Page 53 of Just A Trip

“I only joked about getting married in Vegas, but Trent actually did it.” Lennox claps her hands and is practically bouncing on her toes.

She’s really enjoying this.

“Man, if anyone was going to get married in Vegas, my money was totally on Sean,” Michael says.

Mom walks back over to us and there’s something in her eyes. Excitement? Or is it terror?

Karli squeezes my hand. I know without looking at her that she will take care of this.

“Mom?” Karli releases my hand and opens her arms wide, engulfing my mom in a hug.

Nothow I thought she was going to take care of this.

“Dad?” she beams and hugs my dad as well, who looks as shocked as I feel.

“She’s kidding,” I say quickly when I recover the use of my tongue. This woman never ceases to surprise me.

“Hey, grandma.” Karli continues on to my grandma. “Trent tells me you know some witches.” She gives my grandma a hug too and the old woman lets her. My grandma hardly ever hugs anyone.

Everyone stares. Karliiswinning this family thing.

“I do,” Grandma squeezes Karli’s arm. “You just reminded me of something very important.” She releases Karli and toddles away. Before Karli can make it further in her introductions and hugs, Juliet grabs her and pulls her from the room.

Lennox whirls on me. “Tell us everything.”

“Okay, um, we aren’t married, but I do like her. A lot. There. That’s everything.” There was no point in denying my feelings, they have eyes. And I’m done hiding.

“Trent?” Mom raises her brows, and I understand her look immediately. She can see right through me and she knows I’m leaving things out. There are so many things I want to say about Karli, about how much she means to me, how incredible she is, how I think I’m falling in love, which is crazy.

“Karli’s staying for dinner,” I say because I can’t deny the fact that I want Karli in our family. But it’s much too soon to say so out loud.

“Okay,” Mom says, readily accepting the addition to our festivities. “She can have Sean’s seat since he can’t be bothered to return home. I swear, when I see that boy, we are going to have words.” She huffs off, muttering all the things she has in store for him.

“He’s in so much trouble,” Lennox whispers. “Just like the good old days.”

Chapter 25

Karli

“Okay,tellmeeverything,”Juliet says. She locked us in the theater room and all I’ve got to say is, if I knew this house had a theater, I wouldn’t have commandeered Trent’s old room two years ago.Stranger Thingson this big screen? Shivers.

I plop down on a couch. “Really, there’s not much to tell. Trent needed a ride and I offered one.”

Her eyes go wide. “You and him? In Bertha? Together? Please tell me there were fireworks happening the whole way home and now you’re in love and you’re going to be my future sister-in-law.”

I frown. That was a wee bit dramatic. “No fireworks. Just fire. Bertha bit the dust.”

“What?” she yells and I’m glad she’s locked us in a soundproof room. “Karli, I’m so sorry. I know how much she meant to you.”

I shrug like it’s no big deal, but I’m not quite over it yet. Trent was right. Bertha was family. She was my home. A loss like that is not easily replaced. “How did that happen?” Juliet asks.

“Someone siphoned the gas while we were stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire. And the gas I had must have been ba–”

“Excuse me? Go back. You were stranded on the side of the road? You could have been abducted. Or worse!” I forgot that she feels the same way about the van that Trent does. I think she just listens to too many true crime podcasts.

“Clearly, we are fine and weren’t turned into skin suits along Interstate 93.”

“Thank heavens you made it back in one piece. And now you’re here,” she says and sinks onto the couch, studying me. “Why is that? Not that I’m complaining, but I know how you like to hide from Thanksgiving with a stockpile of scary shows.”

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