“God, the airport was a goddamned nightmare. Worse than when I picked you up last week. At least Dad wasn’t drunk and crying like you were, so that was a plus.”
Great, I was hoping she’d bring that up in front of her dad.“Ha ha ha, aren’t you funny, Bean?"
“Yes, I motherfucking am. Oooohhhhh dips! Please tell me you have enough for us.”
“Does it look like I didn’t count you in?” I wave my hands at the food. It might be a ridiculous amount to most people, but not in the Sinclair house. “You act like we never feed you.” I slide the baking sheets full of sandwiches into the oven to melt the cheese and check on the fries in the two big ass air fryers, giving each basket a good shake before putting them back in for a few minutes.
“I’m so glad you and the rest of the Sinclairs finally get tomeet my dad! And on dip night! I love dip nights. Doesn’t it smell good in here, Dad?” Bean asks.
As I turn toward them, he answers, “Yes, it does.”
I freeze, my heart thudding wildly in my chest.
Because I know that voice. I heard that voice almost every day for a year. I heard that voice every night in my fantasies. And I heard that voice shout my name as he came inside me a week ago.
Alex’s eyes burn into me as I meet his shocked gaze. He usually keeps his beard trimmed close, but now it’s scruffy, like he hasn’t bothered shaving since I left. We’re both silent and frozen for just a moment too long before the spell is broken by the four-year-old tornado that is my little brother running in screaming, followed by my mom.
“Oh, good, you’re just in time for dinner! Zander, right? I’m Joan, and that’s Henry.” She points to the tornado, who runs around the island a few times and then back out of the room. “There are some other kids around here somewhere.”
“It’s Alex, actually. Only Tiffany calls me Zander, no matter how many times I ask her not to.” He’s put on his professional mask to cover the ‘what the fuck just happened’ feeling that still has me spiraling.
Bean crinkles her nose at me a little, and I realize I probably look exactly as gobsmacked as I feel. I concentrate on pulling on my own mask to hide behind.
“It’s good to meet you finally,” Alex says. “Lizzie’s always had such wonderful things to say about your family.”
“Well, we love her like she’s one of ours,” Mom tells him.
“You say that, but I still don’t have my own bed,” Bean smarts off. I grab an apple out of the fruit bowl on the counter and throw it at her head. She catches it, takes a bite out of it with a grin, and throws it back. It’s just instinct at this point.Muscle memory from so many years of being the kind of best friends we are.
I don’t look at Alex. I can’t. My heart is pounding in my chest. How in the hell did I work for him for a year–no, how the hell didI fall in love with him–and not realize he’s my best friend’s dad?
Well, his hatred of having his picture taken, for one. Me never telling her where I worked or my boss’s name, for another. And the fact that I’ve only ever heard him call her kiddo on the phone the few times he talked to her at work. Tiffany usually calls him ‘Lizzie’s father’ or a name he apparently doesn’t like.
Oh, fuck. I slept with a guy who slept with my arch nemesis.Sure, that was over twenty years ago, but still. He really was an idiot when he was younger.
And he’s still an idiot.
“Even when Minnie’s gone, I think Lizzie spends more time here than at home next door,” Mom says with a laugh.
Bean shudders. “Because Mom’s over there.”
I smirk without thinking, then make the mistake of glancing at Alex, who is staring at me. I feel a dozen different emotions in that stare. I feel a dozen emotions in my soul, too.
Spinning around, I focus on the food. Bean comes over to help me, grabbing plates and a big bowl of grapes.
“Are you okay?” she whispers to me, concern in her eyes.
No, of course I’m not okay, I fucked your dad!
I shove that thought away and nod as I start putting sandwiches and fries on plates and au jus in bowls. Mom yells for Dad and the rest of my siblings, and more introductions are made.
“Wait, we have met, right?” Alex asks my dad when they shake hands.
“Yeah, I picked Lizzie up from the airport a couple oftimes when you flew back here with her at the end of your visits.”
“Oh, I remember that! I asked if Minnie kept her promise not to have any fun without me,” Bean says with a laugh. “And you said she spent the whole time crying in her room.”
I snort. “Then you didn’t talk to me for two days when you found out we went to Disneyland while you were gone.”
