AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Richard glares at me. “That would behighlyinappropriate.”
“Oh, lighten up, Richard,” my mom says. “It’s not like Sawyer and Noelle are actually siblings.” She turns a conspiratorial eye toward my dad. “What do you know about this, Colton?”
He shrugs, saying nothing. I realize it’s up to me to make an executive decision here. My mother’s got a sixth sense when it comes to sexual tension. She once hounded me for over two hours about a girl who gave me the finger in a bar. She’ll be utterly obnoxious until I concede something in the shape of the truth.
“You guessed it,” I say. “Noelle and I have started seeing each other.”
Noelle’s eyes go wide. My dad looks like he wants to take back every charitable thing he’s ever said about me.
“I knew it!” My mom claps her hands. “And I’m guessing you already knew about this, Colton?”
“It wasn’t my news to break.” He hits me with a look that says,and it wasn’t yours either.
Richard clears his throat. “Aren’t you a little old for my daughter, Sawyer?”
“I thought so, too, at first,” I tell him. “But you know what they say. The heart wants what it wants.”
Richard’s nostrils flare. My dad takes a long swig of his beer.
“I don’t give a damn what your heart wants,” Richard says. “Even if you two were the same age, with your track record—”
“Oh, let it go, Richard.” My mom rolls her eyes. “They’re just kids.”
“No,she’sa kid. Your son is a grown-ass man, even if he rarely acts like it.”
“Dad!”
“They’re just having fun,” my mom says.
“Like the kind of fun you had when you were her age, saddled with a kid—”
“Enough.” My dad sets his beer on the table, leveling an icy glare at Richard. “You’re a guest in my house. And while you’re in my house, you will not talk about my son that way.”
Richard pushes back from the table. “That’s fine. I’ve had enough finger foods for one night. I’m going to get a burger.” He turns to his daughter. “We will talk about this later.”
Noelle frowns at her plate. Richard gets up, shrugs on his coat and shoves his feet into his boots.
“Miranda,” Richard says, “unless you intend to walk back up the hill in four-inch heels, I suggest you leave with me now.”
So much for the happy couple we met two weeks ago.
“The food was delightful, sweetie,” my mom says. “Let me know if you need my help tomorrow setting up for the party.”
I nod, already sure as shit that she won’t be around when it’s time to hang string lights or arrange centerpieces.
Noelle disappears into the bathroom while Richard and my mom are still saying goodbye. My dad scrubs his beard as he closes the door behind them.
“You’d better make this right,” he says.
He heads out for the evening’s firewood run. I clean up the kitchen, then join Noelle at the Christmas tree a short while later, where she’s packing away the ornaments—a task we’d pretty much forgotten about in our rush to prepare for the party.
“I know we said we weren’t gonna say anything,” I tell her. “But I also know my mom. She wasn’t gonna let it go. I had to give her something, and I thought you and me would go down a lot better than you and my dad.”
“That part’s probably true enough,” she says. “My dad is livid.”
“Yeah, it’s kind of hilarious.”
“For you, maybe.”
