“Appears that way.” I can feel it when he turns his gaze onto me, so I turn to meet his eyes. “I love you,” he whispers, so quietly that no one else picks it up.
I flush, lifting a hand to hide my smile.
“Whatever,” I mumble into my skin, and he just grins harder.
Dinner continues to go very well.
Rowan’s parents aren’t very sociable—an inheritable trait, I guess—but they get along well enough with everyone else. And it's interesting to see Rowan interact with his brother. I’m beginning to wonder what it was he was so nervous about.
Eventually, the Coke gets to me.
“Excuse me, bathroom break,” I tell the table.
I use the trip as an excuse to analyze what has transpired so far.
I think Harold and Teresa like me. They ask questions about the newspaper and nod approvingly when I mention my education or my long-term goals in journalism.
Mom is absolutely obsessed with Rowan; she is convinced he’s the third most beautiful man she’s ever seen—outside of Dad and me, of course.
Jeff and Kyle were greatly offended by this.
Ramon seems to have made friends with my brothers-in-law, even going so far as to exchange numbers. And Carrie and Jess spent about ten minutes grilling Rowan, who only impressed them more and more with each passing second.
All that to say, everything is going smoothly. Almosttooperfectly, if you ask me.
I keep waiting for the awkward tension or the family bickering to start. But everything is so calm that it’s starting to freak me out. Maybe I’m just conditioned to believe that things are meant to fall apart; or maybe I’m just terrified that they will, because I want to keep Rowan more than I want anything else in this life.
As I’m leaving the bathroom, a hand catches my arm.
“Hey.” It’s Bennett. How long he was standing outside the men’s room, I’m not sure.
“Hey,” I say awkwardly, looking around to find us completely alone. “What’s up?”
“I just… can I ask you something?”
I think I can sense it: the tension, the beginning of things falling apart.
“Ah, sure?” I respond awkwardly.
Bennett clears his throat, running a hand through his blond hair. His royal blue eyes are staring down at me, and I can see in them that, for some reason, he feels betrayed.
“Why are you dating him?”
“S-sorry?” I’m so thrown off by the question that I forget to be irritated by his butting into my business after months of leaving me in peace.
“I mean, the guy stalked you. You know that, right? I know you confronted him about it; you even went on a date with me afterward. So what… what happened? Was I not enough for you?”Bennett's voice is a mixture of anger and hurt, a cocktail my irritation won't let me stomach.
Oh, Jesus Christ.
“Bennett,” I sigh. “This really isn’t any of your business. I chose Rowan, you can see that. So why are you still hung up on this?”
“Because!” he insists. “I really thought you liked me, and it hurt my feelings that you ran away from our date and went tohim.”
“I ran away from our date because I was having a panic attack, not because I wanted to get laid,” I deadpan. “You pushed my boundaries after I made them clear.”
“I apologized for that.”
“And I forgave you.”
