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“We’re not ganging up,” Sutton said. “We’re just excited that you’re dating our cousin.”
“Who moved here three years ago and hasn’t dated anyone seriously,” Morgan added.
“Yeah, I’m sure it was so hard to come from Vancouver.”
Morgan nodded with a wicked grin. “I’ve done the hide-the-relationship thing. I understand how overbearing our family is. I wouldn’t recommend trying it.”
“Yeah, but you and Patrick are so happy!” I sputtered.
“Now!” she gushed, reaching across me to the charcuterie board. “But can you imagine how Austin reacted when he found out I was dating his best friend?”
I cringed. “I can imagine that. I have an older brother.”
“And if you and Jordan get together, maybe it’ll take the pressure off of the rest of us,” Morgan grumbled.
Sutton laughed. “Oh, please! You’re not getting out of this. We’re all wondering when Patrick is going to pop the question!”
“Why won’t anyone bother Austin and Julia? They’ve been together longer than us, you know!”
“Because they’re Austin and Julia,” I said automatically.
“Exactly,” Sutton said. “They do their own thing.”
“I do my own thing,” Morgan grumbled under her breath.
“Well, if he asked…” Sutton hypothesized.
Morgan rolled her eyes and stuffed her mouth full of cheese.
“She’d say yes,” I answered for her.
Morgan shot us a look of betrayal. She finished the cheese she was eating. “I thought we were ganging up on Annie. This isn’t fair.”
We all laughed and headed into the living room with our drinks. Jordan was talking with the boys. Someone had handed him a beer. His eyes met mine across the room, and he smiled before being dragged back into the conversation.
Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. Even if it was a date.
Another knock came from the door. Emery had sat down in one of the plush living room chairs. She tried to shove herself out of it and failed spectacularly.
“Fuck,” she grumbled loud enough for some of the kids to start repeating it. “Sorry. Sorry.” She held her hands up to the disgruntled parents. “I can’t get up. Someone else answer the door.”
“I got it,” Sutton said.
I followed her to the front door, and Jordan appeared next to us.
“I think it’s Julian,” he told me.
Ah, that made sense. He was the only Wright missing. Everyone else was already here.
Sutton pulled open the door to find Julian and his girlfriend, Ashleigh, standing in the entranceway.
“Sutton,” Ashleigh practically shrieked. “I brought dessert!”
Ashleigh held out a platter of store-bought cookies and passed them to my best friend. Sutton, of all people, who owned and worked in a bakery downtown. Sutton looked at the gift like it was a ticking time bomb.
“That’s so nice of you,” I said to Ashleigh. I’d had more experience dealing with her, and it was better to pretend like nothing had happened.
Julian stepped inside and shook Jordan’s hand. “Hey, bro.”
“How’s it going?”
Julian shrugged. “I think I need a beer.”
I tried to smother a laugh. Julian had been dating Ashleigh for two years, and that was the first indication that her over-the-top attitude got to him like it did everyone else. At least he was human.
“Oh! I brought you a surprise, too, Annie,” Ashleigh said.
“Uh, you did?” I asked in confusion.
And then another person stepped into view.
My heart stopped. My jaw dropped. Everything seemed to stand still. It couldn’t be. There was only one person I’d ever fallen in love with. My best friend, my ex-boyfriend, my hope-for-forever guy.
“Chase?” I gasped.
22
Annie
Chase Sinclair was my first everything.
Even before I’d met Sutton, he was my first friend.. My first boyfriend. My first kiss. My first time. We hadn’t dated my entire life or anything, but we’d always been inseparable. Until he left for Yale after high school graduation and I was stuck in Lubbock at Texas Tech.
That summer, we’d made a pact that if we weren’t married by the time we were thirty, we’d get married. We were only twenty-seven right now, but looking up into his crystal-clear blue eyes, I was suddenly reminded of the fact.
“Oh my God!” I cried, throwing myself into his arms. “What are you doing here? You didn’t come home for Christmas or all summer. What does that law firm in Houston have you doing?”
He laughed, easy and so comfortable, and pulled me tight against him. “It’s good to see you, too, Annie.”
I pulled back to look up at him. The same blond hair and blue eyes, that sharp jaw and high cheekbones, the pouty lips. We’d seen each other on and off over the years when he came back for holidays, but it wasn’t the same.
“I can’t believe you’re here. It’s been almost a year, Chase.”
He ran a hand back through his sandy hair. “I know. I know. I’ve been busy.”
A throat cleared noisily behind us. And that was when I realized that our entire reunion was taking place in front of everyone. I glanced back to see Sutton wide-eyed and incredulous. Ashleigh looked giddy. Julian was facing Jordan, as if ready to apologize. Jordan’s eyes were narrowed, his arms crossed. Oh yeah, um…not good.
