Page 123 of Masters of Secrets

Her mom sniffed.

“John always made time for family.”

“That is a complete rewrite of history,” Julie said flatly. “Should I be worried about memory loss, Mom? Do I need to talk to your doctor?”

“Do not be disrespectful, Julie. No matter how old you are, I am still your mother,” her mom scolded, neatly avoiding answering the question. Uh-huh. “If not this one, then the next one. Your aunties want to meet him, too.”

“You told the aunts?” She didn’t know why she was asking. Of course, her mom had told her sisters, Julie’s aunts. Her entire family was terrifyingly codependent. Some small part of her had hoped her mom wouldn’t tell the aunts, though, if only because it might break the illusion that she and John would one day get back together.

If her mom had told the aunts, that meant she was serious about meeting Connor as soon as possible, and she was gathering allies. Crap.

That also meant all of her cousins were going to know, too. If she didn’t bring Connor, she’d be getting the full-court press.

“Of course, I told them.” Her mom sniffed again. “This is the first man you’ve dated since John. At least, the first that you’ve felt was important enough to tell me about.”

There was that word again. Julie’s chest clenched.

Connor was important. Which was why she didn’t want him chased off.

“I’ll ask him if he can make it.” And make sure he didn’t feel too pressured, even though part of her wanted to panic at the idea of being surrounded by her nosy family, all asking questions about her new boyfriend. Especially her cousins. They were so nosy, they were probably already trying to find out who he was and look him up.

Maybe she shouldn’t have told her mother his name. Just a first name was all her cousin Sandra needed most of the time. She was the reason Julie had so much of her social media on lockdown. That girl should be working for the FBI.

“Good. I won’t take up any more of your time. We look forward to meeting this… Connor.” Her mom really was good at making someone’s name sound like a mortal insult.

Julie made a face as she hung up the phone, very aware that her mom had also acted like meeting him was a foregone conclusion. She still hadn’t even told Connor that she’d told her parents about him. They hadn’t discussed when that would happen. Or maybe it didn’t need to be a discussion? Maybe he’d already told his parents about her.

Though, from what he’d said about his family, he probably hadn’t flung the information at them like a slap after they’d sprung an ex on him. And she was pretty sure he hadn’t been married before. She’d told him her parents were still friendly with her ex, but she hadn’t really gone into detail.

Hopefully, their date on Friday didn’t go off the rails. He’d already hesitated about going to Stronghold with her, which she tried not to be hurt by. It might not have even been hesitation. Maybe he’d just had to talk to someone. They had been texting while he was at work. Maybe the gap in response time hadn’t been about that at all. There’d been another gap after that, an even longer one.

Though, he had made it pretty clear he didn’t want to scene at Stronghold.

Not yet, she told herself sternly.

It wasn’t anything personal to her. It was about him.

Yeah. Time to do some more box breathing before her next appointment. But at least the call with her mom was over. Now, she just had to face all the repercussions.

Chapter Fourteen

Connor

“A family cookout?” Connor stared at Julie, trying to get a feeling for where her head was at. He hadn’t realized they were quite there yet. Not that he objected to meeting her family on principle. It just seemed… fast. They hadn’t even spent time with each other’s friends yet. At least not together as a couple.

He was still nervous about doing that after dinner tonight.

Family seemed like the kind of thing that happened after a few months. Well, even more for his family since his parents lived hours away.

Julie sighed, tapping her fingers on the table as she fidgeted in her seat. He realized she was nervous, too. He didn’t think he’d ever seen her fidget like this before. Normally, she was cool, calm, and collected.

“You don’t have to say yes,” she said quickly. “I… well, remember how I had to rush out on Saturday to get to my parents? I went over to help them out, but my mom had called my ex-husband to come help, too.” She huffed in remembered frustration. “He showed up, and I immediately left because that’s the boundary I set with my parents about him remaining in their lives, and my mom chased me out the door and reminded me that I haven’t been seeing anyone since him. Which she apparently takes as a sign that we could still possibly end up back together.”

“Uh-huh.” Connor reached out and put his hand over hers, rubbing his thumb along her pulse to hopefully help calm her. He didn’t feel jealous. She’d mentioned her ex, and right now, it was clear that she felt nothing but annoyance at her parents for still having the man in their lives. Connor couldn’t imagine how he’d feel if his parents were still constantly in touch with any of his old girlfriends. He was pretty sure his mom was Facebook friends with his last serious girlfriend, but they weren’t hanging out or anything.

“So, I immediately told her that I was seeing someone.” Julie squeezed his hand, her expression turning sheepish. “Which… that’s not how I planned on telling her. It just came out because I was so frustrated. And I’m sorry. You deserved a better way to be introduced to them.”

“That’s okay,” he said immediately. It really was. Now he understood why she wanted him to come to the cookout. She needed him as a shield against her parents’ expectations and also to prove that he was real.