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“Damon,” Mum scolds, then looks at me. “You knew he was going to propose?”
“Yeah, he did mention it. I thought he was going to chicken out.”
“Aw.” She looks out at them, her expression softening. I follow her gaze. Catie’s looking up at him as if he’s a movie star. It makes me think of Alice. She looked at me like that.
I glance back at Mum. She’s smiling at me.
“How’s Alice?” she asks.
I blink, then look at Damon. He pulls an ‘eek’ face. Giving him a wry smile, I say, “She’s good, thank you.”
“Alice?” Kennedy asks. “Who’s Alice?”
“Kip’s girlfriend,” Damon says.
“She’s not my girlfriend,” I correct. “She’s just a friend.”
“With benefits?” Kennedy suggests.
I tip my head from side to side, and everyone laughs.
“Is that who you’ve been texting all evening?” she asks.
“Might be.”
She grins.
“What’s she like?” Mum asks.
“Yeah, spill the deets,” Kennedy adds.
I hesitate, having the uncomfortable feeling that if I talk about her, it’ll somehow jinx things. Usually, I’d have made a joke and changed the subject, but for some reason I think about what Damon said, that Lesley mistook my reticence for secrecy and thought I was hiding things from her. It’s never been my intention to be secretive or to shut others out. Maybe it’s because I’m the oldest—even though it’s only by fifteen minutes—but I’ve always felt that a man should deal with things on his own. Chloe’s statement that Lesley felt excluded has made me rethink that reticence, although it doesn’t come easily to me to share.
“She’s twenty-six in a few weeks,” I tell them, and my mother’s face brightens with delight that I’m opening up. “She’s a podcaster. She reviews books and interviews science fiction and fantasy authors.”
My father’s eyebrows rise. “The podcast isn’t called Wonderland?” When I nod, he says, “You’re talking about Alice Liddell?”
“Yep.”
He grins. “I listen to that every week. She’s terrific. Got a lovely husky voice.”
“I know.”
Mum’s busy googling on her phone. She pulls up the website and finds Alice’s picture, then shows the others. “She’s pretty,” she states.
“She is. And funny.”
“Where did you meet her?”
“On Tinder. We went for dinner with Saxon and Catie.”
“Oh, how wonderful. When are you seeing her again?”
“That’s kind of the problem. She lives in Gisborne, and she looks after her mother, who has M.S.”
They all look startled.
“Oh,” Mum says. “That makes it tough.”
