Page 147 of Masters of Secrets

The path was almost at its end, and Connor could see over the fence now. Not that he could see much because the gate was on the side of the house rather than right at the back, so he only had a partial view of the backyard. Enough to know it was full of people. Almost all of whom had black or grey hair, though he did spot a blond man and a woman with auburn hair.

“It’ll be fine,” Julie said, though from her tone, he wasn’t sure if she was talking to him or to herself. It really could go either way. “We don’t have to stay the whole time.”

“No, I want to.” He was determined to impress her family. Even though she hadn’t said it, and she’d tried to downplay it, he could tell this was a big deal to her. She wanted this to go well. “Don’t cut the visit short on my account. I’ll be fine.”

Glancing up at him, she smiled, though it looked a little forced.

“We’ll see,” was all she said before reaching out to open the gate.

No one turned as it swung open, and they were able to approach the crowd in the backyard without drawing too many eyes to them—at least, until they reached the edge of people, and several of them caught a glimpse of Connor. He towered above everyone in the yard, which was normal, making him impossible to miss. He did his best not to hunch his shoulders as a slow ripple of quiet spread through Julie’s family, those who were facing him looking with either wide eyes, dropped jaws, or both, only for whoever they were talking with to turn around and see what they were looking at. Which meant more wide eyes and dropped jaws.

“Hey, everyone,” Julie said loudly, her voice carrying. “This is my boyfriend⁠—”

Before she could say his name, she was cut off by a scream.

“Aaaaah!” Out of the crowd, Sandra—Sandra from his work, his work wife Sandra—suddenly jumped in front of both of them, pointing at Connor. Then her finger swung to point at Julie as she let out a second cry. “Aaaaah!”

Now it was Connor’s turn for the jaw drop as he stared at his coworker.

“Sandra?”

Her finger swung back around to him.

“Aaaaaah!”

Julie stepped forward, batting Sandra’s pointing finger away.

“Would you stop that?!”

Instead, Sandra swung around to glare at an older woman, pointing at her. She blinked in surprise.

“You said Jules’ boyfriend’s last name was Connor!” It was a clear accusation of misinformation.

“I thought it was!” The older woman turned to look at another couple, a man and a woman who looked an awful lot like Julie with just a few more wrinkles and grey hair. Her arm was in a sling. “You said his last name was Connor.”

“Of course I did. What kind of first name is Connor?” The woman with her arm in a sling frowned at him. Julie slapped her forehead with her own palm.

“Oh my God, Mom. You set the aunties and cousins on him, and you couldn’t even get the name right?” Julie groaned, shaking her head before lifting it. “And it’s a pretty common first name.”

Ah, shit. Those were Julie’s parents. So much for a good first impression. But Sandra was Julie’s cousin, apparently, so maybe she could put in a good word for him. If she wanted to. Right now, she had her hands on her hips and was glaring at him.

He looked down at her.

“Um. Hi?”

“You’re dating my cousin, and you didn’t tell me?!” She was five feet of total outrage, demanding his focus, which meant he couldn’t pay attention to what Julie and her mom were arguing about. Not that he wanted to be part of an argument about his name. That seemed like something he could let her handle for him.

“In my defense, I didn’t know until just this moment that she’s your cousin. I told you I was dating a Julie.” If he’d given her a last name, she wouldn’t have even needed to look it up on the internet. And she might have told her mom, who would have told Julie’s parents before Julie had the chance to. So, he wasn’t exactly sad at how things had worked out. “You didn’t think to mention you had a cousin named Julie?”

Sandra threw her hands up in the air in obvious frustration.

“We call her Jules! And Julie is a super common name! And… well, Jules never dates anyone, so why would I think she was dating you? Argh!” She stomped her foot in frustration as her husband, Terry, who Connor had met a couple of times, came up behind her. Tall with dark blond hair, he must have been inside or tucked away in a corner when Connor first came into the backyard. If he’d seen Terry, he would have realized Sandra was around somewhere.

“Hey, man, welcome to the family,” Terry said cheerfully, a mischievous glint in his eye as he reached out a hand for Connor to take. They clasped hands for just a moment while Sandra elbowed her husband in the side.

“Hey, now, don’t scare him off. Jules finally brought someone around. We need to keep him.” She brightened. “Plus, if they do get married, we’ll be related!”

“Now, who’s going to scare him off?” Terry laughed, and Sandra scowled at him.