I’m not complaining. He wears suits well, the quality material cut to fit his frame perfectly, giving the suggestion he could hulk out of the clothes at any moment. It’s also harder to remember we’re different when he looks like he blends so well into my world.
“I’m sorry to be early and intrude. I wanted to make sure I didn’t get stuck in any traffic.”
“Or did you want to spend some time with Sonia? It’s okay; we all know how awesome she is.” Priya digs for intel, nosy as a suspicious matriarch on an Indian soap opera.
I knew we should have limited her access to TV when we were kids, but no one listened to me.
“Priya. Let’s get ready so we aren’t late.” I snag her arm and drag her upstairs, almost knocking her off the couch in the process. Anything to get her away from Beau and to stop the embarrassment.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be back.” Priya says it in the style of the Terminator, and I roll my eyes.
Does Beau hear the threat in her voice? “Feel free to watch whatever and make yourself a drink or help yourself to any food,” I yell back at him while I drag her further up the steps.
“Payback,” Priya crows at me when we get into my master bedroom. I quickly shut the door so Beau can’t hear.
“I was never this obnoxious. At least not to Gavin’s face! Boundaries, woman!”
“If he can’t take the heat, he willnotlast in this family.”
That makes me anxious. Because I’m not doing forever. Unless it’s a commitment to watching Hallmark Christmas movies all year long, for forever. That, I can do.
“We haven’t even discussed if he wants to be in this family, or if I want him to.Idon’t particularly want to be in this family right now, if I’m being perfectly honest,” I whisper to her.
“Lies.” Priya starts rifling through my makeup boxes. “You know you dragged me out here without any of my stuff to get ready?”
I throw out my hands to stop her from walking to the door. “I’ll get it. You stay here. Please don’t think of new ways to embarrass me.” I wait a second to see if she’s going to comply. She starts putting on some makeup, so I’m as optimistic as I can be about my chances.
I run down the stairs, not sure how long I have before she gets bored and comes downstairs to wreak havoc.
Then I remember she doesn’t have a lot of patience where makeup is concerned so I run a little faster.
Chapter Seventeen
“Hey, Baby Girl.” Beau greets me from the couch, waving my own remote at me.
“Hi, Old MacDonald.” I grab the duffel bags and then retrace my steps back to the couch, leaning over the back and kissing him. “Sorry about the hectic day.” I really did want to spend a nice, peaceful day with him. But my family is getting in the way of that.
“It’s cool. I foundReno 911so I’m happy.”
“Sonia, where’s your curler?” Priya asks from the bedroom.
“I better go, or she’ll come down again and harass you.”
“I don’t mind. She’s nothing compared to the gold medalist in annoying that is my little sister.”
I nod along, letting him have his delusion since I’m abandoning him in my living room. No one is more annoying than Priya. Except Ajay. And they’re twins, so they get exponentially worse when they join forces. “Still. I better go entertain her.” But I don’t want to leave him.
“I’ll see you in a bit.” Beau presses play on the show and I watch him for a second before heading back up to my cousin.
I might have gotten freaked out when Priya talked about Beau joining the family, but I do like seeing him on my couch. The contradiction doesn’t help me sort out the jumbled mess of my feelings at all. So instead, I take a detour to the kitchen and get an entire pitcher of spiked eggnog and some glasses.
This night calls for reinforcements.
The spiked eggnog does its job better than I thought it would, the liquid helping me get ready with Priya despite her teasing and also distracting her enough so I only get a fraction of her typical intensity.
Cocktail dresses on and faces done up with more effort than we both usually put in, we walk downstairs. At some point when we were getting ready, Gavin got here and made himself comfortable on the couch with Beau.
They’re still watchingReno 911,a lot further in the season than Beau was before. Gavin made some more chai and found my liquor stashas well as more snacksand now they’re both lounging while they watch, a mountain of snack wrappers and glasses forming on my coffee table. And the men look like they’re getting along just fine.
