Chapter 9 #2
“Hey, Lib—” Janelle leans in. “Who’s that with you?” she asks.
I clear my throat. Okay, guess we’re getting right to this. “This is Jordan Atkinson.”
“Bennet,” he whispers, so quiet only I hear him. I swallow back a laugh. This is flirting, but I can’t lecture him—it’s in front of my family.
But it was only for me.
He’s definitely got a way of bending the rules.
Ellie and Mom lean in simultaneously to get a better look. Dad furrows his eyebrows. I hear my nieces in the background of Ellie’s phone.
“Mom! Who is it?” Kat asks.
Ellie glances down. “It’s Libby,” she says distractedly. She’s still eyeing Jordan—and probably the way his arm is over the back of the couch behind me.
Little faces push their way onto the screen. “Hi, Libby!” five-year-old Kat says.
“Hey, sweetie.” I wave at her.
“When are you coming to see us?” she asks.
“Libby! See us!” her little sister, three-year-old Emmeline, cries.
“Soon,” I promise. “Uh, Ellie? I need to tell you guys something…”
“Girls,” she says, picking up her phone. “You can talk to Libby later, okay?”
“Bye, Libby!” they call from offscreen, and then their voices fade away.
“What’s up?” Mom asks. She’s squinting at her screen, holding it close to her face. I can barely see my dad’s head behind her.
“So.” My throat seizes up. I hate that I’m lying to them.
I hate that what I’ve done is going to make them all worry when they don’t need to.
Out of their view, Jordan reaches for my hand and squeezes it supportively.
I clear my throat. “So,” I say again. “Jordan and I have actually been dating for about six months,” I go on in a rush.
“What?” Mom and Ellie say at the same time as Janelle says, “Why didn’t you tell us before?” Dad’s reaction is silent, whatever it is. I still can’t see him around Mom.
I don’t have a good answer for them. It makes sense that we would keep our relationship a secret from the press.
But there’s no reason I wouldn’t have told my family.
They are all vaults. They know how to keep secrets.
We all did it for years on the show. We watched every comment, everything we posted online, every interaction we had.
Well, they definitely did it better than me, but I was very young.
But I can’t admit to them that Jordan and I just met, or I’d have to explain why I married him.
“We were keeping it a secret,” I say. I don’t add anything else, even though my family looks at me confused. I’d rather keep silent than lie more. “And today … the reason we came to Maui was…” I swallow. I can say this. I can tell them I ran off with a guy and married him.
Jordan breaks in. “I proposed to Libby a week ago, and to avoid all the scrutiny her wedding would bring, we decided to get married quietly, just us, here in Maui.” He delivers it in a firm voice with a hint of apology—we know what we’ve done but we’re not sorry.
Now all three of them and my dad cry in unison, “What?” in various states of shock.
“You could have told your family, Libby,” Dad says, his voice hurt. It holds all the accusation that I didn’t trust them.
“I know. But Jordan and I wanted to keep this to ourselves. It was important to us.” I try to sound as firm as Jordan. It’s okay. We’re two adults. I understand it’s hurtful we didn’t include them, but we’re also entitled to make this decision.
Dad and Mom share a look. If Ellie and Janelle were in the same place as them, they’d all be having a silent consult about me.
“Libby, can we talk to you alone for a second?” Ellie asks. Her expression is calm, and she even casts Jordan a faint, apologetic smile.
No way am I going to step away from Jordan. They’re being restrained right now in what they say about this with him here. “He’s my husband, Ellie,” I say sweetly. “Part of our family now. Whatever you have to say about this, you can say in front of him.”
Ellie narrows her eyes, and the glint in them gives me the distinct impression that my older sister knows exactly why I won’t talk to her alone.
“Okay,” she says, drawing out the word. Her eyes dart over the screen, taking in the reactions of the rest of my family.
Mom and Dad share another look. Janelle glances somewhere off to her side.
I suspect that her husband, Charlie, is listening in.
Ellie goes on, her tone carefully neutral, inviting me to confide in her. “I just want to make sure that you weren’t pressured to do this by the network or producers. For the show.”
I laugh in relief. At least I can tell her the truth about that. “As ecstatic as Victoria is, no, she did not pressure us to do this.”
Ellie nods. Her expression has turned confused. She knows me well, so she believes me. But my sister is also intuitive and can probably guess there’s more.
I use Jordan’s tactic to turn the conversation, even though Ellie probably won’t let this go easily.
“This isn’t a rash decision,” I say, making eye contact with each one of them in turn so they know exactly why I’m telling them this, even if it’s a little white lie.
Saying I was marrying Jordan to keep the sale from tanking—yes, that was rash.
But every decision since then has been carefully thought out.
“It may have happened fast for us, but Ellie and Janelle, you’re hardly ones to talk.
” I raise an eyebrow at them. Janelle is the first to grin—and again, she glances off camera toward her husband.
They got married after knowing each other only six months as well.
Will and Ellie also knew each other less than a year.
Ellie still stares me down. “Jordan is a good man—you can trust me on that. We discussed this decision rationally. It was not a spur-of-the-moment, running-off-to-do-something-crazy thing. Okay?”
I don’t know that my family is completely convinced, but they do all shift a little, like they’re sheepish.
I know what they were thinking—Grayson Hollis 2.
0, only this time I married him. I can see the similarities, yes.
But this proves why I have to show the world I’m a different person than I was back then when even my family is quick to judge me.
“Of course, Libby,” Mom says. She forces a big smile. I give her the most grace on this. As she has reminded me many times, you can’t just turn off mom worries.
“We’ll come by for dinner when we get back so everyone can meet Jordan and grill him,” I say.
Janelle snaps out of her shock first. “That will be great!”
“Except I can’t be there,” Ellie says in a mock irritation, but she’s smiling. Kind of smiling. It’s forced. I actually forgot that she’d moved, and that dinner invite probably stung.
“We’ll see you soon too,” I promise, apologetic. “The sale should be finalized in the next couple weeks.”
“Lots of big changes, Libby!” Mom adds brightly. In other words, Are you still going to therapy?
“And I’m ready for them!” I respond just as brightly.
“We’re so excited for you, Libby,” Janelle says. She darts a glance at Jordan and then back to me. “We can’t wait to get to know you, Jordan. You must be pretty special for Libby to have chosen you.” Those words are genuine.
I catch Ellie clenching her jaw, but she’s still forcing that smile. “Can’t wait to see you, Libs,” she says.
“Congratulations,” Mom chimes in. “We love you!”
I’m willing to bet a million dollars they all call each other as soon as Jordan and I hang up.
“Love you guys,” I reply, my smile as plastered on as theirs.
It’s fine. I’ve been doing it all day. “We’ll see you soon.
” I wave as I hang up. And like when the conversation with Jordan’s mom ended, I flop back against the couch. “Oooof,” I repeat.
“We did it, Team Bennet,” he says. He holds his hands up for another high five.
I slap them and then tilt my head. “Hug?” I ask.
“Definitely.” Jordan drops his arms and wraps them around me. “They’re gonna love me,” he promises, his mouth against my forehead.
This is the problem, Jordan. I think we all might like you a little too much, considering this isn’t real.