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“It’s good that they can come to the garage and hang out with you.”
“Except they drive me nuts and make it hard to get anything done.” I just smile and accept the beer he offers me. “But it’s all good. What did you do today?”
“Your mother had me working in the garden,” he replies with a bright smile.
“You hate gardening.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Then why are you smiling like that?”
“Because your mother was with me, and she was hot as hell.”
“I’m going to need more than one beer for this conversation.”
Dad just laughs as the door opens and out walks Olivia and Vaughn, followed closely by Mom.
“Look who I found,” Mom says with a laugh as Dad pulls her into his arms and lays a big, disgusting kiss on her.
“You need to warn me before you do that.” I back away at the sound of their laughter and join my siblings and Vaughn at the table. “Why aren’t you opening that?”
I gesture to the present Liv just sat in the middle of the table and Haley shrugs. “Because she told me I couldn’t.”
“You didn’t give me a choice.”
Haley just grins, and I shake my head.
“Sisters are a pain in the ass.”
“Hey!” all three of them object at once, making Vaughn and I laugh.
“Oh, Keat, you’re going out with some of us on Wednesday,” Liv informs me as she munches on some fried zucchini.
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes,” she insists, “you are. It’s a date thing. I’m setting you up.”
“Absolutely not.” Images of Sidney immediately take up residence in my head, of her smile and her laugh and her naked and writhing beneath me. I’m not seeing anyone else.
Not that my family knows that.
“Come on,” Liv says, frowning over at me. “It’s going to be fun. We’re all coupled up, and I want you to go with this one person.”
“Who is it?” Chelsea wants to know.
“I’m not telling,” Liv says, shaking her head. “It’s a blind date.”
“It better not be one of Vaughn’s famous friends or some actress you’ve been making costumes for, Liv. You know I don’t date famous people.”
“Hey, I’m an innocent bystander,” Vaughn says, holding his hands up in surrender.
“You really need to get over that,” Liv says before popping a piece of broccoli into her mouth. “Not all famous people are the same as that has-been that was a jerk to you in high school.”
“I don’t have to get over anything. Listen, I don’t like being set up, and I’m just not interested in the whole thing.”
“Oh, come on,” Mom chimes in. “I think it’s a great idea. You need to get out there and date more, honey.”
“No, I don’t.”
Dad winks at me, but I notice that he’s also not helping me out here.
“It’ll be so much fun,” Liv insists, bouncing up and down in her seat now. “I promise. I wouldn’t steer you wrong or try to hook you up with someone who isn’t awesome.”
“I’m not hooking up with anyone.”
Aside from Sid, that is. In fact, I plan to go to her place when I leave here. I’ve been at her place every night this week.
“Don’t be an idiot,” Haley says, rolling her eyes. “You don’t have to hook up with every single date you go on. It’s just a fun night out.”
“If it sounds so fun to you, you go with them.”
“I already have plans.” Haley’s grin is toothy and full of sarcasm. She’s such a brat.
“I really think that you should go,” Mom adds again as Dad opens the top of the grill to pull off the finished patties. “It sounds like fun to me, and you just don’t go out enough.”
“How do you know?”
“A mother knows,” is all she says, in that mysterious way she does. And the kicker is, she does always know.
How does she do that?
“Fine.” I close my eyes and wonder what I’ve gotten myself into. “Fine. If it’ll make you all shut up about it, I’ll go. But I won’t promise to like it or to like this person you’re setting me up with. I can’t believe I agreed to this.”
“Well, you did, and no take backs,” Liv declares. “It’s going to be awesome. Soph and Ike are coming, and a bunch of other people you like. It won’t be painful. I promise.”
“Right. Sure. Whatever you say.”
I stare at Vaughn, but he just shrugs.
“I just do what I’m told, man.”
“Good idea,” my dad says as he sets a big plate of burgers on the table. “This side is beef. That side is…something else. Eat at your own risk.”
I can hear the piano playing as I walk down the hallway to Sidney’s condo. I wonder if her neighbors can hear her, and if so, is she driving them crazy?
Sid texted me earlier and told me that the door was unlocked, but I still rap my knuckles on it twice before pushing inside.
