Page 41

I start to blink, noticing the fact that it’s no longer Christmas music playing. Bailey and I make eye contact across the table, and she laughs. She’s realized what’s happening.

“Hardly. But we did see the northern lights.”

“You did? Were they amazing?”

“They were.”

Chris looks up and asks, “What is that?”

I’m standing now, the frosting still in my hand, as I cross the room to grab the speaker and turn it off. As funny as it would be to listen in, I doubt Cami wants her private conversation blasted to everyone like that.

“And how is Patrick?” the other voice asks, and I start to turn the speaker, a sense of urgency picking up. I want to hear what Cami is going to say about me, but at the same time, I don’t. Where is the power button?

“Are you guys still pulling off the scheme?”

Oh no. No, no⁠—

“Are the Morenos buying it? Actually—are they selling it? The toy company?”

A few chairs scrape against the floor loudly, some of the Morenos gasping at the sound of their own names. Now, everyone is listening. Everyone just heard her say that.

“Shit,” I mutter, turning over the speaker and finally finding the power button just as Cami’s voice comes back over the speaker.

“Well, actually, about that—about Patrick, I wanted to tell you that⁠—”

Finally, I manage to turn the thing off. It makes a pitiful little beep as it powers down, cutting off whatever Cami was going to say next.

About me.

Breathing hard, I turn back to the Morenos with wide eyes, realizing that, in my panic, I both managed to squirt icing on myself and drop the piping bag on the floor.

“Sorry.” I cough, not really knowing what to say. “That was⁠—”

Cami appears, breathing hard, her eyes darting back and forth between all of us. I see the exact moment she realizes what just happened. If the expression on her face is any indication, we both feel the same sense of sinking dread right about now.

Chris is clearly confused, standing with Gloria, looking around the room at his adult children as though seeking a clue. He’s holding a tiny bag of gumdrops in his hand. “What—what was that, Patrick?”

“It was a phone call,” Bailey says, crossing her arms and setting them atop her pregnant belly. She’s already set down her red icing angrily, so it smears on the tablecloth. “Cami’s phone was still hooked up to the speaker when she went to the bathroom to call her friend.”

“It’s not what you think,” Cami says, her voice breaking, and as terrible as this is for me, I know it must be worse for her. She hates lying. I’m the one who dragged her into this. “I—I just⁠—”

“It was Cami’s phone connected to the speaker?” Gloria asks, glancing between me and Cami, her eyes snagging on the speaker in my hand. “So, does that mean…?”

“They’ve been lying this whole time.” David says it without a hint of amusement in his voice. Any friendship we’ve developed is gone, his expression cold and flat, his arms crossed over his chest. “They lied about being engaged.”

“No, we—” Cami starts, but Chris speaks at the same time.

“Patrick, is this true?”

I swallow, something heavy settling in my chest. “Yes. It’s true. We lied about the engagement.”

“But why would you do that?” Gloria asks quietly, brow wrinkled as she looks between me and Cami.

“Because,” I admit, voice quiet, “I thought that Chris would take me more seriously if I was a family man. If I had serious plans for the future, getting married, that sort of thing.”

“You didn’t have to fake an engagement!” Chris says, his voice booming over everything else. “You and Cami can take as long as you need. There’s no need to have to rush into things.”

“No, Dad,” David says, his eyes hard as he stares me down. “You don’t get it. Patrick⁠—”