Nine
Stacy
I’m surrounded by a cloud of Tom Ford Santal Blush, Gucci Bloom, and lots of blonde hair.
Also known as, the world’s most suffocating group hug featuring my mom and sister.
Reece and I made it to the restaurant fashionably late, so my whole family plus the Schroeder family was already waiting at our large, rounded corner booth.
However, our late arrival didn’t seem to affect my parents’ first impression of Reece.
He held my hand until we had no choice but to separate to say hello.
My hand felt clammy and shaky, but his was calm.
Rough. Sure. I let myself find a tiny amount of solace in his touch and let his hold calm me down.
A little bit. I mean, it’s still Reece Taylor.
Reece immediately shook hands with my father, firm and sure, just how Dad likes it.
He took it up another notch by surprising my parents with gifts that even I didn’t know about — a bottle of scotch for my dad, a bouquet of flowers for my mom, and a congratulatory card with a Carter’s gift card in it for Charlotte and Atticus.
Basically, we’ve been here for two and a half minutes and he’s already the perfect fucking gentleman.
We all slide into the booth after saying our hello’s and Reece’s hand finds mine under the table.
He does it so naturally, you’d think we’d been doing it for months.
He slides his thumb up and down across my own as he chats with my dad and Atticus, almost in an absent-minded way.
The touch leaves a path of tiny flames in its wake and I try to shake it off as I turn to congratulate my sister on her pregnancy properly.
Even if I am still blushing a little over our conversation in the car.
You’re so big.
I hear that a lot.
Your ego is plenty big.
Among other things.
Have we had sex?
Okay, maybe Mae is right. I have got to get laid.
It doesn’t help that Reece is looking particularly dashing in his dinner attire.
He picked me up and I admit, I swooned. I allowed myself three seconds to salivate over Reece Taylor before I got my act together.
But it was nearly impossible not to. His usual wild hair is slicked back, his sharp jaw clean-shaven.
He’s wearing khakis and a cornflower blue button-down shirt that melds to his arm muscles like it was tailor-made.
Not to mention, being trapped in his car with him for forty-five minutes made me realize how good he smells.
I’m not sure what cologne he wears but it’s something warm, something woodsy and musky that tickles my nose in just the right way.
Or just the wrong way, rather.
“—and then Stacy comes up to me, soaking wet, and tells me she fell into the pool with her clothes on.” I catch the tail-end of my dad’s conversation with Reece, Atticus, and Mr. Schroeder and I feel my cheeks heating up.
“Already telling embarrassing stories from my childhood, Dad?” I pipe in as the men all laugh.
“Stace.” Dad clicks his tongue. “It’s not my fault you’ve never brought a boy to meet us. I’ve been saving up stories for twenty-one years, sweetheart.”
The flush in my face spreads down my neck as my dad airs out my dirty laundry at the dinner table. Never having a serious boyfriend, save for a six month relationship in high school, isn’t necessarily something I want to put on display, especially not in front of Reece.
But, of course, he takes it in stride. He squeezes my hand and beams at my father.
“Well, Stacy’s going to meet my family in a couple of weeks and I can’t wait to relive some of my childhood memories.
One time, I was fishing with my dad when I was a kid and I tried to toss out the line before he baited the hook.
He didn’t react fast enough and the hook got me right in the cheek.
I screamed and cried while he pulled it out and everyone at the park was staring.
I was only six or seven but Dad was so embarrassed that we packed up and left right after. ”
The table explodes into laughter as a waitress comes by to drop off a bread basket and I feel a different warmth spreading throughout my body.
Reece just took the focus off of an embarrassing story about me to tell an embarrassing story about himself.
It’s evident that was his intention because when my family delves into other horrendous childhood stories about my sister, Reece shoots me a subtle wink .
I clear my throat, looking down at the menu before I burst into flames at this dinner table.
“You two are so cute together,” Charlotte comments as the server distributes a couple of bottles of red wine and seven glasses. “Stace, how come you’ve been keeping him a secret?”
“Oh, you know,” I chuckle. “Didn’t want to bring him around until I knew he was serious about me. Right, baby?”
“I’ve always been serious about this one,” Reece says, removing his hand from mine in order to put his arm around my shoulders. “Want to tell them how we got together, angel?”
My smile stays plastered onto my face as I turn and whisper into his ear. “Angel?”
“I panicked,” he whispers back.
“Oh, I love a good meet-cute,” Charlotte gushes.
“Tell us!” Mom agrees, clapping her hands while Dad pours the wine.
I clear my throat and dig my nails into Reece’s thigh. “Well, we’re both on the cheer team.”
Char gasps. “Scandalous.”
“Like a movie,” Atticus agrees.
Mom waves them both off, her eyes full of intrigue. “Let her talk, let her talk.”
The gears crank in my head as I realize I really should’ve had a story laid out before we got here. My mouth gapes as my mind draws a blank and I start to panic.
Words. Words. Why don’t I know any words?
“I’ve been obsessed with her since freshman year,” Reece cuts in when I’ve been quiet for an uncomfortable amount of time. “I’ve been trying to wear her down ever since and she finally agreed to go on a date with me a couple of months ago.”
I glance at him and he shoots me another wink. “Isn’t that right, angel?”
A smirk blossoms across my face as I turn back to my family. “Oh, he wore me down alright. Do you guys want to know what he did before I finally said yes?”
The whole table nods, enthralled by my story.
For the first time in years, positive attention is on me.
I lick my lips, reveling in the feeling. “He put flowers at my door every single day. Along with a note. A different note every day. The notes were basically love letters. They were horrendously cheesy.”
Reece nods beside me, not at all ruffled by my ridiculous story. “Every letter was a different reason why I liked her. Why I wanted to date her. This lasted for a month.”
I stare at Reece, a little stunned that he’s going along with it, before going on. “Finally, I say yes to a date because, how couldn’t I? So he takes me to the planetarium on campus one night.”
“Got the whole thing to ourselves,” he interjects.
I nod. “He set up the interactive theater to look like the night sky. He brought a picnic basket and a blanket, and we sat underneath the fake stars and ate pizza.”
“Homemade pizza. Mom’s recipe.”
“And he asked me to be his girlfriend right there. How could I say no?”
“And the rest is history.” Reece gleams, pulling me tighter to his side.
The whole table is stunned into silence by our ridiculously cheesy story before the questions about Reece set in.
And they are bountiful .
Where are you from, bud?
What are your plans after college?
How long have you been cheering?
Do you think a hot dog is a sandwich?
The last question is courtesy of my ever-goofy brother-in-law, of course.
Reece takes it all in stride. He glistens and glows in the dim light of the restaurant, keeping my family entertained well into appetizers and entrées.
There’s never a beat of silence, a lick of hesitation.
He takes their questions and turns his answers into something smart and witty, something full of life and worth laughing about.
My family is practically eating out of the palm of his hand and I can’t help but hope I can provide him with the same level of service when I go meet his family for his brother’s engagement party.
I begin to wonder where he gets all this energy from. It has to be exhausting to be on all the time, to be a ray of sunshine and the guy in the room who’s always smiling. Putting on that mask every day must get tiring, right?
Unless this is just Reece. Maybe he’s simply full of life. Maybe he is the sun, despite whatever shitty, gross situation he’s going through.
Maybe I could learn a thing or two from Reece Taylor.
I shake my head as Reece continues to woo my parents. The only thing I’m learning tonight is that two glasses of merlot make me irrational and delusional.
Nonetheless, I bask in the feeling of warmth and approval radiating from my parents. I revel in their attention as I pick at my chicken piccata because this is the first time I’ve truly felt it in a long, long time.
“Any siblings, Reece?” my mom asks as dessert is being served, and it makes Reece tense up beside me. He recovers quickly, the brilliant smile returning to his face as if it hadn’t just fallen.
“Two,” Reece answers before taking a swig of his wine. “I have a brother and sister who are three years older than me. Twins. Gemma and Evan. They’re both back in Cincinnati with my parents.”
Mom nods in approval before delving deeper into Reece’s life. My eyebrows knit together at his reaction. Does he feel uncomfortable talking about siblings thanks to his situation with his older brother? I wish he would’ve let me know. I could’ve helped him, steered the conversation clear of Evan.
But Reece has already recovered, shooting the shit with my mother like nothing’s ever hurt him before.
Except I know that’s not true.
Maybe Reece is a ray of sunshine but he’s still been hurt. That much is clear. It makes me wonder how long he’s been harboring the hurt for on his own, makes me wonder if he’s got someone who’s on his side when it comes to Evan’s engagement to his ex.
It makes me wonder how long he’s been wearing his smile, because he’s a little too good at keeping it in place.