Page 45 of Hail Marry
Victoria cringes and mouths the wordsorryto me.
I suppress a smile and take his hand. “Completely inexcusable.”
Austin nods. “You had an amazing senior season, though. How’s the draft looking?”
“Wish I knew. Only time will tell.”
“So, are you guys staying for dinner?” Victoria asks.
“No,” Mia says right as Austin says “Yeah.” He shrugs at the look his wife gives him. “I gotta get to know my brother-in-law.”
“Lovely,” Victoria says. “Then get ready to help with the cooking.”
To his credit, Austin rolls up his sleeves and starts working on the salad with Mia while Victoria and I work on the pasta and sauce.
When we sit down twenty minutes later, the awkwardness from my arrival seems to have dissipated for the most part.
“So, Luca,” Austin says, serving himself salad, “you know I gotta ask…what’s with eloping with my sister?”
“Let the man enjoy his dinner,” Mia says, shooting me an apologetic look.
“It’s okay,” I say. “It’s a fair question.” And one I have no satisfying answer to. I’d like to just tell him the truth and get it over with, but Victoria’s toe nudging my shoe is an undeniable warning. “I don’t know that the answer will make much sense to anyone else.” Very true so far.
But I’ve got to sell this, or I’m putting Victoria in a really tough position. I’ll just try to keep as close to the truth as possible.
“It’s funny,” I say. “I wasn’t looking for love when I met Victoria. And I’ve never been very interested in getting married. Just trying to keep my head down and play good football.”
Austin nods his understanding like this is the most reasonable thing in the world.
“But when I met Victoria, it was…” I look at her next to me. Her expression is a mixture of curiosity and nerves, like she’s afraid I’m about to blow things any second. That makes two of us. “It was intense.” Again, all true so far, which makes me feel like less of a scumbag. But this is where I lose the thread. How do I tell this man why I married his sister without bothering to meet the most important people in her life first?
“You know how it was with Ryan,” Victoria cuts in.
“What do you mean?” Austin asks.
Victoria scoffs. “You guys were constantly asking when he was gonna propose. Everyone was offering their opinion, which made me defensive of him to the point that I couldn’t see what was happening in front of my own face with Kimberly and him.”
“Fair enough,” Austin says. “So, you guys just didn’t want people interfering?”
We nod.
“We wanted to do things on our terms and in our time,” Victoria says.
“Totally understandable,” Mia says, stabbing her pasta with her fork.
“You call her Victoria,” Austin says, looking at me with a little crease in his brow before his gaze shifts to his sister. “You hate being called that.”
My gaze whips to Victoria. She doesn’t like being called that?
“Hated,” she says. “As in, in the past.”
Austin chuckles. “Hey, I’m just trying to wrap my brain around all of this, you know?”
I do know. My own brain is in knots.
He continues. “One minute, you’re adamant you’ll be single for the rest of your life, and the next minute, you’re married to someone I’ve never met and you’re going by Victoria.”
“Not all of us fall in love on stage in front of thousands of fans, Aus,” she replies, winking at Mia.
