“Yeah, why are you taking a break?” Gareth persisted, and Connor could still feel Lucy’s skeptical expression.
“Because some things are more important than bets.”
And he really didn’t hate Rachel anymore…
Chapter Twenty-One
Honesty is important! Never forget that! The truth should always come out.
From the self-help book for self-pitiers by psychologist Rachel James
Are you really sure about that? - Connor
I’ll never get married. You know that.
Rachel shrugged and blinked the words out of her mind. Connor’s statement hadn’t been meant for her, and…it didn’t matter. She knew what Connor thought about weddings and marriage. The fist-sized lump in her stomach had no right to exist.
“It’ll be a few more minutes before anyone can eat,” Cian said apologetically. “So be patient.”
Maddie sighed. “Fine. But can we at least have potato salad now?”
“No.”
Maddie looked at Ada, who was busy on her phone. “Your father is mean,” she whispered loudly.
“It’s okay,” she said absently. “If you pout well enough, his marshmallow heart will melt.”
Hailey laughed loudly, to which Cian only responded with a grim look. Rachel smiled too; she had all but forgotten Connor’s words. She preferred to concentrate on Cian.
Rachel was surprised by his beautiful house. It was colorful and lively, not messy, exactly, but a little chaotic. The spacious garden had a small pond to the right, while to the left there were two rows of picnic benches where Tara and Izzie were sitting with a few other men and women whom Rachel vaguely recognized from the Sunny Umbrella. And then, of course, there were Gareth and Connor, their long legs stretched out, focused on a television positioned directly in front of the glass wall of Cian’s cozy living room. A baseball game was on.
Lucy was standing a little ways off, talking on the phone, which gave Rachel the chance to look at Connor, letting her gaze wander over the back of his neck…
He turned his head as if he had sensed her eyes on him. She quickly jerked her head away. She wanted to talk to him, wanted to know how the conversation with Alec had gone. She wanted to sit next to him and joke about Gareth secretly typing emails on his phone under the table as if he knew his friends would nag him about it. She wanted to hold his damn hand! Wanted to ask him if he honestlyneverwanted to get married.
She swallowed. Maybe you shouldn’t do those things with a sex-leasing partner, but what did she know?! She’d never had one before.
“Where are Scotland-Beard and Eggsy?” Ada interrupted Rachel’s thoughts. The girl looked up at Hailey, her eyessquinting against the sun. “You could have brought them. The blind goldfish could have gone into our pond.”
“Nah,” Hailey said. “We’re having barbecued chicken and other meats today. I didn’t want to upset them.”
“Dad!” Ada exclaimed, hurt. “It was insensitive of you to buy chicken!”
Cian sighed. “I also bought veggie burgers for Hailey.”
Ada deliberately ignored that, even though Hailey looked visibly surprised.
“So, the animals are alone in the office?” the thirteen-year-old continued.
“They’re never really alone. I have a camera. Wait. I can even hook it up to the TV.”
“Oh, that would be much more interesting than the baseball game,” Ada said enthusiastically.
Gareth and Connor’s exclamations of disbelief when Hailey and Ada started fiddling with the TV shortly afterward probably meant they didn’t see it that way.
“Men and their sports, seriously. So silly,” Maddie mumbled, bewildered, before her cheeks turned red. “Oh God, don’t tell Matt I said that!”
Rachel laughed and put an arm around her shoulders as they strolled over to Gareth and Connor. Everything felt almost normal between them again — and the thought that she’d practically promised Connor she’d talk to her sisters about their mother today gave her a lump the size of Texas in her throat. But she’d meant it. It was about time.
