Page 81 of Love Is Brewing

“There are some awesome BBQ places here. What’s wrong with that? Not fancy enough for you?”

“I suppose we can,” she said, crossing her eyes at his grin. “I got my sushi fix.”

“I’m just picking on you,” he said. “We can do whatever you want.”

“Since I know our options are limited back home.”

“You called it home,” he said quickly.

She paused and turned to look at him. “I guess I did.”

“I’m happy to hear that.”

“Me too,” she said. “It felt natural to say it. But as I was saying so you don’t think I’m deflecting—there aren’t a lot of options back home. Let’s get something we can’t get there.”

“We can do that,” he said. “We can do everything and anything you want.”’

“Don’t you know never to say that to a woman?” she asked, laughing.

“It’s easy to say when you’re not worried about the answer.”

26

VOLUNTEERING YOUR BOYFRIEND

“It’s nice to meet you, Elias,” Phoebe’s mother said, extending her hand.

“Elias, my parents, Tim and Grace, and my brother, Matt. You know Ben, and this is his fiancée, Eve.”

He walked to everyone, shaking hands. “Nice to meet you all too,” he said.

“We offered for Phoebe to stay with us last night but understand that she didn’t feel comfortable doing that,” her mother said.

“No,” she said. “I’ve never stayed the night here with a guy and don’t need to start now.”

“You could have stayed in the pool house,” Matt said, smirking at her.

“So you could embarrass me,” she said. “No way.”

“What am I missing?” Elias asked.

“Phoebe is afraid of the pool house,” Ben said, wiggling his eyebrows.

“I think the pool house is lovely,” Eve said. “What is there to be afraid of?”

“Ask Matt,” she said, lifting her chin.

She turned to her brother and fixed him with a stare. “Phoebe had a sleepover with five friends when she was a teen.”

“Fifteen,” she said. “My fifteenth birthday. You got to stay there with your friends all the time when you had sleepovers. The same with Ben. It was my turn.”

“Matt decided to sneak out around midnight when the lights went off,” Ben said. “He’d been watching for it.”

“You were in college,” her mother said. “How do you know?”

“Because we were texting and he told me what he was doing,” Ben said. “I might have given him some suggestions.”

She got up and went over to smack her brother’s arm. “I never knew that. I’m going to have my boyfriend beat you both up.”

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