Page 84 of Going the Distance
I hated her so much.
“Hello, dear,” June said affably, holding out a hand to Amanda and kissing her on the cheek. “It’s so lovely to finally meet you. Noah’s told us so much about you.”
He has?
I glanced at Lee, who pointedly didn’t meet my eye. Lee had told me that he didn’t really know anything about Amanda, that Noah hadn’t said much. Now I got the feeling he had just been saying that to make me feel better.
Amanda smiled, a big toothy smile that only made her look prettier. “Thank you so much for having me, Mrs.Flynn. Your home is absolutely lovely.”
Oh God.
She wasBritish.
Just when I thought she couldn’t get any more perfect, she had a cute dang accent, too.
I was about to scrunch up my face in disgust when I caught Noah’s eye. His piercing blue eyes locked with mine, his expression incomprehensible.
Was he mad at me? Was he missing me? Was he totally over his little brother’s best friend and just didn’t care?
The longer we stared at each other, the less I wanted to find out.
I turned away and made a hasty escape through the living room to the kitchen, before I had to be introduced to Amanda properly, too. She could meet the rest of Noah’s family first. There were certainly enough of them to keep her busy for a while.
Lee followed me, catching my arm by the island in the kitchen and linking his fingers through mine. He squeezed my hand tight. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. Look. I’m right here.”
I blinked a few times, just to make sure I wasn’t going to cry. Because I wasn’t; I’d promised myself last night that, no matter what, I wouldn’t shed a tear over Noah Flynn today.
I’d thought I could handle it. Convinced myself I totally could. But getting used to the idea of Noah being with another girl was a lot different to actually seeing him with her. This hurt a lot more than I’d been expecting.
“All you need to do is get through dinner,” Lee told me. “Show them you don’t care. Hell, she’ll probably be intimidated that my family loves you so much that you’re here for Thanksgiving.” I managed a snort of laughter at that. “And then we’ll get out of here for a while, later. Go for a drive somewhere, maybe.”
“But you were going to see Rachel later.”
“And I told you already, I’m here for you today, because I think you need me more.”
June popped into the kitchen before we could talk any more, so I just squeezed Lee’s hand by way of thanks that he was picking me over Rachel today. She said, “Lee, you should go and say hi to Amanda.”
He got the message and saluted his mom. “Yes, ma’am.”
Once he was gone, June came up to me and squeezed my shoulders gently. “You okay, honey?”
“I’ll live.”
“She’s very nice.”
“That’s the worst part,” I said, managing a nervous laugh. June had been very sympathetic to me about the breakup; she’d heard everything from Lee and had told me she understood completely and that she hoped I knew I was still very welcome anytime—that just because things were over with Noah didn’t mean I wasn’t still part of the family. But I’d totally avoided having to talk to her about Amanda, and the two of them coming home for today.
“He’s told me they’re just friends.”
“Lee said. I’m just having a hard time believing it, that’s all. But it’s okay. I’m okay.”
“Are you sure?”
I nodded. The last thing I needed was for her to tell Noah how badly I was taking this, and to be considerate of me and my stupid, broken heart. “I’ll even go say hi. In a minute. Unless you need any help with the, um, cooking, or, like, literally anything? I’ll take the trash out.”
June laughed. “I think you need to go and say hi. You don’t have to chat, just say hi. But I’ll hold you to that offer—you can take the trash out later.”
“Gee, thanks,” I mumbled, and she gave my shoulder a squeeze before letting me go.
