Page 48 of Canadian Boyfriend

Aurora cut me off and stepped forward with her hand outstretched. “The nanny. Rory Evans.”

Olivia’s eyebrows shot up, and she looked at me. Yeah, this just went to show that whatever Aurora was, she wasn’t a nanny. Unlike Aurora and me, Olivia had never tried to put words to Aurora’s presence in our life, but she knew instinctively thatnannywasn’t right. Still, the lie served our purposes right now.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Renata said. “Aren’t you lovely?”

Aurora smiled in a way I recognized as false. “Now that Olivia’s leaving, I’m headed to Christmas at my mother’s house, which is a bit of a formal affair.”

“Oh, how nice. Everyone today has become so…” Renata’s gaze flickered over to me in my sweatpants and flannel shirt. “Casual.” She turned to Olivia, who was crouched next to Earl 9 saying her goodbyes. “Shall we go, honey? Are you finished with that… canine?”

Then it was over. Suitcase loaded, hugs exchanged, and they were gone.

“Oh my God,” Aurora said through her fake smile as she stood next to me in the driveway waving at the retreating car.

“Right?”

We went back inside, and I leaned against the door and put my head in my hands.

“They’re terrible!” she exclaimed, but then gasped as if she hadn’t meant to say that out loud, and when I looked up, she’d clamped a hand over her mouth.

I chuckled and heaved myself off the door. My body felt like it was made of concrete. “It’s OK. You’re right.”

“I overheard some of your conversation with them. Olivia said she wanted privacy to pack some stuff in her room”—she shrugged to indicate she had no idea what that had been about—“so I started to come downstairs, but I could hear you arguing, so I was stuck on the stairs. I’m sorry!”

“It’s OK.” It was more than OK. I found myself thinking again that I was glad she’d heard. Like Iwantedher all up in my business for some damn reason, even though I was usually an ultraprivate person.

“But that was good, earlier, right?” she asked. “Seems like you and Olivia cleared the air?”

“Yes. Thank you for helping. I wasn’t…” I didn’t even know what I was trying to say.

“Are you going to be OK when I go to my mom’s?” Her mouth fell open abruptly, then formed itself into a smile, as if something had first astonished, then delighted her. “Hey! Do you want to come with me?”

Did I? I scanned my body. I was still buzzing with adrenaline from the breakthrough with Olivia and the confrontationwith Renata and Stefan. What I really wanted to do was put my feet up, crack open a beer, and admire the tree. Maybe go for a skate later.

But I kind of wanted to do all that with Aurora. Hmm.

She waved her hands in front of her face. “Forget it. That was a crazy idea. I just thought you might not want to be alone after all that family drama. But clearly the answer isn’t to expose you tomyfamily drama.”

“I’d love to come.”

“Really?”

“Well, notlove, but you know. You had my back earlier. Time to return the favor.” I cracked my knuckles. “How bad can Aurora Senior be?”

She laughed. “Oh, pretty bad.” She tilted her head and regarded me. “But probably less bad with witnesses.”

“Let’s do it.” I looked down at my raggedy-ass self. “What do you think? Fancy enough?” I fingered my black-and-red flannel. “At home we call this a Kenora dinner jacket.”

She assessed me with dancing eyes, but her expression changed as her gaze slid down my body. She’d gone all serious, but it didn’t feel like disapproval. It felt… kinda warm? When she finally spoke, her voice was low. “You look great.”

So off we went to her mother’s, who lived in a town house in Wayzata. The redbrick houses had a generically high-end look about them, and we’d entered the development through a gate. “Fancy. Is this where you grew up?”

“Nope. My mom’s real estate career has taken off now that she’s not ‘putting all her energy into supporting my dreams.’”

I snorted. How nice that her mother was living it up while Aurora worked at Starbucks for the insurance. But to be fair, I suspected Aurora would never take money from her mother.I still had not heard that whole story, the one she’d twice said she’d tell me later.

“I grew up in a tiny house in Richfield,” she said, ringing the doorbell. “She moved here five years ago. It’s amazing how quickly you can move up the property ladder when you’re not paying for the Newberg Ballet School.”

OK, now I was spoiling for a fight. These Minnesotans with their passive-aggressive bullshit. And directed at someone as… bright as Aurora. The day was bright, too. It was one of those sunny, blue-sky Minnesota winter afternoons. I could see Aurora’s freckles peeking through her makeup.

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