“We aren’t dancing.”
He stood and pulled her close to his body. “Can’t you hear the music?”
“No.”
She didn’t move out of his arms, but didn’t put her hands around his neck either.
“It’s playing in my head. A slow song telling me I need to bring you close so that I can thank you again for being here with me.”
“You’re welcome,” she whispered. “But I think you’re making more of it than it is. Your grandmother wasn’t nearly as bad as you said she’d be.”
“Because you know how to handle people. A lesser person would have gone crying from the room.” Natalie stiffened in his arms. “Did she bring up something like that to you?”
“In not so many words. Has it happened before?”
“Not with me,” he said. “She’s made my mother cry before. That’s difficult to do, but it was prior to the divorce. My father, he’s brought some silly women home. They crack easily.”
“I’m not silly nor do I crack under pressure.”
“You’re real,” he said, his mouth close to her ear. He was pushing fate and didn’t give one fuck.
“Few see that.”
“But I do,” he said.
The door opened to his room. Natalie went to step back, but he held her in place. No one would think it was odd that he was holding his girlfriend. It’s not as if they were naked, no matter how much he’d like to be.
“Sorry,” his grandmother said. “But your father just showed up and is asking to see you.”
Natalie turned in his arms, his hand sliding around her waist. “He’s never this early for anything. Should I guess the reason?”
“I don’t want to know,” his grandmother said. “I can tell him you’re not here yet.”
“Oh. I thought he knew.”
“Not yet. But I wanted to give you a warning. And that Brandi is going to cause some stir.”
“Is she wearing a bikini?”
“Her dress is just as obvious... and white.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? What woman wears a white dress to a wedding that isn’t the bride?”
“Someone your father is with. Let the fireworks begin.”
His grandmother closed the door after that.
“I thought maybe you were exaggerating things with your father,” she said.
“No. I can’t make this shit up. Even my mother, who loves to be the center of attention, wouldn’t dream of wearing white to another woman’s wedding.”
It might cross his mother’s mind, but she’d back down from it. Unless it was Erin’s ex remarrying. He could see his father making a dick move and inviting his mother to it.
He shook his head. It would never happen. His father swore never to marry again and he believed it.
“It’s rude,” she said.
“If my father is starting out this way, it’s only going to get worse.”
