“I don’t care,” I teased, holding on tight. “I missed you. Give meahug.”
“No. You’re being acreeper.”
“How come you never come visit meanymore?”
“Because I’mseventeen.”
“That’s not an answer,Quinn.”
“Okay, how’s this?” he said, smirking. “I have better things to do than hang out with my sister. Besides, the last time I came over, you made meclean.”
“You loved it and youknowit.”
“Yeah, because scraping bird shit off your window sills is my idea of agoodtime.”
“You know, there was a time when I was your favoriteperson.”
“By default, Emma. You were the only onearound.”
He had a point, but there was so much more to our relationship than that. Quinn and I had a special bond, and although he didn’t particularly like me throwing it in his face in front of others, I knew full well what he thoughtofme.
Casey and Kenzie,my brother Kyle’s girlfriend, popped through the door and showered my mom with hugs and compliments. She ate it up. I suppressed the eye roll that was itching to be released. At least Mom had those two to make her dreams of grandbabies a reality. I could see them popping out enough little McKallisters to satisfy my mom’s needs without gettingmywomb involved in theaction.
“You ready?” Kenzie asked, plopping downbesideme.
Quinn saw his opening. Taking advantage of my momentary lapse in concentration, he weaseled out of my arms and charged for the door before I could reclaim him. Did he really think I’d make the effort to chaseafterhim?
“Emma?” Mom said, feeling the need to help me socially. “Did you hearKenzie?”
Purposely ignoring her meddling, I turned to Casey and Kenzie. “Readyforwhat?”
“For us,” Casey said, spreading her arms out. “We’re having a girls’ night. Music, drinks, goodcompany.”
“Oh, wouldn’t that be fun?” my mom pitched in, giving me that fake cheerful face that said,I know you’re a miserable boob, but try not to ruin things for the restofus.
“What about Jake and Kyle?” Iasked.
“Jake’s got prep stuff and Kyle is pretending to guard him, so it’s just the threeofus.”
Great. I might have been able to stomach a girls’ night if the boys were at least coming. Then Grace came flouncing into the room. Oh, thank god, I was saved. My sister wedged herself into the armchair next to me. I immediately grabbed some of her hair and smootheditout.
“Actually, Grace and I were thinking of just staying in and doing our nails and things.” …and avoiding Finn…and avoidingyoutwo.
“Grace is hanging out with Jake tonight. He’s showing her some behind the scenes stuff,” Mom said, looking pleased that she was boxing me infurther.
Grace glanced up at me with guilty eyes. “Sorry. I was just coming in totellyou.”
“So you’d rather spend the evening with your boring rock star brother than your kick-ass onlysister?”
“Uh…yeah.”
I didn’t blame her. So would I. Great. Now I needed to wrack my brain for another excuse. But as I was sifting through the mental list, the expectant faces staring back at me weakened my resolve. Did it mean that much to them that I follow along, or had this been some concocted plot all along? “Iguess…”
“Awesome. You have five minutes,” Casey said, without giving me anoption.
My mother was smiling conspiratorially with my brothers’ significant others. Yep, concocted. I wondered how she’d asked the girls to drag me along.Please take my anti-social daughter out and find her a man.Ugghh.
* * *
