Page 98 of Love Is Brewing

“No,” she said. “I’m not. I’m trying to understand.”

“I don’t think so,” he said. “But what do you want to understand? We’ve met each other’s parents. I know your brother fairly well. I thought things were going well between us.”

“They are,” she said. “I guess I just found it odd that your brother had to tell you to invite me.”

He sighed. “West didn’t have to tell me that. I would have asked you, but maybe I was on the fence about it like you were. We hadn’t been dating long when it came up. You have to travel out of town with me for this. You’ve got a practice to run on top of it. It could be nothing more than the timing of it and me not sure if you’d want to. Or to put pressure on you so early.”

She weighed his words.

Normally she didn’t get worked up easily.

Not over a man.

But everything with Elias seemed to rile her.

“That makes sense,” she said.

“We talked about this and how ironic it was that the wedding came up with our families at the same time, remember? You said that you were unsure about asking me since Laken’s was first.”

“I remember,” she said.

“So then it should stand to reason that I was feeling the same way.”

She smiled. “True.”

“Are you nervous about meeting my family?”

“Uh, yeah,” she said. “It’s not like meeting one or two people. It’s almost a full football team worth of people when you count extended family. Then add in I am going to be seeing actual professional football players and TV personnel.”

“You haven’t acted like you were nervous,” he said. “This is the first sign I’ve seen that you might be.”

“Fake it until you make it,” she said, laughing. “You can’t tell me you’ve never done that before. One thing we both share is the fact that we are out to prove we can do it on our own. To prove ourselves. Don’t you think that’d fall in line with our personal lives?”

He turned his head sharply. “I don’t want you to fake anything with me. I hadn’t realized you were.”

“I’m not faking anything with you,” she said. Good lord, were they going to fight right now too? “I mean my confidence. Or faking the part that I’m not nervous about today. But driving there and getting on a billionaire’s private jet would make anyone nervous. Then you add in all the family members.”

His head went back and forth. “You come off as one of the most confident women I know.”

“Then I’m faking it well,” she said, laughing.

He reached his hand over, his palm out. “I don’t want you to do that. I’ve shown you some vulnerable sides.”

“What’s that?” she asked. “Being afraid of your mother? You joke about that.”

“That’s not a joke. I’m serious. She’s scary.”

Phoebe laughed. She still felt he was joking, but maybe he wasn’t. “I suppose our conversations about wanting to prove ourselves go back to us both showing some vulnerability, don’t you think?”

“I do, so I stand corrected there,” he said.

“And you’ve seen how I’m like a pink elephant moving through this town with all eyes on me. I have to show it doesn’t bother me or I think they’d swarm in and want to start petting and riding me, maybe asking me to do tricks.”

He laughed. “You’ve got a good point there. But I don’t want you to be that way with me. I want you to be you.”

“I am me when I’m with you,” she said. “Curly hair and all. If that doesn’t prove it, I’m not sure what does.”

Her mother had asked her for years to wear her hair like that. To be herself and she never could do it.

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