Forget that I asked. I know how to get your attention.
I'm on the Friday night flight. I suggest you rest up and get plenty of protein. You'll need it.
* * *
Nick's fingerswere tracing my spine, and I knew he was still in that dreamy place where his body was loose and languid. I liked him there, and I liked being responsible for it too.
"Can we talk about what we're going to say?" I asked. "To my siblings. When we see them for the holiday."
Most people saw me as flighty and chaotic, and in a few ways, I was. But at the same time, I couldn't walk into high stakes situations without a detailed plan. Going back to Boston for the holiday and telling my family that we got married—surprise!—was the highest stakes.
"We say something along the lines of 'y'all owe us some wedding gifts'," he said, yawning.
"I can see Patrick now," I said, laughing. My oldest brother was nothing if not predictably grumpy. "He'll just stare at us, frowning, for twenty minutes."
"Sam will want to know why we didn't tell him," Nick said. "He has the worst fear of missing out."
"And you know what's sad about that?" I asked. Nick shook his head. "He usuallyisthe last to know."
"Poor guy," Nick murmured.
"He'll survive," I said. "Riley needs some advance warning. He's at his best when he knows what to expect."
"I'll take him out for a beer before you fly in," Nick said. "It'll give him a chance to unload some of his unrequited love issues."
"Lauren will scream," I continued. "She can get away with that kind of reaction."
"Will that be before or after Matt dives across the table to beat my ass?"
I nestled my cheek against Nick's chest, not at all comfortable with that idea. "He wouldn't do that," I said, but I wasn't convinced.
"Probably not," he said, and sounded about as certain as I was. "Sometimes he forgets that you're not seventeen anymore, and…he's not going to be happy that we waited to tell him. He probably deserves to hear it from us directly."
Let's just make those stakes a little bit higher.
"Right, good, yeah," I babbled to myself. I started tapping my index finger on Nick's clavicle. "So we should do that. We'll go to Matt's place early, and have a little discussion with him. Or maybe I should talk to him first."
Nick's fingers glided down my back and curled around my ass. "Not a chance," he said. "I've been running or biking with Matt at least once a month since we got married, and despite my every fucking desire to the contrary, I haven't mentioned it to him yet. I'm either a sociopath or operating with a shit-ton of willpower, but I know you'd hate it if I discussedourrelationship without you there. I'd never do that to you."
"Believe me," I said, tapping a bit faster now. "I'm not interested in delivering that news to my brother alone. At the same time, I'm not interested in witnessing a brawl."
"We'll go together," Nick said. "He'll appreciate some time to talk it over without everyone else around, but you have to know he'll have questions."
"Of course," I said. Now all of my fingers were drumming his chest. "And we'll be prepared. We'll give him a short version of the night before his wedding, and leave out all mention of video chat sex and christening the floor of my apartment. What else could he want to know?"
Nick layered his hand over mine, putting an end to my tapping. "When he asks about our long distance arrangement, when shall we tell him it's ending?"
That right there? That was how you painted yourself into a corner.
"What should we say, lovely?" Nick asked.
Oh, he knew what he was doing and he was trying to be sweet as a motherfucking cherry pie about it, too.
"We'll explain that I have another twelve to eighteen months of research and analysis before I'm finished with my work at Oxford," I said.
"And when you're finished?" he asked. "What happens after that?"
"I don't know what happens after that, Nick," I said with a sigh. God, if only I could give him the answers he wanted. But that was where all of this was messier than I could comprehend. "I can't really think about any of that until I get through all of this. It's the same way that I couldn't listen to Christmas music until after my fall semester finals were finished in college."
