“Agreed.” I bite my lip. “That was still hard, though.”
He takes another deep breath and then shakes himself. “I’m good. Ready to call your family, or do you want a break?”
I pat the seat next to me. “Let’s get it over with.”
He sits down and then holds up his hands for a high five. “We got this. Bennets on three,” he says, sounding like we’re at a football game—except for him, I guess, it would be a hockey game. “One, two, three, BENNETS!”
I can’t help my giggling. “You don’t have to take my name, Jordan. I just said I was keeping mine.”
He shrugs. “I like your name.” Then he winks, and my heart flutters.
I pull out my phone to start a family FaceTime call to avoid the heat that’s racing to my face.
“Hey, everyone!” I say cheerfully when they’ve all picked up.
“Hey, Lib—” Janelle leans in. “Who’s that with you?” she asks.
I clear my throat. Okay, guess we’re getting right to this. “This is Jordan Atkinson.”
“Bennet,” he whispers, so quiet only I hear him. I swallow back a laugh. This is flirting, but I can’t lecture him—it’s in front of my family.
But it was only for me.
He’s definitely got a way of bending the rules.
Ellie and Mom lean in simultaneously to get a better look. Dad furrows his eyebrows. I hear my nieces in the background of Ellie’s phone.
“Mom! Who is it?” Kat asks.
Ellie glances down. “It’s Libby,” she says distractedly. She’sstill eyeing Jordan—and probably the way his arm is over the back of the couch behind me.
Little faces push their way onto the screen. “Hi, Libby!” five-year-old Kat says.
“Hey, sweetie.” I wave at her.
“When are you coming to see us?” she asks.
“Libby! See us!” her little sister, three-year-old Emmeline, cries.
“Soon,” I promise. “Uh, Ellie? I need to tell you guys something…”
“Girls,” she says, picking up her phone. “You can talk to Libby later, okay?”
“Bye, Libby!” they call from offscreen, and then their voices fade away.
“What’s up?” Mom asks. She’s squinting at her screen, holding it close to her face. I can barely see my dad’s head behind her.
“So.” My throat seizes up. I hate that I’m lying to them. I hate that what I’ve done is going to make them all worry when they don’t need to. Out of their view, Jordan reaches for my hand and squeezes it supportively. I clear my throat. “So,” I say again. “Jordan and I have actually been dating for about six months,” I go on in a rush.
“What?” Mom and Ellie say at the same time as Janelle says, “Why didn’t you tell us before?” Dad’s reaction is silent, whatever it is. I still can’t see him around Mom.
I don’t have a good answer for them. It makes sense that we would keep our relationship a secret from the press. But there’s no reason I wouldn’t have told my family. They are all vaults. They know how to keep secrets. We all did it for years on the show. We watched every comment, everything we posted online, every interaction we had.
Well, they definitely did it better than me, but I was very young.
But I can’t admit to them that Jordan and I just met, or I’d have to explain why I married him.
“We were keeping it a secret,” I say. I don’t add anything else, even though my family looks at me confused. I’d rather keep silent than lie more. “And today … the reason we came to Maui was…” I swallow. I can say this. I can tell them I ran off with a guy and married him.
