess’s eyes across the table, and I can tell she’s wondering the same thing I am; why the hell has she suddenly acquired some sort of weird Texan accent?
Dallas looks at my mother with the kind of smile that tells meeven he’s noticed, but he’s too polite to mention it. “Actually, it’s been quite warm the last few days. It was seventy yesterday.”
“Seventy?” Tess balks, horrified. “AtChristmas?”
Dallas chuckles. “Yeah, but tomorrow it’s predicted to reach no higher than thirty-five, so it’s kind of all over the place.”
Mom nudges me. “You’ll need to pack options, Emmy.”
I nod.
“So…” Dad stretches from his end of the table, and I immediately know he’s about to embarrass me, simply by the tone in his voice.
All eyes turn to my father, waiting for him to say whatever it is he’s going to say.
“Stealing my little girl away from us on Christmas, are we?”
Dallas’s gaze flits to me before he sits up a little straighter. “Uh, well… I mean…” He scratches the back of his neck, clearly struggling. “I don’t know if we’d call itstealing.” He chuckles nervously. “I’ll be sure to bring her back in one piece.”
“Taking her away from me without even askingmypermission…” Dad arches a brow.
Again, Dallas looks at me like I’m his lifeline.
I roll my eyes, glaring at my father, but Tess speaks before I can.
“He’s taking her to Texas for three days, Dad,” my sister says with a derisive snort in Dad’s direction. “They’re hardly running off to Vegas to get married by an Elvis impersonator.” But right at that moment, as if she’s just realized something, Tess sucks in a breath, her head spinning so fast it’s like that scene from theExorcistas she spears me with an incredulous look. “Please tell me this is all a ploy and you’re secretly going to Vegas to elope.”
