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My parents were in the process of getting up, while Claire and Tyler simply looked over their shoulders at him, confused, but I managed to get up first, and I rushed over to him, whispering, “What are you doing here? I—”
I couldn’t say any more, because my parents were right behind me.
And because I knew what Brett was going to say before he said it.
“I know I told you I didn’t know if I’d be able to make it, but I managed to finish the job sooner than expected, and I raced right on over. I think—” Brett paused as he took my hand and pulled me against him. “—it’s time I meet your parents, seeing as how we’ve been dating for a while now.”
Oh, God. This couldn’t be happening. This had to be a nightmare or something.
How was I going to explain this?
My mom’s mouth dropped open, while my dad squinted at him. Here’s hoping my parents, or my sister and Tyler, for that matter, wouldn’t recognize him. Time to put the old Clark Kent disguise to the test. Did glasses make the man?
In this case glasses and darker hair.
Claire and Tyler got up, and soon enough we were faced with four sets of curious, confused eyes. Brett didn’t seem to mind, because he kept me firmly pressed against his side, his arm draped around my shoulder… almost exactly like he’d done in that dream.
I wanted to laugh and push Brett away, tell them I had no idea who he was, but that would make things even weirder. So, sadly, I had to suck it up and act like I was dating him, which would mean answering countless questions about him and why I’d kept him to myself once he was gone.
God, I was going to kill him.
Chapter Nineteen – Brett
Okay, so listen. Going to the little party and pretending to be Charlie’s boyfriend wasn’t always the plan. I was going to watch the house to make sure nothing happened, but even from so far away, she just looked so damned sad. Bored out of her mind and sad, and… well, apparently my willpower wasn’t that great when I knew she was sad.
So I thought: what better way to brighten her day than to annoy her and pretend to be her boyfriend again? This time in front of her family.
And her family was confused. Jaws were on the ground, let’s just say.
Her father wasn’t so impressive. Not nearly as tall as me, I bet I could take him in a fight if I had to. Same with her sister’s new fiancé. Her sister looked a lot like their mother, and she didn’t have the ridiculously small, semi-childish frame Charlie had.
Her father offered his hand—the hand that mirrored the one I had around Charlie’s shoulder, which meant I had to pull off of her to shake it. Which I had to, sadly. “James Mulanie,” he said, his fingers squeezing mine awfully hard, like he wanted to intimidate me or something.
I almost told him my real name, but I caught myself just in time to say, “Ian.” Don’t ask me where that name came from. I wouldn’t have an answer.
“Ian,” her father repeated, still shaking my hand. “How long have you been dating my daughter?”
Wow. Right to the hard-hitting questions.
“Oh, stop,” her mother said. “I’m Emily. This is Claire and her fiancé, Tyler. Come have a seat. What do you drink, Ian?” She wore a yellow, loose-fitting shirt and capris, a very old-person outfit.
Surely Charlie didn’t think I was more like her parents than I was her… did she? Did she look at me and see a middle-aged man? Fuck.
“Water’s fine,” I said, and we went to go sit at the table while Charlie’s mother disappeared into the house. I sat at the end, mostly due to Charlie’s insistence, because she sat on my other side, boxing me away from her family.
Her father took the seat directly across from me, and his glare never once lessened. “How long you been dating Charlie, Ian?” The same question, spoken just as vehemently.
Would he recognize me? Eh, it was now or never.
I reached up to take my sunglasses off, setting them on the picnic table. “A few months,” I told him. I assumed a few months was the best answer; not too long that she’d started dating me right after breaking up with Zak, but not new enough to continue being a secret.
“Months, huh? Funny, she’s never mentioned she has a boyfriend,” her father harrumphed.
Claire leaned over and said, “Maybe she never mentioned it because you and mom were huge Zak supporters.” When I tossed her a questioning look, she added, “They’d always ask about him every holiday, even after they broke up. Not going to lie, Dad, it got old, even to me.” At least she had Charlie’s back.
But her father wasn’t convinced. He couldn’t stop staring at me, sizing me up. “You look familiar, Ian. Have we met before?”
“No—” Charlie was going to say more, but I cut in, “I don’t think so. I have been told I look like that guy they’re looking for over in Eastcreek—Brett Banks? Let’s just say it’s not fun having the police called on you when you’re going grocery shopping.”
