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“I need to call Len. I made a mistake. I’ll just let him bail me out again. What was I thinking?”
Thea rubbed my back, her fingers warm as she kneaded my spine. “You were thinking this was a mutually beneficial arrangement, and you were sick of having your well-intentioned but dick-ish older brother treat you like a child.”
I grabbed my phone from her lap. “True. Very true, but I can’t do this. I can’t keep it up for a week, let alone four years.”
“Fine,” Thea conceded. “But call Andy first.”
Right, Andy.
He’d be disappointed. Based on the sheer amount of work he’d done, he arguably wanted this arrangement more than me, and I couldn’t just ghost him when half the town knew we’d made out on my doorstep the night before.
I opened his last text message and pressed the call button. He answered on the second ring.
“Hey, I was just about to try you again.” His voice echoed, like I’d caught him in the car. “Guess you heard.”
“Heard?” I repeated. “About Tammy blabbing all over town? Yeah.”
“No, from your brothers.”
“No? Why would I?”
“I didn’t want to step out of line, but I ran into Cal and made an executive decision.”
“What do you mean ‘executive decision?’”
Thea perked up, back straight and eyes wide.
“Well,” Andy’s voice faltered, the momentary pause stretching out for what felt like an eternity. “Cal cornered me at the store, asking about last night.”
I groaned. “You couldn’t lie low until Sunday?”
“I didn’t know I had to.”
“You live in Franklin Notch. You shouldknowthis stuff.”
I immediately regretted the mild reprimand. Of course Andy didn’t know any of this. He went to school in Pierce, and worked in Pierce. His family wasn’t so much a part of the community as they were a pillar of the community. People like the Stewarts didn’t hang out with townies.
“What happened?” I rubbed my forehead, closing my eyes.
“He was pretty pissed, to be honest, but I talked him down.”
“How’d you talk him down?” I asked. My heart galloped in my chest; it still felt like I couldn’t catch my breath.
“I said I wanted to talk to him and Len, just us guys.”
I winced, sucking in a breath and doubling over. “Please tell me you just talked about us going to dinner.”
The long silence that followed confirmed that he had not just talked about dinner. I glanced at Thea, panicked.
“I sent you a text and then called, but you didn’t answer and it was too late to back out. I had to tell them something.”
“What’d you tell them?”
“I told them I proposed and asked for their blessing.”
“No,” I said with a sharp inhale.
“What?”
