“O-oh. What are you gonna do, then?” He only shrugged again, and my heart ached for him as I reached to touch his arm in comfort. Ever since we got together, Seth’s mom bullied him into a lot of decisions he didn’t want to make, and it was so hard to break that. “You’ll figure it out, Seth. You’re more than capable.”
In that moment, Mateo came jogging out of the lobby in shorts and a faded graphic t-shirt, and my brows rose at the two service jackets hanging over his arm. The conversation between my would-be sisters-in-law stumbled to a halt, and he swiped his hand through his lush, styled hair before I suddenly remembered how to work my mouth.
21
Mateo
“At least you upgraded, Lucy.” I almost choked when Jessie chirped her opinion, and her brother shot her a glare as the other girls burst out laughing. The sushi place was surprisingly empty for the lunch rush, and I sat back as this woman scanned me from across the table. “I’m allowed to say that because Seth’s my little brother. It’s no wonder he’s a bit of a mommy’s boy, but hopefully that’ll end now. Everyone’s got a breaking point.”
“Ah, thanks? Honestly, I don’t really have an opinion on that. My mother died when I was a toddler, and my father never remarried or anything.” He’s a cranky, old bastard.” That got some stifled laughter, and I picked up a piece of sushi off my plate with my chopsticks to wave it dismissively. “I also have two older brothers, so I can only imagine how much worse it is to have two older sisters.”
“Oh-h-h!“ Jessie tinged pink, and I smirked a little as the atmosphere leveled out above my head. Her husband wrapped his arm around her chair, and Seth tossed me a thankful look from the other side of the huge amount of food we’d ordered. “You opened yourself up for that one, Jessie. Anyway, I was talking to Auntie Marissa this morning and she said that Mom said that she’s going to try to get everyone to pay her back for this trip because the wedding didn’t happen. Normally, that’d kinda be a somewhat okay thing to do, but, I mean, we’re in Hawaii, damnit. This is a three-day vacation that some of our relatives never could do on their own for whatever reason. It’s not like we had to go back early or something.”
Seth’s oldest sister’s declaration earned disdainful hums from around the large, circular table, and I propped my elbow on the top to hold my cheek on my fist. I couldn’t help but wonder how these girls turned out so great when their mother was so crazy, and I glanced over at Lucy sitting next to me chewing a tuna roll and staring into space. Both my dogs were under the table, happy to receive any scraps that people deliberately gave them, but Marshal didn’t have the luxury of having access to restaurants.
“You know, I just realized that none of my family, but my mom is here.” Speaking up quietly, Lucy scrunched up her nose as she swallowed roughly, and I frowned under furrowed brows. “Mikayla had to buy her own ticket, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.” Her best friend sat on her other side, and Lucy grabbed her drink to sip as Mikayla flipped her hair bad-bitch-style. “Whatever. I had enough money to do it, so it didn’t matter. I wasn’t gonna let either of you be the maid of honor, no offense.”
“None taken. You’re the best friend— we’re just obligated being Seth’s sisters. To be fair, though, it was probably the easiest maid of honor duties ever. I managed to keep a handle on my wedding, barely, simply because when I rage, I’m respectful about it, and employees don’t like being spit at. Mom tried to change the flavors of the cake by going there before they opened and banging on the door. I got the call and told them to not care and the call the cops any time she steps on the premises. I got a free mini cake for being polite.” Jessie’s little story came to an end, and she cast me the mostinterestedglance possible; the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I wondered if she knew how intense she was. “How’d you two meet?”
“I took a beating for Lucy.” My confession got everyone’s attention instantly, and Lucy grabbed my hand under the table to squeeze tightly. Jessie’s lips parted in shock while I silently debated exactly how much to say without opening up for questions. “We were double booked at the hotel, so she got her room for free. That’s technically how we met. When she won the jackpot on the five-dollar machine, some dude ran up and said she stole his machine, he wanted the jackpot, whatever. He got kicked out and waited for her to leave, and I happened to be in the lobby at the time.”
That was close enough to her story, I thought. It wasn’t like Lucy told these people anything substantial, anyway. She went soul-searching and won some money, the end. Case closed. I could see that Marissa knew I was lying, but she didn’t point it out in front of everyone.
“Why didn’t you ever take a beating for me, huh, Jack?” Marissa, Seth’s oldest sister, turned to her husband with a mock glare, but he was totally unphased, the chilliest guy I’d ever seen.
“I take beatingsfromyou, Mar. That’s got to be good enough.” He took a swig of his beer with a slight, teasing smirk on his face, and she huffed loudly. “I remember the day we met. I was the sous chef, and your mom took you to my place for your eighteenth birthday. She demanded to talk to me personally about her food, and you were so embarrassed.”
Ah, that explained it. Every single person that had ever witnessed one of Meredith’s tantrums had probably been so obviously disgusted that the kids realized it wasn’t how they wanted to be.
“Really? What’d she say? More importantly, what’dyousay?” Mikayla spoke up, taking the attention off Lucy, and I tangled our fingers under the table comfortingly. She picked out a piece of tuna from her roll to feed it to Ketchup, and Sriracha headbutted my leg jealously.
“Ah, Meredith had eaten about three-quarters of her food before complaining about it. It’s a standard practice to try to get discounts or comps while still enjoying the food. The waitress was in tears, so hysterical that she eventually threw up in the bathroom over it. We sent her home, and some rich asshole with a spider tattoo crawling up his neck gave every single member of the staff a four-grand tip.” My breath hitched and I tensed, briefly before remembering none of these people knew who I was. Jack continued on as if that wasn’t more than an interesting side bit to his story, and Lucy smoothed the bristling hairs on the top of my palm with her thumb. “My then-boss lets the waitresses deal with their own customers because he’s not the kind of guy who’ll take the customer’s side anyway. So, I’m standing there listening to Meredith, and Mar is just melting deeper and deeper into the booth as Meredith gets louder and more aggressive. At one point, she even stands up, but I’m six-foot-six, so it’s whatever.”
“Oh, my God, stop.” Covering her face in embarrassment, Marissa sunk into her chair, but her husband ignored her as he took a drink of his beer. The tension in me slowly dissipated, and I took a huge, stabilizing breath before reaching for my own beer to wash down the sourness on my tongue.
“It gets worse, as you can imagine. I’m pretty chill, so after she exhausted herself, Meredith’s panting and spitting a little and her lipstick is sticking to her teeth, and she yelled for the manager. Keep in mind, this is a two Michelin Star place with wait staff practically in tuxes, and even us cooks have a uniform. It’s not some hokey diner, and the food is far from cheap. At the time, our cheapest steak was like fifty bucks. Skipping out on a meal ends up being two hundred dollars, easy, especially because she was letting you drink the thirty-dollar margaritas.” Jack cracked a smirk when Marissa groaned in foreboding, and the entire table hung on his words even though they all probably knew the story. “I didn’t want to embarrass Marissa because I wanted to get in her pants, so I just told Meredith that she could pay for her meal and leave or I’d call the police, she can pay, and get dragged out. I found out Meredith likes to call bluffs that day.”
“How’d you end up getting married after dealing with that?” I couldn’t help the question, and that’s when Jack’s smile stretched to reveal deep, diamond-cutting dimples. Marissa was practically under the table at this point, and my brows rose as anticipation thickened my blood. “I doubt she would’ve taken that laying down.”
“Oh, she didn’t. This is where it gets bad. She, forsomereason I still haven’t figured out, filed an order of protection against me personally. She didn’t read the signs that we have video and audio surveillance at that restaurant, so I brought it in when I contested the order. The judge watched about fifteen seconds of Meredith completely destroying this girl and denied the order and went absolutelyballisticon Meredith. Turns out, that chick was the judge’s niece.” My jaw nearly hit the table, and there were some gasps of surprise, as if everyone was hearing that part for the first time. No doubt, it was an egregious twist in the story, and Jack smiled over at Marissa with fondness and affection as he continued. “Marissa was so impressed and star-struck, she decided to go to law school. She actually came up to me and wanted to piss her mom off, and I wasn’t gonna say ‘no’. Come to find out, she’s really very sweet.”
“Shut up, Jack.” Grumbling as she shoved a piece of fish in her mouth, Marissa scowled darkly, and I was just stunned. That was one hell of a story, for sure.
“Every time I hear that story, it gets better and better.” Mikayla sighed wistfully, and I realized this was the first time, maybe ever, that I’d hung out with people that weren’t paid to be around me. And they were good people despite the circumstances. No one questioned me, where I came from; everyone around the table was just relieved the drama was finally over.
What a mind-blowing concept . . .friends.
22
Lucy
A soft tap on my shoulder tore my eyes off my phone, and I glanced up to find my mom standing in front of me with a somber look on her face, but anger and betrayal swirling in her eyes. Mateo’s plane wasn’t due to land for another hour, but everyone else had already gotten their stuff and headed home. I assumed my mom had, too, to try to avoid the situation, but obviously, I was wrong.
I turned back to my phone screen to scroll through the news and weather, but she sat next to me stiffly. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my mom frowning, and I pulled my headphones over my ears. As if that wasn’t a clear enough indication, I twisted away from her, and Marshal shuffled to readjust himself against my feet.
The flights from Honolulu to San Diego had been awkward— Seth sat with me and Mikayla sat with Meredith, but that didn’t stop her from talking the whole time. On the second flight out of San Diego, Seth told the pilot and all the attendants that if she opened her mouth before the plane got off the ground, they could kick her off immediately. Surprisingly, Meredith didn’t want to chance that scenario, but once we were in the air, she locked herself in the bathroom until we landed in Nashville.
