Page 62 of Good Girl's Guide to Love
“Agree to disagree,” I say as I take a tender of my own, but dip it in the correct tender condiment—barbecue sauce. “Barbecue is clearly superior.”
Ainsley feigns shock, and even adds her hand over her heart for added effect. “I don’t know if this relationship can continue if we have that kind of divide. I mean, Linc, how would we raise the children!”
The more time I spend with Ainsley, the more I realize just how funny she is. She had me laughing that first night, but I figured that was the alcohol and the ridiculousness of the entire situation. But every time I talk to her, I find myself laughing. I didn’t expect her to have a subtle sarcasm. Or the perfect one-liner. And to do it all looking hot as fuck in that sundress.
“Well, that’s easy,” I say. “We don’t have any.”
I don’t miss the way Ainsley’s face falls a bit before she quickly regroups. “Shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to come out as a dick thing to say.”
She shakes her head and takes a drink of her tea. “No, it’s fine. It’s not like this is...” She trails off to look around. But luckily, since we’re in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant on the outskirts of metro Nashville, it’s so packed no one can hear us. “I just want a family, and usually I don’t date someone that doesn’t have that goal. Doesn’t make sense to waste someone’s time, right? But sometimes it’s easy to forget that we’re not…I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have reacted like that.”
“No apologies necessary,” I say. “But if it helps, and if anyone asks, I’ll tell them we want a litter.Allthe babies.”
She laughs. “You can stop at three. That’s my max.”
“Good to know,” I say before studying a french fry a little too intently. I normally do a pretty good job of keeping my sad childhood pushed aside, and I don’t know if it’s the actual talk of family, but suddenly those feelings are starting to uncomfortably bubble to the surface.
“Hey.” I feel Ainsley’s hand on top of mine, and when I look up, those blue eyes are pleading with me. “I’m sorry if I made things weird.”
I shake my head, pushing aside the thoughts of dead parents, passed-on grandmothers, and all the reasons I’ve come up with not to get close to anyone. “You didn’t. That was all me.”
I can tell Ainsley’s trying to give me an out. Because that’s the kind of person she is. And while I’m not ready to tell her all about my fucked-up past, I need to give her something.
I want to give her something.
“My grandma raised me,” I begin, not wanting to get into the dead parents quite yet. “It was just her and me for a lot of years. And then she passed when I was graduating college.”
The words trail off and I feel Ainsley’s hand holding mine tighter. “I’m so sorry, Linc. That had to hurt so much. You’ve been on your own for a long time.”
I’ve been on the receiving end of sympathy many times in my life. Most of it felt disingenuous. But this? Those few words from Ainsley? Somehow I can feel her sorrow for me through those few little words and her kind eyes.
“It did. Then it was just me. No other family. So I think I just don’t know any different.”
She nods in understanding. “I get that. Then there’s my family, that has zero boundaries.”
I chuckle thinking back to that. How was that only a week ago? “Yeah, it was a lot.”
She shakes her head and I feel like we’re getting back on the right track. “They mean well. We all do, when it comes to our siblings. But with me I feel like they’re too much.”
“How so?”
“I’m not the baby of the family, but I’ve always been the most delicate,” she says, absently grabbing a french fry, but not eating it. “I was the good one. The one who didn’t care about tattling,because rules were in place for a reason. And I followed them, every single one. I was also a bit of a crier. And when I say was, I mean am. You put on the sad puppy adoption commercial and I’m a puddle.”
“I mean who isn’t? Those eyes? That song? Take my money and then also give me that dog.”
“Exactly,” she says. “But yes, combine all of that together, and I was definitely the most sensitive of the five of us. As we got older, and it was clear that I was the one who wasn’t going to take the risks or push the boundaries, I became the most breakable. So when they saw the news about us, and the pictures, I get why they did what they did.”
“The black was a nice touch,” I joke as I grab another tender. “Can I ask, though, how does a girl who doesn’t swear, only drinks when pushed to her limit, and gets nervous when breaking the smallest rule, also related to four siblings who launched a ninja expedition to try to spy on their sister in broad daylight?”
“Oh, if we were trying to spy on another sibling, I would’ve been right there with them,” she says. “The day I first met you?—”
“Do you mean the day you ran into me or the day I became your boyfriend?”
It’s not hard to make Ainsley blush. And I don’t know if I’m ever going to get tired of it.
“Ran into you,” she says, her shy smile gracing her beautiful face before continuing. “That night, we all ganged up on Quinn’s boyfriend’s mom, and fooled her into thinking she was getting a lot of money in order for her to not try to get custody of a baby.”
I blink rapidly, trying to follow that line. “Excuse me, what?”
