“Ready?” Maeve asks, coming out of the bathroom and bringing me back down to Earth.
I swallow, nodding. “Ready.”
My heart thrashes harder with every step down the stairs as I follow Maeve, and my hands start to get clammy, so I rub them on my jeans while no one is watching. The last thing I want is to have sweaty palms in case someone tries to shake my hand again or something.
When we get downstairs, Maeve’s dad and her brothers are sitting in the living room watching a football game, and while I contemplate whether or not to join them, I decide on the latter. I’ve never been big on sports, and I wouldn’t want to be the awkward guy just standing there in silence because I have no idea how to make conversation. And it’s scary, of course. Three of the most important men in her life together in one room? I’ll try again later. Maybe.
Instead, I let Maeve guide us into the kitchen, where her mom is hurrying around making dinner. Or prepping for one and cooking another. Maybe she’s prepping for Christmasdinner tomorrow, too. It looks like a tornado tore through the room, really, with dishes and ingredients all over the place.
“Hey, Mom,” Maeve says, sitting on a barstool at the giant island in the middle of the room.
Annalise whirls around with a smile that is an exact copy of Maeve’s, and something about it makesmesmile. She wipes her hands on the dish towel thrown over her shoulder before she’s rounding the island and pulling her daughter in for another hug.
“Oh, I’m so happy you’re here,” she mumbles into Maeve’s hair, squeezing her tight before her eyes avert to me, “and I’m happyyou’rehere, Tatum. Thank you for bringing our daughter all the way here to us.”
“Of course,” I say, just as she lets go of Maeve and takes two steps to me, bringing me in for a hug, too.
I can’t remember the last time I have hugged this much in one day, but it feels nice. Really nice. Not awkward at all, like it’s weird for me to be here. I feel…accepted. Annalise has this warm way of talking, like she’s known you all her life. I’ve always liked being around people who made me feel more comfortable in my own skin.
“Do you need any help?” I offer as she pulls back.
She immediately waves me off, hurrying back around the island to peek at the food inside the oven. “No, no. Sit. You two need to relax.”
I meet Maeve’s eyes for a second, raising my brow in question, but she just smiles. Chewing at the inside of my lip, I stand there for a moment longer before I’m following Annalise around the island and grabbing one of the oven mitts as she goes to pull dinner out.
“Here,” I tell her, “let me.”
She doesn’t argue, just smiles the same smile that Maeve gave me a minute ago, while I pull everything out from the oven to set on the stovetop. Maeve, thankfully, starts up conversationwith her mother to pull the attention away from me, and I listen to the two of them talking as I help Annalise set the table for dinner.
It’s like listening to Maeve talk to herself, really. They’re so much alike that it makes me almost laugh. They talk about classes and finals, and I especially listen to Maeve talk about medical school being in the cards for next year. She’s just waiting to get accepted. And it’s not like I didn’t know that would be a possibility for her, but more so that I ignored it. I pushed it to the very back of my mind so I could focus onnow.
But that’s going to come up again. Next year is going to be here eventually, and…I hope there’s still an us by then. Even if we’re still just friends. Even if she decides maybe this isn’t what she wants. I’ll accept that. I’ll even accept being however far away from each other we are while she’s off at medical school somewhere and I’m…still in Pennsylvania getting my Master’s degree. I can do that.
I think.
It’ll suck, but I can do it.
Their conversation plays on a loop in my mind as everyone gathers at the table, Maeve sitting next to me, her brothers across from us, and her parents on both ends. It nearly drowns out the talking going on around me, loud in my head, like a reminder. Or an omen.
It isn’t until Maeve nudges me slightly that I remember to pick up my fork and start eating.
Pull it together.
“So, you two go to Cedar Grove together?” Maverick says, sticking a forkful of food into his mouth before he glances up at me expectantly. Not her, just me.
Here we go.
“Yes.” I nod.
“How long have you known each other?” Mateo chimes in.
The bite that was almost to my lips pauses as I swallow before answering. “A few weeks.”
The look the twins share sends a wave of nausea through my gut. Of course it probably seems weird to them. Bringing home a complete stranger, practically, having them stay in your house. Having them drive their sister across the country and back. Oh, God.
“A fewweeks?” Maverick snorts, and the sound has me flinching. No, no, no.
Don’t do that, Tate.
