Twelve
Stacy
I can feel the nervous energy rolling off of Reece as he parks his Audi outside of the country club. He was uncharacteristically quiet during our drive to Cincinnati and now he’s rubbing his hands down the thighs of his black dress slacks.
“Ready?” he asks, turning off the ignition.
I raise a brow at him. “Are you ?” I challenge.
He blows out a noisy breath, staring at the building we’re about to enter like it’s his execution chamber. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good. It’s just still kind of weird to see them together, that’s all.”
I nod. “Fair. Is there anything I need to know before we head in there?”
“My brother’s in finance.” He glances over at me. “His best friend Brayden will be here. He’s a history teacher and incredibly fucking annoying.”
“Got it.” I nod. “We hate Brayden.”
“Dad’s an accountant, Mom’s in real estate,” he goes on. “Gemma works in marketing and fashion. She’s super cool.” A grin tilts up on his face and the way he talks about his older sister warms my heart .
“Okay, so we like Gemma.”
Reece nods before looking down at his hands. “Uh, Tashia’s a nurse. Her and Lily were lab partners at Wing Haven which is how they became best friends. She’s an only child. Her mom and stepdad will be here and they’re even more in your face than mine, so I’m sorry ahead of time.”
I shrug. “Nothing I can’t handle. Anything else?”
Reece seems to hesitate momentarily, his mouth hanging open slightly before he shakes his head. “Nah. Just stay by me and we’ll be all good.”
I bob my head. Reece is about to get out, his hand on the handle, when I put my fingers on his thigh to stop him.
“Hey.”
He turns back, his eyes flicking between my face and my fingers on his leg. I should pull back, but the feel of his quad is making my hand tingle in the best way.
“If you need to leave, if we need to run out of there screaming, I got you. Okay?” I tell him.
He stares at me with adoration coloring his green eyes before he cracks a smile. “Thank you, Stace. Really.”
I let his warm breath skate across my face in the confined space of his car, the woodsy smell of him mixed with his toothpaste making me feel heady.
Not to mention my fingers are still resting on his leg, my thumb beginning to stroke his thigh absent-mindedly.
We hold eye contact in the weight of the silence, electricity crackling between our bodies as we both breathe heavily.
Way too heavily for two people sitting still.
“No worries.” I snap out of it, pulling my hand back. “Let’s do it.”
If Reece is disappointed, he doesn’t show it. Instead, he just nods and pops out of the driver’s side, rounding the car to open my door for me.
The outside of the country club is welcoming and refined.
Stone pillars flank the grand entrance, ivy climbing up them both.
The white stone exterior is a stark contrast to the darkening sky.
Shrubs and flowerbeds adorn what seems like every inch of the landscape, only disappearing when the grounds reach the winding golf course behind the club.
It’s a perfectly beautiful and pretentious place to host an engagement party.
We pass by a black and white acrylic sign at the front entrance that reads “Congrats Evan and Reece’s future is bright .
His graying hair does nothing but make him more distinguished, his jaw sharp and eyes bright green like Reece.
He’s fit, especially for a guy nearing sixty, and I just know if Mae were here, she’d pull me aside to call him a DILF.
“It’s so nice to meet you both,” I tell them and genuinely mean it.
“I am so excited that you’re here,” Jeanie tells me, turning to her son. “Baby, she’s gorgeous .”
Reece beams beside me and puts his arm around my waist. “Isn’t she?” He glances my way and his face fills with pride. He’s proud to have me here.
Even if it’s for show, it feels good.
“And look at that dress,” Jean gasps, taking my hands and sizing up my emerald green cocktail dress.
I chuckle, my cheeks beginning to hurt from smiling so wide at Jeanie and Henry. “I wanted to look nice to meet Reece’s family for the first time,” I say truthfully.
“Well, you look perfect,” she enthuses, glancing back at Reece. “Are you two being safe?”
“Jeanie,” Henry scolds as my cheeks flush.
Reece wasn’t kidding about his family.
“Alright, on that note,” Reece chortles as a blush creeps up his neck, “I guess I should go introduce Stacy to my siblings.”
“Hey.” Jeanie stops us as we start to step around them. She locks her eyes with Reece, her gaze concerned for the first time since I’ve met her. “Are you okay, sunshine? Really.”
Reece’s jaw ticks but he recovers, plastering his crooked smile across his face. “I’m perfectly fine, Mama. Really.”
She leans in to kiss his cheek, whispering something in his ear before letting us go, Henry waving goodbye to us as we weave through the crowd.
Reece has my hand in a death grip as he scans the guests and he stops up short as his gaze lands on a group of twenty-something’s over by the dessert table.
They’re all sipping champagne and laughing: a man and a woman who look eerily similar to Reece, a striking Asian woman with a blunt black bob—Lily, I realize—a beefy man with a low bun and thick glasses, and finally, a tall brunette in a silky white dress.
She’s hanging on the man who looks like a copy and paste of Reece, her thick, dark hair hanging down to her shoulders with curtain bangs framing her square face.
Even from here, I can tell she’s beautiful.
She’s Tashia.
“We can still run,” I remind Reece as he stares at the group.
He shakes his head. “I’m not running,” he tells me, looking down at me with a defiant smile. “Especially not when I’ve got the prettiest girl at the party on my arm.”
I roll my eyes. “Save the flattery for your family, Reece.”
Reece just winks at me before straightening up, seemingly steeling himself before toting me over towards the clique.
We break into the circle and the chatter seems to pause as everyone takes us in.
I keep my smile in place as five sets of eyes evaluate me and I feel a little bit like a zoo animal being gawked at.
The girl I presume to be Gemma breaks the silence first, her shocked expression morphing into a dazzling smile. “Reece! You made it!” She brings him into a tight embrace, breaking the ice as everyone starts to greet us.
I say hello to Gemma and I can immediately tell she’s just as cool as Reece made her out to be.
Her neon orange jumpsuit is certainly a fashion statement, her olive eyes bright with a constant smile on her full lips as she easily weaves in and out of conversation with everyone in the circle.
The burly man in glasses introduces himself as Brayden, shaking my hand and making an off-handed comment about politics right out of the gate.
Lily gives me a small wave, that cunning smirk on her lips that she wore at Sip Society.
I could knock it right off her face.
I shake hands with the one and only Evan, trying to keep my expression neutral even though I really want to glare at him.
Reece still loves his brother despite everything, and if that’s the relationship he so chooses to have with Evan, I have to respect that.
Evan truly does look like an off-brand, slightly less hot version of Reece with close-cropped hair and eyes a shade of green darker than Reece.
He’s nice enough during our introduction but I can’t silence the petty voice in the back of my head that’s saying Tashia got the short end of the stick.