“He wasn’t my boyfriend at the time,” I told her, but she only pursed her lips in his direction anyway.
“How about Monopoly?” Nev asked, perking up.
Casey rejected his sister’s suggestion, and we ended up crowded around the kitchen table playing a couple of rounds of Sorry. I’d gotten first pick of color pieces, which had been nice, and no one had given me a hard time when I wanted to be red. We talked and things were easygoing and… normal. Casey sent me smiles, and yeah, I had a plug in my ass that occasionally nudged my insides in interesting—and hot—ways, but other than that, it was one of the single most pleasant evenings I’d ever had.Normalwas something my life had been missing.
Halfway through what Raven had declared to be the final game, Nev glanced up and glared at me. I looked around.
“What? What’d I do?”
“Do you have a suit?”
My mind blanked. “Uh….”
Her blue eyes, the exact same shade as Casey’s, gleamed in a frightening way. “You’ll need to get him a suit, Case,” she said and then swiveled her attention back to me. “Our sister Tori is getting married this summer. It’s going to be a destination wedding. Tahiti.” She fluttered her eyelashes like it was a religious experience to simply say the word. “You’ll need to have lightweight material—”
“Nev, he never agreed to go out of the country with me.” Casey scowled at her.
“It’s Ta-hi-ti,” she said to him as if he was stupid. “Who wouldn’t go? Anyway, it’s gorgeous in the summer. Buggy, but unreal. The family is already paid for because our parents wouldn’t dream of it any other way. Merit and Creed said they would go already,” she turned to tell him.
“Well, yeah. It’s a free vacation.”
“So?” She whipped her attention back to me again.
I glanced at Casey. My insides froze.
He huffed at his sister. “Angel, you don’t have to tell her anything. It would make me happy if you went with me, but it’s months away. Don’t feel rushed.” It was kind of funny seeing him be both out of his element and not too upset. He always seemed on edge, but here, with his family and me, he was nearly laid-back.
“Months is minutes in wedding time,” Nev said.
Raven nodded. “She’s right you know. Our wedding was such a whirlwind, and we planned for two years. I didn’t even talk to everyone there that day.”
Casey shook his head, but the gentle way he smiled at his sister and Raven had me wanting to say—“Yes! Uh… yes, I’d like to go.”
Nev screeched and the game laid forgotten on the table as she got up to come around and give me another hug. I was ready for it this time and it wasn’t as bad. I patted her arm awkwardly until she let go and went back around to her seat again. “I can’t wait! We’ll have so much fun, and you’d look adorable in a seersucker suit.”
“I’ll pick out his clothes, not you,” Casey grumped.
Raven giggled.
“I mean… he’ll pick out his clothes.”
My face overheated, but it was nice when the women burst out laughing. This was like having friends… or family. They weren’t making fun of me. My eyes wanted to do that watery, leaky thing, and I had a whirlpool of that good-bad emotional crap settle into my chest. I’d always known my family situation was fucked, but this let me measure how much. I’d never guessed you could havefunwith the people you were related to. We ended up finishing the game eventually, after an extensive listing from Nev of all the places she wanted to take me to look for a suit, and Raven won without too much gloating.
Casey made coffee, and the game stayed on the table, forgotten. I sat there listening to stories about people in Casey’s family that everyone else apparently knew, only half hearing them. The plug moved in my ass when I shifted in my seat, and while it wasn’t pressing directly on my prostate, it snagged my attention every time I wasn’t focused on what was being said. The doorbell rang again and my eyes snapped open. I’d been drifting off.
Casey groaned. “Who else did you invite?” he asked his sister.
“Not me! No one.” Nev waved her arms. “Don’t blame me!”
I stood to get the door because the company already here was his, but he shook his head at me on his way out to do it himself, and I sat back down.
Merit came into the kitchen with Casey and there was an explosion of greetings. Nev laid a big hug on him, too.
“Sorry, but I’m dead on my feet tonight. Let’s go home,” Raven said, gathering her coat and purse from where they’d been scattered around the kitchen. As Raven pulled on her gloves, Nev came over to give her a hug and a kiss. I startled. I’d never been around another gay couple, and it made me think maybe it would have been okay to have sat beside Casey instead of across the table from him. I glanced at him and shyness washed over me when I found him already watching me.
I got another hug from Nev, and one from Raven on their way out, and I was cleaning up the game when Merit came over with the cupcake container and plopped it on the table. He sat down and rubbed his hands together.
“Those are my cupcakes,” I informed him, slightly outraged at the greedy gleam in his eyes.
