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This was a mess, and I didn’t know how to backpedal out of it, so I pushed further ahead.
“You’ve been busy with your restaurant. Kat and I have spent a lot of time together, and things progressed quickly.”
“Really? When?” Rebecca questioned.
“When what?” I asked.
“When did you start dating?”
Kat opened her mouth, but I cut her off. “Six months ago.”
Rebecca’s eyes narrowed. “Six months ago?”
“Yes. One night after family dinner, I found Kat in the barn with the horses. We talked for a long time, and I asked her out. Things progressed from there.”
That story wasn’t a total lie. We talked that night, but not for a long time, and I never asked her on a date until recently. That had gone horribly wrong. God, what was I doing?
Kat stared at me for a minute. Her blue eyes looked translucent from the lighting in the room. They were beautiful and mesmerizing. The noise and people around us slowly drifted away the longer I stared into them. She shook her head and broke eye contact, turning to face her sister. I cleared my throat and looked at the ground.
“You’ve been dating Sid behind my back for six months?” Rebecca asked.
“I wouldn’t say it was behind your back. We just weren’t doing it out in the open,” Kat said.
Rebecca scoffed and sat down. “I don’t understand. The other night at my restaurant, you weren’t acting like you were engaged. It looked strained and like something was wrong.”
Kat glared at me, and I winced. Rebecca was right. Something had been wrong. The entire situation. And now this one was worse.
“We were in a fight,” Kat said quickly.
“About what?” Rebecca asked. She was being awfully nosy.
Kat glanced at me and worried her bottom lip. I jumped in to save us again. Or make things worse. It was undetermined whether I was helping.
“I’ve been asking Kat to move in with me for a while, and she’s not ready.”
Rebecca stared at the table for a few minutes before her eyes met ours. She looked like she was coming around to the idea of her sister and me.
“When did you get engaged, and why didn’t you tell me?” She almost looked hurt.
“It happened really fast. A whirlwind romance. Sid swept me off my feet, and one day he proposed. I wasn’t ready to tell people. It felt better to keep it between us for a while,” Kat said.
“But I’m your sister.”
Kat’s shoulders slumped. “I know. And like Mom, sometimes you can be a little judgmental of my life choices. You’re so close with Sid, and I didn’t want you to come down on me or talk badly to him about me. Some of the things you say hurt.”
I didn’t know Rebecca was so hard on Kat. It hurt to think that Kat didn’t have anyone in her corner, and I wanted to jump in and protect her. It was in my nature to be there for my friends, but this was something deeper that I didn’t want to explore.
Rebecca’s shoulders slumped and unshed tears glistened in her eyes. Kat looked away, uncomfortable. I rubbed a hand over the back of my neck. The conversation was getting deep, especially for a lie I had created on the spot. This was all my fault, and I wasn’t sure how to fix it.
“Congratulations, man,” Luke said, clapping me on the back. He set a drink down in front of Rebecca and took a seat beside her.
“Yeah. Thanks,” I said dryly. “When are you guys tying the knot?”
He blanched and looked away, scratching his arm.
“Not any time soon,” Rebecca answered. She shot him a look.
Luke pulled at the collar of his dress shirt and took a sip of his drink. It seemed odd. The two had been dating for a while and seemed pretty serious. At least Rebecca did. Was it one-sided? The thought of Rebecca getting hurt made me angry.
