Page 26 of Choosing Her
Crossy looked bemused. “What circumstances?”
“You know, the fact that I’m…” I gestured between us like that was going to help him understand at all. I sighed. “Because of ourhistory.”
“You mean the fact that we kissed?” He asked. “Or do you mean that I dated your sister? I don’t think either should stand in the way of you meeting them.”
I hated that he was able to reference our kiss so easily, as if it meant nothing to him. Like it was as casual as discussingthe weather or our classes. Because the fact of the matter was, it may not have been important to him but it sure as heck was important to me.
“Why do they want to meet me anyway?” I asked. I eyed the bribery iced coffee in my hand, both desperately wanting to take a sip of it because it was delicious and hating that he hadn’t given it to me just to drop that bomb.
“Because you’re my tutor,” he said. “Of course they want to meet you.”
Well, that was a better reason than my initial thought, which had been that he told them we were such good friends that he just had to introduce me. It still wasn’t great but I guess it wasn’t terrible. I considered saying no anyway and shoving his iced coffee back at him, but what excuse could I give? I guess if my family was here, I could say that I was going to spend time with them instead, but that would lie would become obvious if he saw me still wandering around later. And what else did I really have to do right now? I could do this one small thing for him, right?
The next thing I knew, Crossy was leading me to the nearest doors, where a couple was standing. His dad was dressed in a clean-pressed suit, exactly what I would have expected from a lawyer, and the woman was in a nice dress. She didn’t look anything like Crossy but I didn’t want to make the assumption that she was his step-mom if it actually was his mom that he looked nothing like.
“Dad, Stacey,” Crossy said as we walked up, “this is Saylor. She’s my math tutor.”
As they both turned to look at me, I wondered how much they each knew. Crossy was introducing me as his math tutor, but did they know his ex-girlfriend also had the last name Saylor? Were they making the connection in their head, or had they not noticed at all, assuming it was my first name? Or… did they even know about Naomi? She and Crossy had only datedfor a couple of months, he may not have introduced her to his family. Our parents definitely hadn’t met him, but I think that was more of a lack of interest on their part than anything. Still, I felt a small snap of vindication at the idea that I was meeting his family when she never had. It was small and something she would never know about, but it was one of the few ways I’d bested her.
“It's nice to meet you,” I said, sticking a hand out for them to shake. Now, generally, when I held a hand out, I expected someone to either shake it or possibly ignore it. So I was completely unprepared when Stacey instead pulled me into a hug. I wasn’t from ahuggingfamily and the only person I regularly hugged, at her insistence, was Poppy, so I wasn’t used to the movement at all. I just stood there awkwardly, with my arms pinned down from the way she’d gone in, and wondered how long this was going to last.
Crossy’s dad chuckled, clearly seeing my discomfort, and patted his wife's arm. She seemed to take the hint to pull away, and I wondered if this was a frequent occurrence. I guess probably about fifty percent of the people she met would hug her back, so she just went for it with everyone.
“It’s nice to meet you, Saylor," he said. Then he shook my hand, thank goodness. “So you're tutoring Crossy in math, huh? Are you also a senior?"
“I’m a junior, actually,” I said, awkwardly twisting my bracelet around my wrist. I knew what their next question would be:How are you tutoring him in a junior-level class if you're also a junior?It was a question I hated to answer, because it usually either involved me having to make myself sound like a genius or say that my parents pushed me to get ahead in my classes, both of which weren’t my favorite topics of conversation.
“Saylor’s super smart,” Crossy said, jumping in before they could any questions. “She’s ahead in all her science and math classes.”
Well, I couldn’t just leave that fact hanging there, as if I completely agreed with his assessment.
“Only a little,” I said. “And it’s just so that I could get all the credits I needed before I graduate.”
“Well, I’m sure tutoring this one is a handful,” his dad said, jerking his head toward Crossy. The words seemed a little rude until he grinned at Crossy in a way that made it clear that he was just making a joke, and Crossy smiled back.
Right. Because normal families had jokes like that. Just because I didn't, didn't mean they didn't.
“I hope it’s not too much on your plate,” Stacey added.
“Oh, it’s not,” I said automatically, because there was no other way to respond to that politely. I couldn’t exactly sayActually, I was forced into this at my parents’ request and it takes up about ninety percent of the free time I used to have.
“She's a horseback rider,” Crossy told them, because apparently it was embarrass-Saylor-day in his mind. “Really good, too.”
I blushed and muttered, “You haven't even seen me ride, Crossy. You don't know that.”
"I've seen you," he said, then waggled his eyebrows. “You just don't know."
“What do you mean?”
“Since you showed me the upstairs viewing area, sometimes I go up there while I know you have lessons."
That made my heart stop for a second. "But my lessons are usually at the same time as your hockey practice."
"Not all the time," he said. "It varies a lot."
Crossy had been watching my horseback riding lessons. No, that didn't make any sense. There was no way. He must havebeen lying, just to see my reaction. Maybe he was trying to see how flustered he could make me—spoiler alert: a lot.
“Anyway, we should find my mom. She insisted on seeing you too.” He looked at his dad and said, “Are you guys okay to look around on your own for a bit?”
