Either way, I’m busy tomorrow.
“I can’t. I have dinner with my family on Sunday nights.”
“Every Sunday?” he says with more shock than I was expecting.
“Yes.”
“Like with your brother and everything?”
I laugh.
“And everything.”
“Huh. I can’t remember the last time my family was all in one room together for dinner.”
He’d told me about how his parents divorced when he was young and how hard it was to have a family event without someone fighting. I’ve been lucky with the family I have.
It makes me sad that he doesn’t know what our kind of family is like, but not sad enough to stand out here in the snow to talk about it.
“I’ll see you around, Mark.”
“Whoa, wait.” He jogs up to my car door to stop me from closing it.
“What about after dinner?”
“You’re not going to give up, are you?”
“Well, I mean, you’re sort of stuck with me.” He lets out a light laugh, but I just stare at him. “Sorry. Bad joke. I’m really trying, but I think I’m trying too hard, and it’s not helping.”
The defeated look in his eyes does me in.
“You really want to stick around for this?”
“Yes, Sydney. I do.”
“Fine. Then pick me up tomorrow at five.”
“For a date?”
“For dinner with my family.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Sydney
I want this dinner to go well for many reasons. Mark and I come from different family styles. We need to decide on the kind of family we are going to be, and it won’t hurt if my family and Mark get along. It’s all a girl can hope for when it comes to the father and grandparents of her child, right?
“Should I have brought something?” Mark taps the steering wheel with his thumbs.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Like a dish of some kind or even rolls. What if they expected me to bring something?”
“Trust me, no one is expecting you to bring anything. Dinner is going to be just fine.”
Unless it has fish or green olives or soy sauce or something fried. Damn, I should have said something to my mom when I told her Mark was coming. If I vomit in front of Mark, he’s going to lose it. I know I should tell him I’ve been getting sick more than once a day for the last week, but I don’t want him to think he needs to do anything more than what he’s already doing. I don’t need him for everything.
But I have about five minutes to tell him as much as I can.
