She was glad Max finally figured out how annoying Hunter could be. He’d thought she’d been exaggerating until he experienced the full-on douche-baggery himself.
“Wait. Back up.” Emily held up a hand. “What girlfriend?” she scoffed.
“Jayde.” Hunter stared hard at both of them. “Remember: Jayde?”
Emily looked at Max. “Do you know a Jayde, Bae?”
Max shrugged. “Never heard of her.”
She cocked her head. “Is she real, Hunter? Or is this another one of your online ‘girlfriends’?”
Hunter frowned. “She’s real.”
“Then why don’t I remember meeting her?”
“Well—”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” She turned her back on her perjuring brother. He wasn’t worth her time. “Open the package. Let’s see the ad copy. I’ll bet it turned out amazing. You were lucky they had record snow up at Snowshoe in February. Perfect setting to help relaunch their Alaskan cruises.”
Max looked through the proofs. “Still wish we could’ve flown to Norway for that.”
“The fjords?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe next time, Bae.”
They both paused to look at the best photo of the bunch: Ruby in full arctic gear on a pair of skis wearing reflective sunglasses with her auburn hair glinting in the sun with the tagline:MacPherson? MacFearless. Our Alaskan cruises aren’t for the faint of heart.
“Hey, I’ll prove to you she’s real.” Hunter scrolled frantically through his phone. “Her brother’s getting married, see?”
“Uh-huh.” Hunter managed to increase his annoy-a-sister score to an eight out of ten.
“No, he is. Really.” He scrolled some more.
When did Hunter care so much about her opinion? He seemed overly distraught about proving this Jayde person existed.
Her brother gave a shaky laugh. “Here.” He held up his phone and a wedding website appeared. “Jayden Thomas and Iris Bickler. Wedding. Next month.”
Emily took the phone and stared at the page. “Jayde and Jayden? You’re kidding right? Their parents named them Jayde and Jayden.” She slid her gaze to Max and suppressed a grin.
“How does this prove you’re dating her?” Max asked the obvious.
Hunter tucked his polo shirt into his jeans. “Okay, well, she invited me to be her date for the wedding.” He snatched the phone back, and his finger brushed up on the screen in a violent fashion.
“Since when were you going to a wedding?” She pursed her lips. “Mom would’ve been all over that—making sure you had the right thing to wear, wanting to know what the colors were for the wedding, asking about this Jayde person. She hasn’t said a thing.”
Hunter, who never got embarrassed even when he should be, turned bright red. “Well, that’s because—”
“Because what?” Emily jacked up a brow.
“Because I wasn’t going to go,” he said quietly.
She burst out laughing. “So this Jayde person isn’t your girlfriend then.” She turned back to the plate of ribs and swapped out the wilting parsley for a fresh sprig.
“She is.”
“Prove it.” Emily crossed her arms, parsley crushed. “Call her up, right now, and tell her you’ll happily be her date for the wedding.”