He's full-out grinning at me now. "What are you trying to avoid telling me, Hattie?"
"That I begged Sidney Hawkes to pretend to date me until after your wedding," I blurt all at once. "And you can't be mad because you already pinky promised not to be."
Tye stares at me levelly.
"Say something."
"I already know."
"What?" I gape at him. "Since when? How?"
"Sidney told me at practice this morning," he mutters. "He figured I should hear it from him." Tye cocks his head to the side, his eyes narrowed on me. "He drove you home last night."
"Yes. He thought I had a concussion."
"What the fuck? Why?"
"Because I asked him to date me?"
"You got a thing for Sid, Hattie?"
"What? No!" I say…maybe a little too quickly. "No. I just really don't want Mom calling in reinforcements. If I have to go to your wedding with Cory Jenkins, I'm running away and joining a convent."
"You'd never survive life in a convent. You like to talk too much. And you aren't dating that little prick," he growls. "I already want to kill him for the shit he said to you."
"Sidney told you?" I gasp, heat climbing into my cheeks.
"Yeah, he told me." My brother glowers at me. "And I'm curious as hell why I heard it from him instead of you."
"Maybe because I didn't want to tell you?"
"Try again."
"Fine." I throw my hands up. "It was humiliating, okay? I knew guys like that existed. I just never thought I'd end up dating one because of my own mother! And maybe I wanted to prove that I could handle it myself instead of having you, Briggs, or Harlan step in like you always try to do. I'm grown now, Tye. I can do grown-up things."
Maybe I make them awkward or uncomfortable. Maybe I'm not outgoing, famous, crazy talented, or wildly popular like my brothers, but I'm not helpless either. Is it really so hard to believe that I can be awkward, a little shy, and maybe even weird and still be a capable, functioning adult?
According to everyone I know, yes. My brothers mean well. They overcompensate. I'm not sure if they're trying to make up for the fact that Dad isn't here to watch out for me, or if they're trying to make up for the way our mother treats me. Either way, them going overboard doesn't really help.
"Yeah, fuck that," he mutters. "You have brothers for a reason."
"Yes. That reason is biology. Dad shot a lot of—"
"Donotfinish that sentence."
"I'm just saying," I say sweetly.
He glares at me for a long moment before his expression softens and a rough bark of laughter escapes his lips. "So…you bullied Sid into pretending to be your date, huh?"
"I didn't bully him. I asked nicely."
"Uh-huh."
"I did."
"Sid doesn't date, Hattie. If he agreed to this plan of yours, it's because you bullied him."
"Whatever." I scowl at him, annoyed and a little hurt. Why does everyone on the planet think dating me is so awful? First, Sidney said it was stupid. Now Tye thinks it requires bullying. Maybe I am destined for a future with a guy like Cory Jenkins.
