She took another sip of her drink. “That’s going to be fun.”
I chuckled. “Not really.”
“Don’t worry. They’ll give you a hard time, but they won’t mean it. Do you want to tell them tonight?”
“Will everyone be there?”
“I believe so.”
“Either that’s perfect or it’ll just give them a way to gang up on me. But yeah, that would be great. And thanks for not freaking out when I said South Carolina.”
“I’ve had adult children long enough to know the best thing I can do is go with the flow and love you from afar, if that’s all I can do.”
Maybe she was talking about me, but she was also talking about Reese. She had to be. I needed to know what the hell was going on with him, or at least what she knew. I opened my mouth to ask her, but before I could get a word out, a little old lady in a gold velour tracksuit came in and immediately spotted us.
Aunt Louise.
Louise Haven was a small-town force of nature. If you had so much as a stuffy nose, she’d be at your house with soup or a casserole. But she was most famous, at least among my brothers and me, for having declared herself the Haven family matchmaker.
The problem? No one wanted their eccentric aunt to set them up on dates. Especially because she was notoriously bad at it.
“Marlene!” She gave my mom an air kiss next to her cheek. “What a lovely surprise.”
“Hi, Louise,” Mom said with a smile. “How have you been?”
“Can’t complain.” Aunt Louise pulled a chair to our table, sat, and dug a small notebook and pen out of her large handbag.“Theo, I’m so glad you’re here. I’ve been working on something for you.”
I didn’t reply. Just met my mom’s eyes with a look of alarm. She smiled, as if to say,Don’t worry.
But I was worried. You had to worry when Aunt Louise was up to something. And she was always up to something.
Louise flipped through the pages of her notebook. “Here we are. What are you doing Friday evening?”
I hesitated and she looked at me expectantly, batting her eyelashes. “You’re free? Good—”
“Whoa,” I said, putting my hands up. “Slow down, Aunt Louise. If you’re trying to set me up on a date, the answer is no.”
“Don’t be silly. You haven’t been on a date in ages, have you?”
“No, but—”
“Then it’s the perfect time. You know you can trust me.”
I blinked at her. “You once set me up with one of my former students, which was awkward enough. And I think she was still in college, and I was like thirty-one.”
“If recall, she was mature for her age.”
Mom clicked her tongue. “That is a bit young, Louise.”
“Oh, fair enough.” She batted my mom’s comment out of the air. “But that was then, and my matchmaking skills have improved considerably. This one isn’t one of your students; she’s a teacher.”
My brow furrowed. I hoped she wasn’t talking about Ashley, the English teacher at my school. Even if she wasn’t secretly hooking up with Jeremy, there’d never been any chemistry between us.
Not that it mattered. I wasn’t dating anyone.
“Her name is Kelly. She teaches fourth grade, I think?” Louise went on. “Or maybe it’s fifth. She’s been in a relationship that’s, let’s say, not the best. It’s an on-again, off-again sort of thing, and we all know that’s not healthy.”
“If she’s in a relationship, why are you trying to set her up with me?” I asked.
