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“My grandfather just set us up on a date,” I said tightly.
“Oh no,” she breathed. “I think I need a lie down.”
That was one way to describe this feeling.
***
“Why would you do this?” I asked, slamming the front door behind me. “Pops!”
“He can’t hear you, dear,” Aunt Greta called from the kitchen. “He took out his hearing aid because he knew you’d be mad.”
“Mad? I’m fucking furious!”
“I’ll spray soap in your mouth, boy.”
I ground my teeth together and walked into the front room where I knew I’d find him sitting in front of the TV. Must have been fucking interesting if he didn’t have the damn hearing aids in.
Just as I’d thought, he was sitting there, feet up on the coffee table, completely oblivious to me. Hell, the damn TV was on silent. He was clearly sitting there for no reason other than to annoy me further.
I snatched the hearing aids from their tray on top of the fireplace and shoved them in front of his face. “Put them on.”
He pushed my hand away.
I dropped them on his lap.
He looked up.
“Put. Them. On!” I over-exaggerated my words so he could read my lips. Something I knew he could do, because long before he’d accepted he was going deaf, he’d communicated solely through lip-reading.
Pops tapped his ear with one finger and shook his head as if to say he couldn’t hear me.
“I know. Put the damn aids in.”
He sighed, but put down his little can of beer and fitted both hearing aids. “Yes, boy?”
“What the hell did you do that for?” I didn’t miss a beat as I stepped back into my tirade.
“What are you talking about?”
“You know damn well!” I ran my hand through my hair and paced. “Jamie. Why the hell would you force us both into a date neither of us want?”
“She didn’t say no.” He grinned.
“You have a date?” Greta exclaimed, entering the room with the pace of a drunken turtle.
“Not one I want! Jesus. She’s a nightmare. She’s too mouthy and sarcastic to make this night enjoyable for even a minute.”
“Mouthy and sarcastic?” Roxy said, coming in, too. “You called?”
“See?” I threw my arm in her direction. “We’ve already got one in attendance. We don’t need another!”
“What’s going on?”
“He’s bringing Jamie to your aunt’s party this weekend,” Pops answered. “Boy, you’re in the way of my TV.”
“He is?” Roxy grinned. “You are?”
“Why can’t I hear this?” Pops asked.
“It’s on mute, you old coot,” I said. Turning to Roxy, I said, “No, I’m not bringing her. Not by choice, at least. This old pain in the ass showed up today and forced us into it.”
“She didn’t say no. Ah-ha!” Pops clapped when the sound came back on with a boom.
“She didn’t fucking say yes!”
“Dexter!” Aunt Greta slapped her hands over her ears. “Turn that racket down, Edwin!”
“Racket? That’s a Big Brother replay. No racket at all!” Pops sniffed and settled his hands on his stomach.
Roxy looked between them and motioned for me to follow her. I rubbed my hand over my face and went with her into the dining room.
“Why is he watching Big Brother?” she asked.
“Probably because he couldn’t hear it five minutes ago. And to piss off Greta,” I grumbled.
Roxy swung out a dining chair and sat down. “Are you really taking Jamie?”
“Where’s Charley?”
“In bed. She had McDonalds and fell asleep in the car. Stop avoiding the question.”
I pointed at her, then dropped it with a groan. “Yes, I am. I’ve been forced into it, like she has. He didn’t ask. He asked her if she had plans then offered her my plus one. I didn’t even want to go as one, never mind a plus one!”
“Is this a bad time to tell you that Mom called me this morning?”
“As a rule, yes.”
“She and Dad are flying in tomorrow for Greta’s party.”
I dragged out a chair and dropped onto it. “No, no, please no.”
She grimaced and nodded.
“Fucking hell!” I got up and kicked the chair back under less than ten seconds after I’d sat down. Not that I didn’t love seeing my parents, but this was turning into a motherfucking mess.
Roxy laughed. “It’s not a big deal, Dex. You’re just pissed at Pops for backing you into a corner.”
“No, I’m not. I’m pissed at the who.”
“Because she doesn’t take your shit?”
“No. She’s a fucking nightmare. She’s fucking insufferable, Rox. She grinds on me like nobody I’ve ever met in my goddamn life, and the last thing I want is to have to pretend I like her around our family.”
My sister raised one dark, slim eyebrow. “I don’t know. It sounds to me like she grinds on you because you like her.”
I held a finger up at her. “Don’t you dare.”
“Oh, come on. She’s beautiful. You have to admit that.”
I said nothing. I didn’t need to agree with my sister for that fact to be true. Jamie was beautiful, no doubt about it. Frizzy hair and all.
