Page 34 of Make it Real
“Who?” June asked.
Good to know Harper had kept our run-in to herself.
“I asked Callie.” The longer they stared, the more agitated I got. I’d never so much as introduced a woman to the family, let alone thought to invite one to a wedding. The blowback from this fake dating experiment might wind up worse than I’d originally imagined.
“Callie?” Pop blinked like he’d stepped into bright sunlight. “Harper’s friend?”
“That’s her.”
Wade tromped down the stairs and set his daughter next to the boys. Walking into the middle of the room, he finally noticed the shocked looks on everyone’s faces. I didn’t think asking a woman to a wedding warranted quite this much surprise, frankly.
“What’s going on? What’d I miss?”
“Jed asked Callie to be his date to June’s wedding.” Annie didn’tsoundlike this was such an impossible scenario, but the way she glanced at Wade told a different story.
Spousal telepathy. I didn’t like it.
He whipped his head around to me.
I considered myself an easy-going guy—maybe too much, sometimes—but all this amazement worked an antsy sort of irritation through me that reverberated all the way down to my bones. “It’s not so unbelievable. She’s a nice girl.”
“That’s kind of the unbelievable part.”
I hadn’t thrown a punch at my brother since we were kids, but I had the sudden urge to take him outside and see what happened.
Pop shushed Wade. “Don’t pay him any mind. I didn’t know you were seeing Callie or we wouldn’t have been trying to introduce you to someone else.”
“It hasn’t been all that long.”
“I guess a lot more happened that night at the Hammer than you told me.”
Wade sounded a touch disappointed, as though we ever talked about my relationships. Or lack of them. I’d never had all that much to report, but maybe I should have this time just to keep up appearances.
June looked between the two of us, a furrow deep between her eyebrows. “What happened at the Hammer?”
“Sounds like Jed rescued Callie from her jerk date.”
Now that set them off, everyone asking questions at the same time. Except for Ty, God love him.
Sitting there, I tried to remember everything I’d told Callie about handling my family. Mostly, I’d reassured her they wouldn’t turn into the Spanish Inquisition, but now, I regretted that optimism.
“Look, it’s simple. We’ve spent some time together. I helped her fend off a not-great guy, and we started talking. That’s all.”
“But you invited her to my wedding already?” June said.
Okay, not all that simple. Maybe I shouldn’t have led with that bit of information. “Yes, I invited her.”
“You don’t usually plan that far in advance, do you?”
Didn’t really see the wisdom in trying to plan beyond the here and now, but admitting as much wouldn’t put me ahead in this conversation. Not with a whole crowd of planners who had their eyes glued on forever.
I lifted a shoulder. “Didn’t seem like something I should leave until the last minute.”
“So you’re seeing each other?” Wade’s eyebrows raised up to his hairline.
Aside from the kids playing on the floor, everyone in the room froze, gazes stuck on me. Their silence gave the question too much weight, like my answer held unforeseen power.
“Yeah.” Not eloquent, but it did the job.
