My entire family swarms him. Kisses, hugs, cheek pinches, the works. He’ll never be on their naughty list.
Chapter five
Malcolm
“You knew about this?”Benny’s eyes are about to bug out of his skull at his fiancée. They herded me into the kitchen the minute I walked in here. No,‘Hello, thanks for coming.’ Just snatched my phone like the meddling vultures they are, and they have been glued to it since.
“She just told me today! I swear!” Ellie defends her friend, giving me those pity eyes I despise.Don’t pity me.
“She likes a clean-shaven man?” Benny lets out a whistle as Ellie snatches the phone and scans it even more. Kate’s dating profile. Yeah, I may have made a fake profile to scope out the situation. It took less than five minutes to figure out which app she is using and answer theAbout Mequestions. Someone had to. “How do you feel about this?” Benny’s bug eyes are on me now, gesturing a hand around his jaw. This behavior, paired with his Santa hat, is making it real difficult to take him seriously.
“I don’t know. She’s an adult. She makes her own choices.” I shrug and take a sip of brandy from my reindeer cup. I don’t need to tell them how I feel or about my new impulsive urge toshave.Clean-shaven men.Four years of pristine patience gone in seconds.
“Are you okay?” Ellie asks. The worry in her voice makes my skin crawl.
“I’m fine.” I down the last sip of my brandy before popping the cork of the bottle and filling up again. “Can we drop it?”
Benny and Ellie glance at each other then back at me. Probably some weird, engaged-couple telepathy thing they’re doing. I stare at them, unblinking and huddled in the corner of the kitchen, away from the cheerful festivities. The awkward silence builds, and their anticipation is palpable and infuriating. Benny sips on his cider loudly. Ellie taps her fingers on the counter slowly. Both of them are chomping at the bit to keep talking about this situation.
The situation where I, an almost forty-year-old chump, have had a crush on my best friend for five years. Someone so polar opposite of me that the idea of us being together is laughable. The friend that has finally decided to start dating again after three years. Before that? I had to endure the trainwreck of a relationship unfold between her and Eric.
Picturing him makes me want to gouge my eyes out.
Everyone with a brain knows I have feelings for Kate. On some level, I think Kate does too. And when Eric left, everyone—and I do mean everyone—leapt at the chance to get us together, meddling their way into a complex friendship. Lucky for me, Kate swore off dating, and I didn’t have to put up with our librarian, Margaret’s, wooing tactics. Apparently, all it would take to get Kate to give me a chance is the right moves. I grimace at the memory of Margaret shaking her hips and puckering her lips.
Now, Kate is back on the market. So much so that she’s bringing strangers to her lola’s house. And if the darting eyesfrom the family are any indication, it’s clear what everyone here thinks. They think I should just ask her out. It’s that simple.
To them.
But to me, not so much. I don’t like most people. I don’t like feelings. And I definitely don’t like my friends knowing about my feelings. If I could gag myself and get run over by my own truck, I would if it meant not having to endure this conversation.
“So you’re really not going to tell her?” Ellie whispers. “Don’t you want to know if she feels the same way?”
“Nope.”
“Apo, don’t you lie to your friends.” Lola limps into the kitchen to join us, the bells on her sweater jingling with each step, her elf hat abandoned on the couch.
Benny and Ellie rush to find her a chair and help her sit down steadily. The woman had hip surgery, was told by her doctor to take it easy, yet here she is, forcing us all to have a Christmas party in March.
“I’m not lying,” I grumble at the scoffs and eye rolls I get in response.
“Don’t you lie to me either.” She shoves her knuckle into my thigh. They sat her next to me and just vanished. Of course they did.
“Lola …” I squat down, getting eye level with this fragile woman—basically my surrogate grandmother. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.” I rub the back of my neck when her eyes shift downward. I can’t stand seeing her sad. It’s like seeing Kate sad in forty years. It guts me.
Laughter and clinking of drinks come from the other side of the kitchen counter. Even when I’m squatting, I’m still tall enough to see they’re all playing Christmas charades. Kate sits on the armrest of the couch, a solid five feet from Nick. Herdate.I can tell she’s uncomfortable by the way she’s white-knuckling her cup and looking over at the kitchen every few seconds.
“Go rescue her,” Lola says.
“Why? She brought him here. She should suffer the consequences.”
Lola chuckles at me then proceeds to jam her knuckle into my arm this time. “She’s just ready to find happiness. She’ll learn where and who to find that with soon enough.” She gives me a wink.
I blow all the air out of my lungs and smooth out my beard. I want her to be right. Iwantto be Kate’s happiness. But what if I’m not what she wants? Am I really going to jeopardize our friendship just to put myself out there?
“I can’t lose her,” I breathe.
“You won’t.” She pats me on the shoulder then uses me as a brace as she stands on wobbly legs. “You can’t lose someone you’re destined to be with.”
