“I’m not in high school, Mom. I don’t need you slipping me cash for my dates,” I whisper back, my tone dry.
She waves me off. “Let me do this for my son. I know things must be tight with the houseandthe apartment, and a car payment.”
“Mom. I have plenty of money for those things. Promise.”
She scoffs. “Just take the gift. We’ll talk later.” She nudges me back to my “girlfriend” with a pleased smile.
When we’re a few steps away, Malia turns her face into my shoulder and lets out a laugh. “I do not get it,” she says in a low voice. “Youbought their house. How can she really believe you don’t have money to take me out for ice cream?”
I shake my head. “Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve tried to tell her I’m very financially stable. I think it’s my cousin’s fault. He had this IT business that went belly-up spectacularly. Lost his house and everything, wife divorced him and took the kids about ten years ago. I guess she lives in fear of that happening to me.” I shrug. “She keeps sending me job listings for IT jobs at stable companies, where I’d make half of what I make now.”
Malia pats my shoulder. “I believe in you, if it makes you feel better.” She’s biting her lips again, trying not to smile too wide at the whole thing.
“I’m going to slip this back to her later without her knowing.”
She squeezes my hand, but before she can reply, someone calls, “Caleb!” I turn to see my other sister, Jenna, waving at me. “You guys are over here with me and Devin.”
“Perfect,” I mutter under my breath. Was it too much to hope that we be seated with some of Law’s teammates who don’t care who I’m dating?
I lead Malia through the tables to our seats. “Hi,” Jenna says, holding out a hand to Malia when we approach. “I’m Jenna?—”
“Caleb’s sister,” Malia finishes warmly. Bonus to being friends with Malia so long: we didn’t have to go over all this stuff for her to already know it.
Jenna looks surprised, probably because she and Devin have talked about how suspicious it is that I suddenly have a girlfriend right before the wedding.
“I’m a hugger, is that okay?” Malia repeats the request she had for me when we first met.
Jenna blinks. “Of course,” she says, leaning in and embracing Malia. She gives me an approving head tilt and barely-there nod.
Despite the fact that the place cards say I’m supposed to sit next to Jenna, she pulls Malia to that seat. “Caleb hasn’t told us anything about you,” Jenna said. “Ugh, brothers.”
Malia laughs. “I wouldn’t know. Just one sister. But I can imagine.”
“So what do you do?” Jenna asks.
“I work for a company called Vire Gaming.”
Jenna gives a slow nod, likeof course. That makes sense.“And that’s how you two met? Online?”
“Yep,” I say.
“He offered up some suggestions for housing when I relocated to Houston last year,” Malia says, “and we got to talking. Then he asked me out a couple weeks ago and …” She shrugs.Here we are.
“Oh,” Jenna says. “So you’ve known each other a while?”
“Yep,” I reply again. Jenna scowls at me, and I laugh. I lay my arm casually over the top of Malia’s chair, and she leans back into it like it’s automatic.
That’s when I notice Ivy and her husband, Chad, talking to Law and Carlie. She turns, probably to find her seat, and meets my gaze. She hesitates, and I can feel her uncertainty on what to do next.
So I stand. Ivy and I can’t avoid each other all night and all day tomorrow. It’s better just to get this out of the way. It’s been almost two years, and I’m fine.
Ivy takes Chad’s hand to approach, and Malia stands up next to me, sliding a hand possessively around my waist.
CHAPTER 6
MALIA
I want to be completely fine with the fact that Caleb’s ex is making her way over to us. But something roars up inside of me. Something protective. Caleb hasn’t said in so many words how thoroughly Ivy broke his heart, but it was there between the lines of what he said. In the way he told me that he thought she’d get back in contact with him once she’d worked some things out. But she never did, and six months later she started dating Chad.
