Page 118 of Pretend You Love Me
“I didn’t.” I march down the stairs. I’m completely ignoring Kip, and I instead make a beeline for Will. When I reach him, I grab his arm.
“Hey Will, can I speak with you?” I jerk his arm. “Privately.”
I pull him over to the side of the house.
“Did you tell him?” I whisper-hiss.
“No, you asked me not to,” he whispers back.
“But you invited him here instead? What the hell, Will?”
He just shrugs. “You need to tell him.”
“You’re such a dick. You know...”
I shut my mouth quickly as James walks up.
“You didn’t know?” he asks.
“No. I didn’t.” I’m glaring at Will.
James’ eyes flash over to Will. “You told me she knew.”
“I lied.”
James takes a big breath in through his nose and then says, “Well, we aren’t kicking him out.”
I throw my hands up. “What?”
“I’m not kicking him out. It’s Christmas. Where’s he going to go?”
“It’s not literally Christmas Day. He could find a flight home.”
James just looks at me with displeasure. “I’m not kicking him out. That’s mean.”
“Well this is mean to me,” I grump and then storm back into the house. Kip is still standing outside the car just looking around confused.
Well, I’ll just ignore him. Jokes on them, I’m really good at ignoring people.
I take off my coat and hat and hang them up. Everyone else comes inside. I follow them into the kitchen. Zadie and Ethan are cooking. Ethan is wearing Micah in a baby carrier strapped to his chest as he minces garlic.
“Oh, my god,” I say, covering my mouth. I throw up a little in my mouth as soon as the smell of cooking meat hits my nostrils. Everyone stops what they are doing to look at me.
“What are you cooking?” I’m really struggling not to throw up.
“Meatballs. We always have them on Christmas Eve or Christmas Eve Eve depending on the year.” Zadie is wiping her hands on her apron and looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. I gag a little when she saysmeatballs. Declan catches my eyes and says, “Brooklyn is vegetarian now.”
I just nod. I’m afraid if I open my mouth I’ll barf.
“What?” Zadie throws up her hands. “Since when?”
“Around Thanksgiving,” I croak out.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me? I don’t have vegetarian substitutions. If you’d let me known, I could have...”
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. I’ll just eat around it.”
“I’ll pull out some tomato sauce before I put in the meatballs and then...”
