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Sin’s father seems to have forgotten as he continues to drill holes into my person. His expression growing darker by the second.
Just as I am about to apologize for everything, even the state of the economy, Nick Turner pulls me in for a one arm hug and detonates a laugh-snort into the shell of my ear. “Got you there, didn’t I? You should have seen your face.”
“So not funny, Daddy,” Sin says, glaring at her father.
Rachel isn’t too pleased either given the sharp dig she gives her husband’s ribs. He winces and steps to Sin as her mother embraces me.
Shorter than her daughter, with fire-red hair and a mass of freckles, Rachel gives me a bear hug that squeezes some of the air from my lungs.
“I apologize for my husband,” she says, shaking her abundance of red curls. “I had no idea he would pull such a silly stunt…”
Flexing my fingers, I wonder if I failed Nick’s quiz or passed his test. “Don’t worry about it.”
“You shouldn’t let him off easy, Royce,” Rachel continues. “He is a trickster at heart. If you let him get away with it, he will never stop.”
I should have listened to my future mother-in-law’s advice.
Nick Turner is nothing more than a kid in a grown man’s body. No wonder Genesis is the way she is.
Up early every morning, he has the coffee ready as he makes us breakfast. While we eat, he outlines the places he and Rachel want to visit.
I’m talking about a hit-the-streets-from-sun-up-to-way-past-sun-down kind of day.
That first morning, Nick declined to be chauffeured around Manhattan like God intended. Instead, he wanted to walk.
Everywhere.
“You’re up for it, right?” he asked me as his eyes met mine in challenge.
Bring it on, I thought while I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster, “Sure, Nick. I can do it if you can.”
I should have lowered my head and bared my neck in submission.
Over the course of the last five days, I logged what seemed like a billion miles. People on the fitness app I belong to, accused me of cheating. My feet…my poor feet will forever hate me. Then there were the dinners with family and friends, all of whom were eager to meet Sin’s parents. Those went late most nights, and then I was up early to do it all again.
I bore everything with good grace. Sin enjoyed herself as did her parents. Seeing their smiles gave me the will to keep going. Besides, how could I deny Nick and Rachel a tour of the city their daughter calls home?
The valiant part of me, the part who strives to put everyone else’s happiness first, disappears this morning as my toes curl when I attempt to put on my socks.
Enough is enough. I have to think of an excuse.
Emergency at work? I already said I had time off.
Bad weather? Blue sky without a hint of clouds.
Alien invasion? Nah.
I’m missing Sin too much to carry on?
A bit dramatic… yet believable.
Rachel and Sin left last night for the hotel where we will have the reception and celebrate the wedding night. They, along with Natalie (the matron of honor) and Tiffany (the bridesmaid), have booked a full day of pampering and a night out on the town. I won’t see or hear from Sin until she walks down the aisle.
Tradition, she called it.
Torture, I responded.
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, doesn’t mean anything to me.
