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“Good man,” Tommy says. “Treat her right and I won’t have to go all big brother on your ass.” He says it with a smile on his face, but there’s a seriousness in there too that I don’t miss. To be honest, I’m happy to see it there. So far, my impression of Delaney’s family hasn’t been the greatest. Tommy seems to be the most invested in his little sister’s happiness. If it ever came down to it, there’s no way he’d beat me in a fight—I’m a good foot taller than him and broader than he will ever be—but I like that he insinuated the threat, shows he cares.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I say as Delaney places her hand on my arm and urges me to move across the room to where her mother sits beside an older gentleman and who I’m guessing is this aunt Delaney doesn’t want to disappoint, the family’s matriarch, Joan.
“You’ve met my mom, Gladys,” Delaney says as Gladys smiles up at me and nods regally. “And this is my dad, Roger…”
“Nice to meet you,” I say, shaking his hand.
“…andthisis my Aunty Joan,” Delaney says of the white-haired lady with big glasses and even bigger beads hanging around her neck.
“Nice to meet you,” I say, grinning as I hold my hand out to take hers. She uses it to stand, also pushing up on a bright pink walking stick.
“So, this is Liam,” she says, looking me up and down and nodding approvingly before turning back to Gladys. “He looks like he has a really tight ass. Like you could bounce a quarter off it.” She mimes the movement.
I open my mouth, smiling but unsure of how to respond to that one. It’s not every day an elderly woman makes a comment about my ass. “Can’t say I’ve tested my ass’s abilities with quarters to give you a definitive answer on that one,” I say eventually, earning myself a chuckle from around the room, mixed with a couple of surprised gasps.
Joan’s shrewd eyes land on mine as a smile curves her painted pink lips. “I like this one, Delaney. Come, I want you both sitting either side of me.” Joan slides her arm in the crook of mine and gestures for me to head into the dining room where there’s a long table set up with gold-edged plates, crystal glasses, and gleaming cutlery.
The centerpiece is orange and white flowers with mini pumpkins and delicate vines curling out, making this the fanciest damn Thanksgiving I’ve ever taken part in. I realized when Delaney informed me there was a dress code that this wasn’t your typical family gathering. But still, I wasn’t expecting this level of opulence. I mean, there’s abutler and maids in uniform.
“Now, why don’t you tell me all about yourself, sweetcheeks,” Joan says as we take our seats. The rest of the family seems a little put out that their usual seating arrangement is altered, but I just smile across at Delaney who’s beaming with delight. This is obviously a big deal to her.
“What would you like to know?” I ask, giving the matriarch my full attention.
DELANEY
Dinner goes off without a hitch. Aunty Joan says grace, thanking the Lord for bringing her family together and for sending us Liam—I find I can’t keep my head bowed during that part, feeling uncomfortable bringing God in on my lie. But after that, we eat a meal of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and deliciously prepared vegetables all smothered in a rich gravy while we drink wine, and we talk about the world, reflecting on the year and all we’re grateful for.
Nate is a dream. He answers questions about himself, incorporating the backstory I provided him with while taking the time to shower me in praise, sharing the knowledge he gleaned from reading the ‘about me’ section in his character folder by telling them what an amazing business woman he thinks I am.
Any woman would be proud to have this man by her side, but it’s tough for me to fully enjoy it when it just isn’t true. The reason he’s adreamis because I created him. I sat down and wrote out an entire folder filled with information about my ideal mate. Don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderful seeing the character of Liam being playing out in real life. But at the same time, it’s bittersweet. My ideal man doesn’t exist.
I grow quieter as the meal goes on. I love that I’ve finally been chosen to sit up at the head of the table with Aunty Joan. For a girl who was always chosen last for the softball team, the honor is quite grand. But it’s hard to fully enjoy it when my acceptance into this coveted position is based on a lie. Nate is so entertaining, so attentive, and I enjoy just being in his presence and watching him interact with my family. But at the same time, I’m really struggling. And as the day wears on, I feel more and more certain that I won’t be going through with this farce on the cruise as well. I know it’ll break Aunty Joan’s heart to find out that I lied, so I’ll need to lie again to get out of this. But it has to end here. I don’t have it in me to pretend for that long.
“Time for some fresh air,” Aunty Joan says once the main course dishes are cleared away. “I could do with stretching my legs and letting this meal digest a little before we move on to dessert.”
“Do you need help up?” Nate asks, jumping to her aid quicker than I can even register the movement.
“If I were thirty years younger, I’d steal you away as my toy boy,” she says, gripping his strong arm as he helps her to her feet. “He’sso hot.” That last part is stage whispered for my benefit, and it makes me laugh.
“I agree,” I say, pushing in her chair before I follow her and Nate out, really feeling how full my stomach is after that delicious turkey roast with all the trimmings. I blow out my breath and pat my stomach.
“Good meal, huh?” Tommy says as he moves alongside me.
“It was. And don’t think I didn’t notice how little you spoke throughout it. Feeling OK?”
He bounces a shoulder. “I’m fine. It’s just strange being here without the wife and kids, you know?”
“I’m having the opposite problem. It’s strange being herewithsomeone.” I gesture to where Nate is helping Aunty Joan relax in a white wooden lounger. Traditionally, we all come out to her manicured lawns to play a game of bocce between the main course and dessert. When we were little, all the kids and adults had a ball—literally—trying to get their bocce balls closest to the white pallino ball. We could be out here for hours playing against each other, but as we grew, we realized it was a great excuse for the adults to get liquored up while instilling some healthy competition between us kids. As our family has grown, the game and the sentiment is still the same. But now we have a new group of kids playing and more adults getting liquored up. Aunty Joan—who used to blitz the lot of us—no longer plays, preferring to take her enjoyment in observing with a cocktail in hand instead. She says the mint julip is to help with her digestion. But I’ve come to realize she’s just a bit of a lush.
“I like him. I liked him when you first walked in because his body language was very protective of you, which really, is what you want when a guy is interested in your sister. But after listening to him at dinner, I reckon he’s a pretty cool guy. Not the nerdy dentist type I was expecting at all.”
“Dentists aren’t nerdy,” I say. “What gives you that impression?”
“Only every dentist I’ve ever met. The guy I see now has the personality of a wet mop. The one before him used to ask me a bunch of questions I could never answer because my mouth was wide open with a drill inside it, and the guy Mom took us to growing up just never spoke at all.”
“I guess it’s a hard job to get to know each other in,” I say, realizing I hadn’t given that part of my lie a lot of thought. “Maybe if you met them all outside of the office you’d have a different impression?”
“Maybe,” he says, picking up a blue bocce ball and tapping his hand against the weight of it. “Point is, he seems pretty cool. Is he coming on the cruise no one’s supposed to know about?”
