Page 39 of Merry Mayhem
Hell.
Did.
I.
Just.
Say?
Sam’s eyebrows rise, and I hear Josh choke behind me.
“Uh, hey.” Sam extends his hand to Josh. “I guess Nora left some of that out of your intro.”
“Well, the proposal is a secret,” Josh says easily, shaking Sam’s hand, as if I didn’t just stick both of my feet and one of his in my mouth. “So it’d be great if you didn’t say anything to anyone.”
I avoid looking at Josh.
Because I’m sure he’s wondering what thefuck? And I have no idea how to explain it.
“Of course.” Sam turns to Ashley. “And this is my fiancée, Ashley. Ash, this is Thea, Violet’s sister.”
“Yeah, I caught that,” Ashley says, giving me a smile that actually seems genuine. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Fiancée?” I ask. “Nora missed that part ofyourintro, too.”
“Yeah, we just told our families this morning,” Sam says, smiling down at Ashley. “She didn’t want to tell the whole town from the stage in a big, public announcement. She wants to be sure friends and other family hear it from us first.”
I narrow my eyes. I’m not ‘other family’ and I definitely do not consider myself a friend of his. “Well…great.”
This is why I said Josh is Violet’s fiancé. Because Sam doesnotget to come back to town after ripping up four years of her life and stomping on her heart and be all happy and at peace and… triumphant.
Okay, he might get to be happy and at peace. I’m not sure I can actually ruin that. But he willnotbe triumphant. Not on my watch.
“When are you getting married?” I ask them.
“Next summer,” Ashley says, practically glowing.
“When do you think you and Violet will get married?” I ask Josh.
He looks at me with averyclearwhat the fucklook. I was right about that.
“We haven’t talked about it,” he says.
I’m sure that’s true.
“She loves the spring. March maybe. Oh, March twentieth. First day of spring. Life feels fresh and new then, you know?” I look at Sam. “Throwing off the cold, old, dead shit and starting over? Love that. That’s what we’ll do.”
Josh coughs. Sam actually takes a step back from me.
“That sounds…great for you all,” he says.
The fucker is probably thinking how glad he is not to have me for a sister-in-law.
Yeah, he should be glad.
“So, we’ll see you around this weekend, I guess,” Sam says, taking Ashley’s hand.
“For sure,” I say. “A lot. Though you’ll mostly see our backs.” I laugh, but it sounds a little maniacal. I might need to work on that. “You know, because we’ll be in front of you. Winning.”
