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I smiled at her as we crossed into Tulip town limits. “Thank you for coming with me, Mara.” I was more nervous than I let on, but having a friendly face, a friend in general, made it all somehow less terrifying.
“No problem. My old foster family lives here.”
I turned slowly and stared at her, shock written all over my face. “You’re adopted and you grew up here?” It was more personal information than she’d ever revealed. “Wow you must really be worried my brothers will reject me to share that news.”
Just as I expected, she smiled and relaxed at my joke. “What can I say? I’m just awesome like that.”
She was, but Mara would only get gruff and sarcastic if I said so, so I maneuvered the car to the first stop. My oldest brother, Nate’s, house. “Okay. Here we go.” I climbed the stairs to the picture-perfect home with the light blue shutters, and knocked. My heart beat through my chest while we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
A pretty brunette answered the door, her belly round with pregnancy and a question in her eyes. “May I help you?” she asked in a thick accent.
“Um, yes. Maybe?” I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Is Nate Callahan home?”
Her dark, well-manicured brows dipped low. “No, he’s not, but I’m his wife, Mikki. Can I help?” The woman was curious, but all I felt was disappointment that I’d finally gotten up my courage and he wasn’t around.
“I can’t do this.” Tears stung my eyes and I turned, ready to run back to my car and leave Tulip behind forever, but Mara grabbed my arm and I glared up at her.
“Fine, but don’t have this woman thinking her husband is some kind of jerk either.”
My eyes went wide at Mara’s words and I turned back to Mikki. “Oh my god, I didn’t even think. It’s nothing like that, I swear. I’ve never met Nate, or Jase actually. They’re my brothers, well my half-brothers since we share a father and I…well it doesn’t matter now. Sorry to have bothered you.”
“Wait!” She called out. “It’s just Nate and Jase, they’ve never mentioned a sister.”
“They don’t know about me. I only found out about them after my mama died.” She wanted me to have family, but I realized in that moment, they wouldn’t see me as family. “It doesn’t matter, because this was a terrible idea. I’m sorry to have bothered you, Mikki. Congratulations on your baby.”
“Thanks,” she said so softly it was almost a whisper. “If you want to leave a number or something, I’m happy to pass it on to Nate.”
I shook my head. “No thanks, I really shouldn’t have done this. I know it’s a big ask, but if you could pretend the past five minutes never happened, that would be great. Really great, actually.”
There was sympathy in her eyes, and I knew she would share it with her husband, because he was her husband and I was nobody. “Good night.”
I flew off the porch before the door closed, heart pounding like a race horse as I slid behind the steering wheel. “That was a spectacularly bad idea.” Maybe, hopefully, taking control of my love life would go better.
“You didn’t even give it a chance to go badly,” Mara insisted.
“Don’t you get it? My father left their mother for mine, before he left her too. I should have realized before this moment they wouldn’t be happy to meet me. I was fooling myself the same way I fooled myself about Ben. Principal Rutherford, I mean.” Maybe Mama was right, I did have a habit of romanticizing things with the slightest provocation.
“You don’t know that,” Mara insisted, but I did know. I could see the pattern as I gave the idea more thought.
My phone beeped, but I ignored it and started the engine. “Do you want to stop by to see your foster family?”
“Former foster family, and no I don’t. They wouldn’t be happy to see me.” I had a feeling that wasn’t true, but I was in no mood for an argument. Mara picked up my phone and gasped. “Eva says they have a match for you. And a date set up.”
“Already?” I couldn’t believe it. Was this a sign that my luck was turning around.
“Yep. Tomorrow night at, where else? Carriage House.”
Okay, good news. I could handle that. “Perfect. Dinner on me?”
Mara laughed. “My three favorite words.”
Ben
“Gin and tonic, please.” Normally I’d wait for my date to arrive to order a drink, but since this was a blind date, for some odd reason, I decided to use a little liquid courage to take the edge off.
“Bad day?” Sage smirked from his spot behind the bar as if he had some inside knowledge I wasn’t privy to, and arched one bushy brow to go with this question.
