Her eyes bulged out of her head. “Ada Andrea, you can’t be serious.” I made a guilty face. “No! No, I don’t believe you. You’re lying to me.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know how it happened.”
“A date. An actual date. Did you already sleep with him?”
“Adleigh!” Now it was my turn to be outraged. “You can’t be serious.”
“Well, that’s how it went the last time. It wasn’t so much a relationship but bunnies in heat.”
“Oh my God, you were too young to know that. I regret everything.”
“Am I wrong?”
I glared at her and her self-righteous soapbox. “I was younger. Dumber.”
“You were older than I am now. And as you can see, I’ve found a nice, committed, drama-free relationship.”
She had a point. I hated that she had a point. “Listen, you’ve always been smarter than me. I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“I want you to say that you’ve thought this through,” she demanded in a voice that made her seem like the older sister. “I want you to say that you’ve thought about all possible consequences and outcome scenarios. And that you’re prepared for them.”
“Adleigh, it’s one date. It’s not like I agreed to marry the man.”
She stretched her body over the island to reach my hand. “Ade, do you remember last time? You were a wreck. I just... I don’t want you to get hurt again. Especially if you can avoid it.”
I bristled. “I wasn’t a wreck. I was fine. I knew we weren’t serious.”
She gave me that stern look again. “Ada, you totally shut down. You were already prone to pushing people away, but after Charlie... I don’t think I’ve seen you take a risk since.”
My stomach dropped from the center of my body to the basement of the building. “That’s not tru—”
“When’s the last time you’ve been on a second date?” I opened my mouth to argue. “Third? I know you weren’t in love with him, but after all that drama, you stopped letting people in altogether. Not just men, but girls too. You locked your friends into place and haven’t opened the door for anyone else since.”
“Lola,” I said smugly. “I let Lola in.”
“One person in five years? It’s not exactly something to be proud of. I mean, you barely know Shane.”
“What? I know Shane.”
She shook her head. “What’s his major?”
“Physical therapy.” She opened her mouth to argue with me, and I realized it had been a trick question. I snapped my finger and shouted, “Exercise science!” before she could tell me I was wrong.
She didn’t look proud of me. “That’s a lucky guess. He’s a college athlete. How many siblings does he have?”
Okay, this one was harder. Had Shane ever talked about his family before? Not with me. It wasn’t like he lived with his siblings. Also, he wasn’t my boyfriend, so what did it matter? “Three,” I said confidently.
“He’s one of six.”
“Obviously, I meant three older siblings and—”
“He’s the oldest.”
“Which is what I said. Five younger siblings.”
Adleigh was not impressed with my teasing. “My point is, I’m probably going to marry this man, and you haven’t even attempted to get to know him.”
“Well, it’s not just on me, Ad. He could make an attempt too.”
