Page 94 of A Wrench in the Plan
“I’ve got to tell my parents,” she said, breathless from laughter. “I have to tell my dad.” This time, it came out as if she were terrified at the thought.
“We’ll be there with you. We can tell him together,” I suggested.
“I don’t know. I have no idea how to talk to him about any of this without him going crazy.”
“He’s gonna beat us to a bloody pulp,” Chry said, and now he was the on that sounded scared.
I believed it, though. Still, I’d stand by her side and behind this relationship. No matter what happened, I would.
“I’ll tell him,” she said, sounding slightly confident. “I just need to catch him at the right time.”
“So… we’re going to tell people about us? Or at least not be so hidden about it?” Chry asked, hope in his tone. It was so sweet how he was bursting at the seams to be out about this, even though he’d been trying not to push.
“Maybe we could just… be?” Cat suggested. “Outside of this room, I mean.”
I gasped mockingly. “You mean you want people to see us together?! What if people see him kissing you and then kissing me? So scandalous.”
“Stop it,” she said, swatting at me playfully. “Maybe I want to be scandalous.”
“Oh, shit. It’s like I don’t even know you anymore,” I said playfully.
“So we’re doing this?” Chry asked.
“We’re doing this,” Cat confirmed as she tried to bite back her happy smile. She released her trapped bottom lip as she leaned in to kiss Chry.
“We’re doing this,” I parroted, leaning in to steal a kiss from his lips.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Cat
“Cat, what the hell are you thinking?” Dad asked in a tone that made it sound more like a demand.
I’d just walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. I might have been avoiding being home the last couple of days. Knowing I had to talk to them about… well, everything, I had been too nervous to come back here. They hadn’t been home when I got here thirty minutes ago. So much for thinking I could sneak down here without anyone knowing I was home.
Yeah, I was being a chicken.
But my dad was so… my dad.
I loved him very much, but sometimes he wasn’t an easy man to talk to. Especially about the two things I had to talk to him about. He was going to blow a gasket. And with the question he just asked me, I couldn’t help but think he might already know.
“What?” I asked back, my eyes shifted to look at Mom. She was shaking her head and rolling her eyes. I had a feeling I couldn’t play this off.
Time to put on my big girl panties.
I was almost twenty-two. I had a right to live my life and be happy.
This was one of those moments I just had to let him get it out. Whatever he had to say, it wasn’t going to make me change my mind.
“Messing with Wrench when he’s got Evan.”
“Dad,” I warned lightly.
How did he know?
“I’ve tried to stay out of it, I have. I’ve not said anything about all those nights you spend over there. But I’m hearing more people talking now. And after finding out that you had a boyfriend…” Mom cleared her throat in warning. Yeah, I did regret not telling them. I regretted it more knowing what I know now. “A boyfriend, Catherine, that I didn’t even know about… well, what the hell am I supposed to think?”
I was thankful that was all he said about it. Dad wasn’t the type to throw stuff in my face, but you couldn’t blame me for bracing for it. I understood where he was coming from, but this was different.
