Page 34 of D.I.E.T. (Did I Eat That?)

“Sunshine, your family’s sweet. They’re funny. I’m having a great time and we’ve only just arrived. Come on. Let’s go back in there with everyone.”

“I’m humiliated. They hit you with kids and sister wives in the first ten minutes you’ve known them.”

“Okay,” he said. “Asking if I want kids is hardly a state secret. It’s not like she asked me if I wore a cock ring.”

I chuckled with my face still pressed to my hands. “But it implies—”

“It doesn’t imply anything, baby. And I had to respectfully turn down your grandmother. When I get married, Geet, I only want one wife.” Then he tucked his finger under my chin to lift my face to look at him. Jesus, Geet,” he said before bending in to press his lips to mine. So caught up in all things Sinjin, I didn’t hear my sisters enter the living room until I heard Lu say, “Fifty bucks she’s pregnant by November.”

Pia answered, “No, I call April next year.”

Then to my utter horrification, my brother-in-law, Gareth, who hadn’t even met Sinjin yet chimed in, “He keeps this up, I’m putting my money on end of summer.”

Tearing my lips from Sinjin, I whipped my head up to look at the lot of them yelling, “Gareth?!” Then he had the nerve to walk over to us with his hand outstretched. The roll-with-the-punches man next to me actually shook my brother-in-law’s hand instead of punching him, which I thought the situation deserved. Gareth might’ve been a big man, tall, broad shouldered, worked construction, but Sinjin could totally take him. I had faith in my man.

“Good to meet you,” Gareth said. “Pia’s husband. They’re a close bunch and every bit of them they get from their grandmother. She’s the one you have to look out for. First time I met her, she threatened to use her ‘charms’ to steal me away from P.”

Sinjin barked out a laugh. “I just got sister wives.”

“She’s behaving herself. When she met Rob, Lu’s ex, she pointed up the stairs and ordered him to meet her there naked.”

That accomplished nothing but making Sinjin laugh harder.

“Let’s go,” Pia said. “Sinjin, you want a beer?”

“I’d love one.”

“Geet?” she asked.

“Hemlock,” I answered.

My man leaned in to whisper, “I much prefer you alive. Maybe skip the hemlock?”

“You’re lucky I lo—” Oh crap, what did I almost say? Quickly, I changed tracks. “I love Kami enough to stay alive for her wedding.”

He pulled me up for us to walk back into the combined kitchen and den. Pia moved over to the fridge to pull out an icy brew for each of us. Gareth made us BBQ pork ribs. Grams and my sisters’ offerings included every fattening salad known to man, macaroni and cheese, potato wedges, cornbread muffins, and the twenty-plus desserts they managed to whip up in the few days they’d had to plan. Not one thing was bootcamp-approved.

Although Lu and I would be having a chat afterward because she darn well knew about my diet regimen, what choice did I have but to eat the food they’d prepared? It’d be rude to sit there not eating when they’d gone through all this trouble.

Guilt getting the best of me, I picked up a heavy-duty paper tray and filled my plate with ribs, mac and cheese, wedges, cornbread, peas and peanuts, three bean salad and succotash salad. With my beer in hand, I walked over to sit on one of the sofas in the room next to one of Pia’s girls, my niece Krista, who openly ogled Sinjin in a way that only a six-year-old girl could get away with. Her big, brown doe eyes melted my heart.

“Aunt Geet,” the sweet little blonde with the lopsided pigtails said. “Good job on the new boyfriend. He’s cute.”

I bit my lip, shaking my head. She was definitely Pia’s daughter. “He is,” I answered. “And he’s nice, too.”

“You should wear a pink wedding dress,” she said, making me gasp.

“Honey, we aren’t getting married.”

“Maybe not yet,” she answered, way too conspiratorially for the age of six.

Sinjin came to sit next to me carrying his full plate. “What’d I miss?” he asked.

“I’m Krista. Pia’s my mom. Gareth’s my dad. He makes the best ribs. If you marry Aunt Geet, she should wear a pink dress.”

“Krista,” I admonished.

Though, typical with Sinjin, he let that bit of kid wisdom go, chuckling instead. “Okay. I’ll try to remember that.”

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