Chapter Eighteen
Dash
I’m walking on a cloud by the time I step into the hotel elevator the next morning. Not only did Ruby accept my invitation for a date, but we texted late into the night. All the tired soreness vanishes when I’m talking to her.
But I’m meeting my family this morning, which means I need to rein in my emotions. My sisters are like hawks—they can sense a person’s emotional temperature faster than a thermometer tracks a fever. They’ll know I’m seeing someone simply by the lovestruck pheromones coming off me.
The elevator dings to tell me I’ve reached the lobby. But when I exit, I don’t expect to hear someone screeching my name so loudly it echoes off the high ceilings.
“Mom?”
My mother and four sisters crowd the front desk, surrounded by the designer handbags I gifted them all for Christmas, along with other various pieces of luggage. Before I’m able to take two steps, Mom’s hurtling toward me, gold bangles jingling against her outstretched arms.
“There you are!”
“Mom,” I say, letting her squeeze the air from my lungs. “I thought I was picking you guys up from the airport?”
“We wanted to surprise you.” She pulls away, placing both hands against my face. “Oh, my boy. It’s been too long.” Like always, she tugs me down to kiss my left cheek first, then my right. “This beard is itchy.”
I scratch the side of my jaw. “I like it.”
“But a woman kissing you won’t.”
“Sheesh, Mom. Come on. You’ve been here, like, two seconds. Maybe ease up on the criticism, yeah?”
She shakes her head, all smiles. “You’re right. Come. Say hi to your sisters.” Tugging me by the hand, she leads me to where Danessa, Davina, Danica, and Danae all watch with amused expressions.
“Hey, little brother,” Danessa says, pulling me in for a quick hug and kiss. “You’re looking awfully burly these days.”
“Gee, thanks.” Next, I move to Davina. “Hey, sis.”
“Hey, you. Long time no see.” She gives me a quick squeeze before releasing me. “I like the beard. Girls nowadays dig that look.”
I chuckle before wrapping my arms around the next sister in line—Danica. “Mmm, you big teddy bear, you,” she squeals, one hand behind my head, the other between my shoulder blades. “I’ve missed playing phone tag with you.”
“Well, then, maybe you should fix your voicemail.”
She scoffs and rolls her eyes. “You’re so bossy. Just like always.”
Danae practically shoves Danica out of the way. “My turn! Scootchy, scootchy!” As I’m embraced by my last sister, the distinct feeling of home overwhelms me.
“It’s so good to see you,” I whisper into her hair.
“Same.” She clears her throat to hide the hitch in her voice. Man, I’ve missed these people. I give Danae one final squeeze before stepping back to address everyone.
“I’m so glad you guys made it safely. But I wish you would’ve let me pick you up at the airport. I could’ve taken you right to your hotel.”
Mom waves me off. “Oh, honey, it’s fine. We wanted to see if you’d like to grab breakfast together first.”
“Danica’s famished,” Davina says, putting the word in air quotes.
“What?” Danica pokes Davina in the arm with a long, perfectly manicured nail. “I am famished. I haven’t eaten since last night.”
“Girls, come now.” Mom claps her hands together. “This is Dash’s big week. No arguing.”
I ignore the eyerolls I know are coming and face Mom. “How about we find somewhere to eat then. I’d like to get you guys all settled into your hotel before tonight.”
Danessa crosses her arms. “Eager to get rid of us or something?”
“What? No. I just hate that you’re all carting around two cars’ worth of luggage.”
Danae sighs. “I told Danica she didn’t need four bags but—”
“Listen,” Danica cuts her off. “You might not care about your hair and makeup looking good, but that doesn’t mean I don’t.”
“Girls.” Mom’s reprimand goes unnoticed as the two of them continue bickering.
Davina steps forward, ignoring them all. “Pull up local restaurants on your phone. Let’s pick a place to eat. Quick.”
“There’s a place some of the guys had mentioned—”
“Take us there. Please.” Davina wraps her fingers around my upper arm, glancing back at the rest of our family. “Let’s get these DiFranco women out of this upscale hotel lobby before we’re all escorted out.”
It takes longer than I expected to load everyone, plus luggage, back into two separate taxis. I convince Mom to drop off the luggage at their hotel before we grab breakfast, and once we’re seated at the diner, everyone’s mood seems to have mellowed.
“This place is quaint.” All smiles, Mom flips open a menu.
“Sure it is,” Danica murmurs. “If you like your bacon with an extra side of grease.”
Danae huffs while Davina rolls her eyes.
“So, Dash,” Danessa starts, interlocking her fingers on the tabletop. “How are things here?”
“Busy.” That smile I woke with reappears just like it does any time I think about my time here in DC. “Busy but good.”
“You look happy.” Danae eyes me with a mixture of contentment and curiosity.
“Like I said, it’s been good.” I take a sip from the water glass the server dropped off after we took our seats, attempting to avoid the stares.
“Interesting.” Danessa’s eyes narrow.
“When do you head off to practice?” Davina twirls the straw in her drink, ice cubes clinking against the sides of the glass.
“I should head over there after this.”
“We’ll be your very own cheering section!” Danica wiggles the tips of her fingers together. “I have a surprise for everyone but wanted to wait until Dash was here to share. I made us all matching sweatshirts!”
“Let me guess,” Danae deadpans. “They’re doused in glitter.”
Danica tuts. “You could use a little more sparkle in your life, D.”
“Hey now. Danae is plenty sparkly.” I tweak my youngest sister’s nose, but she brushes me off.
“I’m perfectly fine as is, thank you.”
The server appears, ready to take our orders. I tell her it’s all going to be one check, to which each of my sisters—plus Mom—instantly begin to argue about.
“It’s my treat. You all took time out of your busy schedules to celebrate this with me. That means a lot, and I couldn’t be more grateful.”
“Aw, sweetheart.” Mom reaches across the table to squeeze my hand. “We wouldn’t have missed it.” My sisters all wear varying degrees of agreement in their expressions.
And that’s why I love these people. No matter how far apart we are or where life takes us, we always show up for each other during life’s most important moments.
Once our orders are placed, we engage in some small talk about how the flight went and where they’ll be staying until our food is delivered. That’s when my eldest sister decides to drop the bombshell I suspected was coming.
I just had no idea what it could be.
“I saw something interesting in your fan group this morning.” Danessa takes a big bite of sausage, watching me with shrewd eyes.
“Did you?” I have no idea what she could be referring to.
I’m not a member of the fan group she moderates in her free time, nor do I keep up with the latest gossip surrounding me and my life.
Most of what gets published is false anyway, and even if some of the info is true, it’s usually always spun in whatever way earns the most clicks.
I used to read anything and everything that got written about me, but once I noticed how negatively it affected my mental state, I stopped following even the fan groups. Haven’t looked back since.
“I did.” Danessa swallows her bite of food, then pokes her fork in my general direction. “A fan posted a very interesting picture of you from the women’s game last night. Not the best angle, but it’s easy to tell that it’s you.”
My blood turns to ice so fast, I nearly choke on my veggie omelet. “P-picture?”
“Mmhm.” Her smirk turns mischievous. “It almost looked as if you were about to get into some sort of…altercation.” Mom gasps. “On someone else’s behalf.”
“Who?” Davina’s eyes go wide.
“Who indeed.” Clearly pleased with herself, Danessa sits back in her seat, arms crossed.
Everyone’s attention skips back and forth between Danessa and me while I mentally search for an explanation that won’t betray my conscience, give Mom too much hope, or douse the tender new beginnings I’ve worked hard to cultivate with Ruby.
“Dash?” Mom blinks about a hundred times, waiting for me to explain.
“I didn’t get into any sort of fight,” I say to quell her worry. “Nothing happened.”
“Well, what did happen?” Danica clutches her fork in one hand, knife in the other, ready to pounce if I say go.
“I was…sort of…on a date.” As soon as the words leave my mouth, I realize that’s not quite right. But everyone’s already popping off, leaving me little room to interject.
“What? A date?”
“With who?”
“I told you he was seeing someone!”
“Great,” Danae moans. “So much for our solidarity in singleness!”
“Guys, hold up.” I lift my hands out toward the DiFranco women as if approaching a skittish filly. Or five. “Date wasn’t the right word to use. I was just out. With some…new friends I made. Recently.”
“Duh.” Danica sorts. “New indicates recent, rink rat.”
I send her a warning glare. “No need to resurrect the nicknames we gave each other when we were twelve.” She immediately backs off, suddenly more interested in her orange juice than correcting me. No grown woman wants to be called Squeezer.
“So you were out with some friends, plural?” Davina taps her long fingernails against the tabletop impatiently.
I think for a second. “Does plural also mean…two?”
“No wonder you did so poorly in English.” Danica rolls her eyes.
“You went on a date with two women at the same time?” Mom gasps.
I scrub my hands down my face. “No—”
“The pictures I saw,” Danessa interrupts, “showed Dash interacting with some guy who looked like a gym bro, then him sitting with a woman and boy.”
“Are you dating a single mother?” Mom presses a hand to her chest. “Oh. Em. Gee. Am I going to be a grandma again?!”
“All right, enough.” Davina waves her hands across the table, silencing everyone. “We need to let Dash explain without all of us jumping to conclusions.” Her eyes lock with mine. “Go ahead.”
I expel a heavy breath. “Do you all promise to stay quiet?”
The closing of mouths is so sudden and swift, it’s jarring.
“A fan of mine won tickets to Game One in the tournament. His older sister brought him to the game. We sort of…hit it off. And I invited them back for the rest of the games in the tournament. Last night, I took them out to eat before the women’s match.
While there, I took Beck—that’s the younger boy’s name—to get some snacks, and gym bro guy took my seat. ”
“A seat that was next to…?” Danessa’s eyebrows lift.
“Ruby.” I swallow. “Her name is Ruby.”
A collective sigh seems to go around the table.
“Do you like her?” The soft-spoken question comes from Danae, probably the most tenderhearted of all of us.
I offer her a reassuring smile. “I do. But we weren’t on a date last night because—”
“Because her younger brother was there?”
I lift one shoulder. “That and…she rebuffed my first attempts at asking her out.”
“Ouch.” Davina winces.
“It’s all right,” I say, running a hand through my hair. “We’re, uh, supposed to meet up today. After practice.”
Mom looks like she might burst into tears of joy. Danica, Davina, and Danae all share different variations of blank stares, while Danessa seems almost…victorious.
“And when were you planning to tell us about this girl?” my oldest sister asks.
I fight the urge to accuse her of using her super sleuth powers for evil. “There’s not much to tell right now. Like I said, we haven’t even gone out on an official date yet.”
“Do we get to meet her?” Mom’s voice hitches on the word meet.
As much as I want to make Mom happy, there’s no way I can subject Ruby to my entire family this early on in our relationship. Yeah, I love my sisters and think they’re great, but I also know them. Even in small doses, they can be a lot to handle as a group.
“I don’t know, Mom. Things are still really new with Ruby.”
A look of hurt flashes across Mom’s face. “I see.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just—”
“New,” she reiterates. “I understand.” Her fake, forced smile tells a different story.
“Look, if things go well today, then…” I blow out a breath. “Maybe. But I’m not making any promises.”
There. That should be sufficient. If Ruby’s not down to meet my family this soon after our first date, I won’t make her. Things between the two of us have moved faster than most relationships because of the timeline we’re locked in.
Danessa clears her throat. “Well, why don’t we talk about what we’re going to do together while we’re here.”
I’m grateful for the subject change. But the more she talks, the more I realize how hard it might be for me to manage everything while they’re in town.
I only have so many days in DC, and it’ll be a challenge to divide my time between my family, my new girl, and my job.
It’s a juggling act I wasn’t prepared for at the outset.
One wrong move and I’m afraid all of it will come crashing down around me.