Page 28 of Protect My Heart
‘We’re probably going to lose, but if you really want to go, you can. I promise we’ll do something fun when it’s over. My parents might come. If they do, you could sit with them. Actually, that’s a bad idea.’
‘Why?’
‘They might tell you things I don’t want you knowing. Stupid shit from when I was a kid. Or they’ll spend the whole time asking about us, trying to figure out if we’re dating.’
‘Do they know about me?’
‘They know we met at Noah’s wedding.’
‘But they don’t know we .?.?.’
‘No, and I’d never tell them. But anytime I’m with a girl, even a friend, they assume I’m dating her or might in the future, and then my mom goes into matchmaker mode, trying to sell me to the girl in the hopes we’ll get married.’
‘She’s pressuring you to get married?’
‘She has for years, and now that my brothers all have girlfriends, it’s even worse. She’s determined to find me someone.’
‘Is that what you want? Or do you like being single?’
‘I don’t mind being single. I’m not going to just pick someone to avoid being alone.’
‘But you still want to get married someday, right?’
‘Definitely. Like I told you the night of the wedding, I always thought I’d be first to get married out of all my brothers. I never had the desire to go out and party and meet girls. I ended up doing that, but only because I was single. Even my family thought I’d be married by now with a kid or two. But now Nick will be the first to get married and first to have a kid.’
‘His fiancé is pregnant?’
‘Not yet, but she will be. They’re already trying.’
Nick won’t be the first to have a child. Jason will. He just doesn’t know it yet. I wonder what his family will think of that. Will his parents be upset that he’s having a child without being married? My parents will. They’ll be devastated. They’ll be thrilled about being grandparents, but their excitement will be overshadowed by the disappointment of me not being married.
‘Where are you staying tonight?’ Jason asks.
‘I don’t know yet. I thought I’d stop at one of the hotels in town. Is there one you’d recommend?’
‘There’s a fancy historic one a few miles from here but it’s kind of expensive and they’re doing renovations so it could be loud. The other one has a tour group staying there so I’m not sure they have any rooms.’ He pauses. ‘You could stay with me.’
‘That’s probably not a good idea,’ I say with a nervous laugh.
‘Why? I’ll take the couch. You can take the bed. It’s a big apartment. Only one bedroom but there’s plenty of room.’
‘I don’t want to make you sleep on the couch.’ I glance at the table next to us where a couple is being seated with their baby. They look happy, the three of them together as a family.
‘Mia.’ Jason waits for me to look at him. ‘Nothing’s going to happen.’
‘We said that the night of the wedding,’ I say, lowering my voice.
‘We never said that. In fact, I think we both knew exactly what was going to happen that night. This is different. We haven’t been drinking and we’ve already decided there isn’t a future for us.’ He sounds sad when he says it. I feel sad hearing it.
I want us to have a future. We just can’t. I need to take care of my parents and Jason’s life is here.
‘C’mon, it’s just one night,’ he says. ‘You can even lock the door to my room if you’re that worried about it.’
I smile. ‘I’m not worried. I know you’re a gentleman.’
‘Not always,’ he says with a smile, ‘but I try.’
‘Okay, then yes, I’ll stay with you.’
