“Apologize?”I laugh, but there’s no humor in it.“That’s rich, coming from the woman who never paid a single penny for my college tuition.Easy for you to tell me to quit my job when you never invested in it!”
“Eve—” Marco starts.
“No!”I point at my mother.“I will quit my job when pigs learn to fly.And if you want to keep my car keys, you’re more than welcome to them.I’m done with this.”
I storm toward the front door, but my mother beats me there, her small frame blocking the exit.
“You are not leaving this house,” she says, her voice deadly calm.“Not until you apologize to Luis and fix this mess you’ve made.”
“The only mess here is the one you created by inviting my ex-boyfriend to dinner without asking me!”
“He’s not your ex-boyfriend.He’s your fiancé!”
“He’s not my anything!How is that so hard to understand?”
Behind us, I can hear my brothers arguing, my nephews starting to cry from all the shouting, and Elena trying to calm everyone down.The front door rattles as someone knocks.
My mother’s face lights up with triumph.“That’s Luis now.”
My heart sinks as she reaches for the doorknob.There’s nowhere to go—my mother guards the exit, my family fills the space behind me, and Luis is about to walk in with everyone expecting me to play happy reunion.
This is exactly why I stopped coming to Sunday dinners.
“So, how’s the new boyfriend?”I bite into the burger, looking across the table at Megan, my younger sister.She’s cut her hair again.The dark hair in pixie cut suits her babyish features, her amber eyes focused on her drink.
Out of us five siblings, Megan and Ethan look like carbon copies of our father.While the shape of her eyes is rounder, her smile less harsh, it’s a startling resemblance.
“Tom?”Megan plays with her straw, trying to smush the blob of ice cream at the bottom of the cup.“He’s okay.I’m thinking of breaking up with him.”
I chew the beef burger slowly, studying her nonchalant expression.“Why?You can’t have gotten bored of him that quickly.”
“He’s not very…” Megan struggles to come up with the right word and finally settles on: “...smart.He’s a little dense up here.”She taps her temple, her tone dry.
“Well, I could have told you that,” I snicker.
“Not funny, Caleb.”My sister slumps back in her chair, groaning.“He’s so hot.But he’s so dumb!He went car sledding the other night.”
“Car sledding?”I blink, the idea intriguing but just a little confusing.
“This moron and his friends hooked a toboggan with a rope to the back of the car, and one of them started driving.”
My lips curve.“That sounds fun?—”
“In the middle of traffic, Caleb.”Megan makes a strangled sound.“He’s got sawdust between his ears.His friend landed in the hospital, and the bunch of them thought it was funny.”
“I mean, it’s not the worst way to?—”
“Oh, shut up,” Megan tips the cup to her lips and swallows the ice cream.“He’s an idiot, Caleb.I don’t want to date an idiot.”
“So break up with him.”I shrug.“I don’t see what the problem is.”
My sister glares at me.“Did you not hear me?He’s hot.The man may have two barely-functioning brain cells, but he’s sex on a stick.”
My appetite immediately withers and dies, and I scowl at her.“Really, Megan?I know we’re close, but I don’t need to hear about your sex life.Don’t you have girlfriends for that?”
Megan shrugs.“She knows.She wants me to dump him, but I don’t want to.”
I give a pitying look to the burger I had been devouring not seconds ago.Now I want to barf.
