Page 150 of Masters of Secrets

It wasn’t like she wanted him to get hit by a bus or anything (probably), but a transfer to a hospital on the other side of the country would be nice.

“Come on, we’ve got this.” Connor smiled at her and stepped forward, and since her hand was still in his, she found herself being pulled along with him. And because she wasn’t sure she should leave, she found herself going… even though she wasn’t sure that was what she wanted to do.

The blow of having her parents invite John, knowing she was bringing Connor to meet the family today, had rocked her off her axis. And Connor wasn’t giving her time to regain her equilibrium. They were outside and back in the middle of her family before she realized she really did not want to be there.

“Hello. I’m so sorry about the mix-up with your name,” Aunt Ji-woo said, coming up to Connor with an apologetic look on her face. Julie was pretty sure she even meant it. Sandra’s mom was a lot more relaxed than her own mother. Who was currently over-talking and laughing with her ex-husband, showing him a lot more welcome than she had Connor.

Dammit.

They should have left.

But she couldn’t pull away from the conversation without being rude, and if she could get Aunt Ji-woo on her side, she didn’t want to ruin that by being rude to her.

“No problem.” Connor smiled his most charming smile at her aunt, who automatically smiled back at him. He was on in a way she hadn’t really seen before. “I’m grateful, actually, since it let us tell everyone on our own terms. And I missed out at least on several days of being hassled by Sandra at work about the fact that I’m dating her cousin.”

“That is quite a coincidence,” Aunt Ji-woo said, smiling at him. “I’m sure Sandra will make up for it now. She’s talked about you before, but I had forgotten your name because she calls you ‘work hubby’ all the time.”

Okay, well, now was definitely not the time to get jealous. Julie realized that she’d heard Sandra mention her ‘work hubby’ before, too. There was no harm in it. Sandra and Terry were utterly devoted to each other, and she knew it. Sandra had never talked about her work hubby in anything but friendly terms.

It was probably only bothering her a little because she was already out of sorts, knowing John was less than ten feet away, talking to her parents. No, less than less than ten feet away because, for some reason, her mom was bringing him over.

Are you fucking kidding me?

If it wasn’t for Connor standing there holding his ground, she would have walked out. And she wasn’t sure she would have come back again. Ever. There had to be an end to this. Even though she knew it was likely her parents wouldn’t have invited John today if she hadn’t been bringing Connor, the fact they were willing to do so at all made her want to scream. It had been one thing having to hear updates about his life and a whole other thing to have her mom invite him over when she knew Julie was going to be there, but this was too far.

They should have left, and she was starting to get pretty peeved that Connor had taken that decision away from her.

The only joy she got out of this moment was the slightly stunned expression on John’s face as he realized exactly how tall Connor was. Not just tall but muscular. John had always prided himself on his physique, but Connor was taller, his shoulders were wider, and his body was packed with twice as much bulky muscle as John’s.

Not the kind of thing that mattered to Julie, but it suddenly struck her that it was very much the kind of thing that would matter to John. His insecurities ran wide and deep.

“There you are,” her mother said, as if Julie had been gone for a lot longer than the five minutes they had been inside. “This is John. John, this is Connor.”

“I’m Julie’s ex-husband,” John said, seemingly recovered from his shock. He gave his widest, most charming smile as he held out his hand for Connor to shake. “I hope that’s not too awkward. When you become part of the family, it can be hard to leave that.”

“Not awkward at all,” Connor said, sounding completely sincere, despite the fact that this was incredibly awkward. “It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard about you, of course. Julie said you’re a surgeon?” She couldn’t believe that the first thing her mom had done was to introduce her current boyfriend to her ex-husband.

No, wait, scratch that. She totally believed it.

Which was why they should have left.

It was all she could do to stand there seething instead of exploding all over everyone. She was just so damn mad at all of them.

Her mom for inviting John.

John for showing up.

The rest of her family for acting like this was somehow normal.

Connor for deciding they were coming outside.

Herself for feeling like she had to stay here just because Connor wanted to.

At least her dad had had the good sense to make himself scarce once John appeared. Unlike her mom, who had decided to force the issue. Why couldn’t she just turn around and walk away right now? Yes, Connor was holding onto her hand, but he would let go if she pulled away.

But then her whole family would see her walk out, abandoning her boyfriend there.

It would be clear they weren’t working as a unit.