Dane slips to my side.
He looks as weary as I feel.
“Could you quit being a suspicious ass for one minute for the sake of someone else?” Dane’s grandmother snaps.
“Could you quit acting like I’m the problem here?” Grandma snaps back.
“Youarethe problem.”
“This ismy party. I didn’t interrupt yours, did I? No. No, I didn’t.”
“Maybe it’s good to let them get it out before the wedding?” Lorelei murmurs.
“And don’t even think about passing gas in here,” Grandma adds to Mr. Silver.
“He does not have gas, you hussy,” Mrs. Silver screeches. “That wasyourhusband!Healways tooted in the market!”
Dane and Lorelei’s father and uncle both hustle over to the Silver grandparents while Mom leaps between them. “Vicki. Let’s go get a drink and take a deep breath. This isn’t worth making a scene.”
“They’remaking a scene.”
“No offense, Amanda, but I don’t think it’s my grandparents making a scene,” Lorelei murmurs.
“No offense taken. I don’t think you’re wrong.”
“We should sign them up for a reality TV show,” Esme says from Dane’s other side. “Old People Fighting over Stupid Shit.It would be a train wreck and it would make millions.”
“Mom, Dad, maybe we should go,” Dane’s dad says.
“We were invited,” Dane’s grandma snarls.
And suddenly, I can’t take it anymore. “Enough,” I snap.
Every eyeball in the room turns to stare at me.
“That’s. Enough,” I repeat.
Dane squeezes my hand.
“We’re not actually engaged,” my mouth says before my brain can stop it.
Exclamations of surprise go up around the room.
Dane jerks a look at me.
I squeeze his hand tighter. I don’t want to let go.
But I’ve started this and now I can’t stop it.
“I made it up,” I tell the entire community gathered here. “I made up the whole lie about being engaged to a Silver because I don’t want to move home and make the Gingerbread House my whole life. I have a life and a community and a job I love in New York. And a play. I wrote a freakingplayand we revitalized our community theater to put it on.”
I need to shut up.
I need to stop talking.
But Dane squeezes my hand, a quietI’ve got your back, and more comes tumbling out of my mouth. “When I told Dane, he agreed to go along with it because he hates how much our families fight, and because he knows Lorelei is one of my favorite people in the entire world and he just wanted us to be able to go to dinner without having to sneak around for fear of making any of our elders upset. Andthat’s so fucking stupid.”
“Amanda,” my grandmother whispers.
