Page 95 of Veiled in Brick

“What should I introduce myself as?”

I unintentionally jerked my grip as I steered to the right, a car behind us honked angrily, and Liam splayed his napkin-laden hand on the window to secure himself in his seat.

Claire snorted loudly from behind us and as Luke cleared his throat, I whipped my gaze to meet both of theirs in the rearview mirror. Luke’s eyes met mine briefly, and he darted his focus all around, all the while blinking as if our glance at each other was entirely by chance. Claire, however, had raised a single brow in challenge as if to say, ‘Well, the man asked you a question, Zoey. Go ahead—answer.’

“To, um—to my parents?” I asked Liam.

“Uh huh.” He took a bite of his blackened fish taco.

“Er—”

“Hi, I’m Zoey’s boyfriend?” Claire offered.

Liam coughed loudly, dropped the taco back into the foil in his lap, and pounded his chest with a fist as he attempted to clear his throat.

I shrieked, “Claire!”

Luke laughed, speaking more to Claire than myself and Liam, “Hi, I’m the guy that’s been screwing your daughter.”

“Oh my God,” Liam hoarsely muttered to himself, throat stripped but finally able to speak, and craned his neck to glare at Luke. “What the fuck, man?”

“What?” Luke returned in a guileless tone. “They’ll be thinking it.”

“Luke!” Claire admonished him, though her giggle at his comment softened the blow.

“Why did you have to say that?” Liam whined. “I wasn’t worried before, but now I am.”

Luke smiled devilishly. “I’m on edge from lack of sleep—which, coincidentally, is your fault. Revenge is so sweet.” He continued offhandedly, his voice alight with humor, “Just tell them that you’re not very big on semantics, but she’s living with you for the time being, so…y’know…whatever that means.”

“I—do we have to talk about that?!” Liam questioned the entire group nervously.

“You don’t have to say anything,” I reassured him. “They’re not gonna ask and it’s beside the point because it’s temporary,” I stressed the last word, narrowing my eyes at Luke and Claire in the rearview mirror, and then placed my gaze back on Liam. “You’re Liam—just introduce yourself as Liam.”

Liam wrapped up the remainder of his meal and threw it into the bag, groaning, “God dammit, Luke.”

I checked my blindspots around me as I changed lanes, and then reached to grab my phone from the cup holder beside me.

“Okay, speaking of, I should probably give my mom an ETA. Let her know we have one more for dinner.”

I selected her number on my call history and set it to speaker. Instead of a typical ringing, we were all blessed with the sound of Sir Mix-a-Lot making bold claims regarding his anaconda and whether or not it would be pleased with a bunless lady.

“Is that a fucking ringback tone?” Claire asked in disbelief.

Luke stated, “I thought they discontinued those.”

“Chris has her ways,” I told them both.

“My loving daughter!” My mother announced herself through the speaker in such a way that I could see the smile in her eyes. “You’re late.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” I replied. “We’re a little less than an hour out.”

“Sounds good!” she trilled. “You got the redhead with you?”

“Hello, Chris!” Claire called from behind me.

She sighed wistfully. “My stepchild, so happy you’re coming. Did you bring your play thing?”

“My play thing?” Claire chuckled.

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