“Admiring your great love?”
He turned around, startled. When he saw me, he pulled me close. “Now I am.”
I knew it was risky, but I couldn’t help it. I kissed his soft, full lips, and I didn’t want to stop.
“They’re going to see,” he said, resting his forehead on mine.
I shrugged. “Let them all see. I think I’ve changed my mind.”
“About getting married?” he joked.
I rolled my eyes. “Nooooo. About telling them tonight.”
His eyes sparkled, and he reached his hand out to me. “Then let’s get to it.”
Maybe we should have planned what we were going to say or how we were going to say it, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because before we had even said the blessing, Olivia started. “Anything you two want to tell us?”
I could feel my mom kick her under the table.
I cut my eyes at Mom. “What do you know?”
Olivia shrugged. “Oh, nothing. We don’t know a thing. Just wasn’t sure if there was any news you wanted to share, in particular?”
Parker and I shared a glance.
He reached over, took my hand, squeezed, and said, “Well, it appears that you already know, but Amelia and I are dating.”
Mom let out a scream so high-pitched and long and loud that I thought perhaps my eardrums had burst.
Olivia gave her a look. “So it’s true! Is it new?”
I bit my lip guiltily. “Well, six weeks.” It wasn’t that long, but it was a long time to talk to my mother every single day and not breathe a word to her.
Now Mom gasped. “So all those times you said you weren’t seeing anyone special…”
I broke out in a grin that I absolutely could not suppress. “I lied. He is the most special.”
“Well,Robbyis the most special,” Aunt Tilley interjected.
“But Robby is my brother, so, while he is special, he is not a man I will ever be in love with,” I replied.
“Right,” she said. “Of course. Your brother. Sometimes I forget.”
“So this must be serious, huh?” Mom asked.
She clearly wanted to ask when we were getting married. She simply could not accept it as true when I told her I wasn’t getting married again.
“Any important future plans?” Olivia asked, a little more boldly. “Anything I should get a diamond out of the safe for?”
Neither of us said anything.
“What about a baby?” Tilley trilled.
That was when I jumped in. “No, no, Aunt Tilley. I can’t have a baby. Remember?”
Evidently, the ball was over, because she said, just as clear and lucid as anyone else around the table, “Oh, but couldn’t you try IVF again? Don’t you have a couple more embryos?”
Perfect freaking time for her to come back to reality. I’m sure I looked horrified because Parker and I had never really discussed this. To be honest, I didn’t think we had to. We’d tried. We’d failed. We’d moved on. But when I looked into his face I could have sworn that I saw something almost hopeful in it.
