“Well, that feels like a loaded question.” She knew he was being serious, but it wasn’t helping her insecurities about this relationship one bit. Because she had a feeling Dillon wouldn’t tell her if something about her bothered him. “If you had something in your teeth, I’d tell you,” she finally said. “Or if your zipper was down.”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “Good to know.”
She could tell her answer had disappointed him somehow, but being serious right now would not help her relax. “So, would you tell me if I had bad breath? I feel like we should lay out some relationship etiquette ground rules now that you’ve mentioned it.”
He whistled low. “Would I tell you if you had bad breath? Hmm. I’d probably offer you gum. What about me? Would you tell me?”
“I think I’d do the same. Offer you gum or a mint. Or I’d tell you to go brush your teeth and come back and kiss me. Life’s too short for a bad kiss, you know?”
“This is good information. What if you didn’t like the shirt I was wearing?”
She scoffed. “I’m not going to tell you how to dress.”
“What if it had fringe?” he asked, nudging her side. “And bells.”
She snorted, trying to picture Dillon in anything like that. “Okay, let’s go down this road. What if I gave you a shirt with fringe and bells as a gift? Would you lie and tell me you loved it? Would you wear it?”
“I would keep it in the back of my closet and only wear it when you came over.” He pulled up the long drive to his mom’s house. “And now I’m terrified of what you might get me for Christmas.”
“You started it,” she said. Her heart felt lighter. He’d let her bypass the more serious discussion. He’d even one-upped her.
For a moment, she’d forgotten they were going inside to tell his whole family they’d lied to them. But maybe they already knew. Brenda had been sworn to secrecy, but she wasn’t the most tight-lipped person Lina had ever met.
“You ready to do this?” Dillon asked.
Lina nodded. “‘Operation: Spill The Beans’ is a go.”
OceanofPDF.com
Chapter 14
Lina was so wonderful, but sometimes Dillon felt like she was holding back, like she only let him skim the surface of who she was. Ironically, it was because he knew her better now, that he could sense there was underlying meaning in things she said, or didn’t say. He knew when she held back, even if he didn’t know what those unsaid things were.
Maybe it was his brain trying to nitpick at their relationship. Everything was going so well, which meant something was due to go wrong, according to his anxiety.
Lina would laugh if he told her. It was superstitious to think that way.
He put the truck in park. Josie pulled in right as they did and hurried over to the passenger side window, looking excited. Lina lowered her window and smiled. Dillon braced himself for whatever impulsive thing was about to come out of Josie’s mouth.
“Mom said you two had some kind of announcement for us.” Josie rubbed her hands together. “Way to decide to do it on corndog gingerbread house night. That’s gonna be a classy memory to tell your kids about.”
Lina turned and stared at Dillon, utter confusion on her face. “Wait, what?”
Dillon cleared his throat. “It’s not that kind of announcement, Josie.”
“Ooh, what then?”
The look Dillon gave her had Josie putting her hands up in surrender. “Never mind. I’ll wait. Let me take your cake in for you, Lina.”
Lina handed her cake carrier over to Josie, who took it into the house, holding it above her head so the dogs couldn’t reach.
“We’re having gingerbread corndogs for dinner?” Lina asked. “That sounds … festive.”
“I’d forgotten about this tradition. Mom didn’t tell me it was tonight. But it’s not gingerbread corndogs, it’s regular corndogs while we make gingerbread houses. When we were little, she could never get us to stop decorating long enough to eat dinner, so she’d stick a corndog in our hands. And somehow it morphed into this weird family tradition. The corndogs are homemade now, not from the frozen food aisle. So, there’s that.”
Lina’s mouth dropped open a little. “I love your family so much more now.”
“And they love you.” The words he couldn’t say rang out in his head. But it was too soon to say he loved her. Too much risk. Dillon knew enough about using humor as a shield to know that’s what she’d done with his question earlier. He worried that Lina felt pushed into this, or that they weren’t compatible, or that it was too much too soon. And he worried that he worried too much.
