Page 62 of Waiting on Life
He turned and graced me with a smile that I hoped would always make my insides quiver. “Yes, I knew.”
I’d wanted this to be a special event, so I invited Kyle’s mom, Angie, my parents, Tammy and Melanie, and Pete. It would be the first time we’d all gotten together, instead of us at Kyle’s mom’s for dinner, or him coming along to my folk’s place.
“How did you know?”
“A little bird told me,” he said.
I glared at Tammy. “Little bird? You told him.” The two of them had been spending so much time together, it was the only logical answer.
“Yup.”
Not even a hint of regret. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I asked her to do it,” Kyle informed me. “See, you thought this party was for me, but really? It’s for you.”
My head was reeling. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Sit down before you pop a vessel,” my dad said.
“I don’t want to fucking sit down!” I growled. “I want to know what’s going on.”
Tammy turned to Kyle. “Are you sure you wanna go through with this? He’s a surly son of a bitch.” She winked at Mom. “No offense.”
Mom waved her off. “None taken. Trust me, I know he is.”
“Sit down, Toby,” Melanie said softly, putting a hand on my arm. “They’ll explain it.”
I liked Mel. She kept Tammy’s edge dulled, like Kyle did mine. The two of us couldn’t have asked for better partners. Though, right now mine was treading on thin ice.
Since I didn’t see any way out of it, I took a seat. The waiter came in and passed drinks around, which apparently they’d already ordered. I sank down, steamed over the fact that my surprise was ruined like this.
Kyle’s hand on my shoulder sucked away a lot of the irritation. Try as I might, I couldn’t be mad at him. I was head over heels for the guy, and even if people thought he answered to me, the truth was, Kyle had me wrapped around his little finger.
“I’m sorry if you’re upset. We had to do it this way, though, because you’re a stubborn fucker. If we told you why you were here, you’d either refuse to come or argue until we gave up trying. This is, for lack of a better word, an intervention.”
An….“What?”
Tammy came around the table and stopped behind me. She put down a folder full of paperwork.
“What’s this?” I demanded, my anger rising once more.
“Open it and find out, asshole.”
With a shaky hand, I flipped the cover open. Emblazoned on the top sheet were the words “Congratulations on Your New House.”
Not one thing here made sense. I turned to Tammy. “You guys got a new house? I thought you loved yours.”
She laughed and turned her attention to Kyle. “You’re lucky. In this relationship you get to be not only the pretty one, but the smart one too.”
“He has a lot of other good qualities,” Kyle informed her.
“Oh? Like what?” my mom asked, which set everyone to laughing.
Pete took a seat across from me, his eyes misty. “I want someone who loves me like that,” he said to me.
“Like what? I don’t understand.”
“Look at the pictures in the folder, okay?” Kyle asked.
