Chapter 11
THEA
The service in my room is so bad that it takes three attempts before the video call to my best friend goes through.
“Make it fast, ma’am,” he says, propping his phone up on the mirror of his bathroom vanity, running each hand along the line where his fade gives way to his tight black curls. “You’re eating into my getting ready time. I’ve got a date tonight.”
“Your date can wait,” I say. “I’m having an emergency.”
Vaughn swipes his phone off the counter, walking out into his living room and plopping on the couch. “Oh shit, sorry. What’s up?”
“Remember that time you convinced me to come up to North Carolina to be your friend’s fake girlfriend?”
He gives me a flat stare. “You mean that time I helped you make rent by setting you up with my hot cowork…” His sentence trails off as he registers where this conversation is going. “No fucking way.”
“Yes fucking way. It’s a disaster!”
He has the audacity to laugh, the light brown skin around his eyes crinkling. “How’d they react when you came clean?”
I pull my lip between my teeth. “We didn’t exactly … come clean.”
He groans. “Seriously?”
“His family would be pissed. And his mom’s emotional because her dead husband isn’t here for her son’s wedding and Addy’s already scared she won’t be accepted by them and Owen doesn’t want to deal with the fallout. And, I don’t know, I want to help him, too.”
I want to give him this little sliver of freedom, even if it’s not as much as he deserves.
Vaughn studies me for a minute. “Fuuuuuuuuck, you’re going to fall in love with him.”
My stomach flips like I’ve been thrown out of a plane with no parachute, but I force an eye roll. “No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are.” He laughs, but there’s a hard edge to it. He leans forward, bringing his face closer to the camera. “Thee, be careful.”
“There’s nothing to be careful about,” I say, breaking eye contact so he can’t see the lie. “And if there was, aren’t you the person who’s spent years telling me he’s a great guy?”
I don’t even know why I include that last bit. Obviously, Owen’s a good guy, but that doesn’t matter.
“Yes, he is a great guy. And I meant it all those times I said it. But he’s about to be Addy’s brother-in-law. The two of you have concocted this massive deception, and getting emotionally involved will just make things messier.”
“He says like she’s unaware of her own predicament,” I mumble.
“You know how Addy’s going to react if this comes out. She’ll get pissed and take it—”
“Don’t insult my sister,” I say with so much venom that it slithers through the phone to poison my friend.
He sighs. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. But I’ve watched you beat yourself up over things with Addy for years.”
“I don’t do that.”
He levels me with a stare. “What about that time we got drunk at De Leon Springs and had to call her to pick us up? A totally normal thing for a Saturday, but you cried after she dropped us off because you were, and I quote, ‘so irresponsible.’”
“She had to leave a work picnic to get me!” I yell.
“That you didn’t know she was at. She could have told you to call a rideshare, but she didn’t. And you beat yourself up for weeks.”
What Vaughn doesn’t realize is that the day at the springs wasn’t an isolated incident. Yes, it sounds normal and reasonable, but it’s mixed in with the years of me screwing up and dragging Addy down with me.
“You’re going to do the same thing if something happens at the wedding, and I don’t want that for you. So stay away from Owen.” I don’t answer, and he stares at me long enough that I think the connection has dropped until he sighs. “Just think about it, okay?”
I nod, saying a quick goodbye so he can get to his date and I can hype myself up before meeting up with Owen’s family. Because even though my knee-jerk reaction is to fight Vaughn’s comments, he is right. My best bet to keep Addy happy is to stay away from Owen Hayes.
Thirty minutes later, everyone’s gathered in the lobby, ready to head out for the joint bachelor/bachelorette party.
I spot the person I’m absolutely not going to talk to under any circumstances. His back is to me, his jeans hugging his ass and thick thighs. But I’m not noticing that. I’m being responsible, because I’m not here for my own fun. I’m here to give Addy the future she’s always wanted.
Gabriel bounds over like the puppy dog he is, throwing his arm around my shoulders again. “How can I earn your forgiveness, oh perfect one?”
“What?” I ask, the word broken by a laugh.
He gestures to my elbow. “For injuring you. I’ll spend the rest of my life paying my penance.”
I chuckle at his enthusiasm. “It’ll heal up in a day or so. No need for self-flagellation.”
“Thank god for that. In that case, are you ready to fall in love with me?” he asks with a cheeky smile, and I poke him in the side. He jumps a few steps away. “Wait until you hear me play, and then we’ll talk.”
We’re heading into town tonight to a dive bar that’s apparently the greatest place ever to party, which sounds like a pretty big declaration for a town with about four stores. But I was promised live music, and that’s all I need to get on board.
“You’re in the band?”
Gabriel gives me a cocky smile. “I am. Does knowing I’m a musician change anything for you?”
I laugh loudly, and the noise catches Owen’s attention. He looks over his shoulder, catching my eye and giving me a small smile that has everything in me tightening up.
Shit.
I turn my focus away, to anything besides the way the slight tilt of his lips makes me feel. Gabriel slips a flask out of his back pocket, handing it in my direction with a playful glance at Owen.
“Need a nip of courage?”
I sigh, swiping the container and letting the cool metal ground me. The cheap whiskey burns, but it gives me something tangible to focus on.
Camila slides up to our group, hip-checking Gabriel. “Is my little brother giving you trouble again?”
Gabriel sighs wistfully. “Thea Ellis-Gutiérrez has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”
I shake my head. “He’s a very charming fetus.”
Gabriel clutches his chest like I’ve stabbed him while Camila’s wife, Mira, comes up behind her, wrapping her arms around her waist and laying her hands gently on the swell there.
Camila pops a kiss on her cheek. “Babe, fair warning, I offered Thea the role of my mistress to get the boys off her back.”
Mira pins me with a hard stare, like I actually intend to steal Camila away in the night, and a shiver runs down my spine. The sheet of her gorgeous black hair slides over both their shoulders as she shakes her head. “Not okay with that.”
Camila hums. “What if she was a weird live-in mistress who handles nighttime feedings?”
“Yeah, I’m going to pass on that one.” I take one last swig before passing the flask back to Gabriel. “No one wants me in charge of keeping a child alive. Who’s on bus-driving duty tonight?”
“That’s Owen’s job,” Camila says.
“He drove to the baseball game,” I say.
“Owen always drives,” Gabriel says. “Didn’t he do it the last time y’all were here?”
“No, we didn’t go off property during my wedding,” Camila says.
“Our wedding,” Mira answers with a little nudge, her light Indian accent slipping through the syllables, and Camila smiles up at her guiltily.
“Wait,” I say, even though they’re already moving on to something else. “Owen always drives?”
They blink at me.
“Yes,” Camila says, drawing out the word like doing so will help her see the logic behind the question.
“Why is it always Owen?”
Camila and Gabriel look at each other, confusion etched on their faces, like the question has never occurred to them.
“It just … is,” Gabriel says, the last word turning up like a question.
Camila laughs. “Owen’s always been the dad of the group. He likes making sure everyone’s safe.”
I don’t point out that she’s pregnant and can’t drink, but from the way everyone’s eyes flick to her bump, we’re all thinking it. I’m this close to calling it out, but inserting myself into the family dynamics is the opposite of what I said I would do. Owen’s role in the family is not my problem.
Owen hops up on the coffee table in one of the sitting areas and cups his hands around his mouth. “Anyone planning on using my services—”
“What sort of services, Owen?” one of the cousins calls from the back in a fake feminine voice that has the group cracking up.
Owen levels a stare across the group, and everyone quiets down, giggling behind their hands like scolded schoolchildren. “This bus is leaving in ten minutes, so get out there.”
Everyone heads for the door, but I drop back to avoid the rush.
“I’ll save you a seat,” Gabriel says, blowing me a kiss.
“You’re developing quite the fan club,” Camila whispers, jerking her head in the opposite direction from Gabriel to where Owen is standing, watching us.
Owen heads my way as Camila and Mira saunter off. “You ready for this?”
“It’s a night at a dive bar. You’re putting me in my natural habitat,” I say. If anyone wouldn’t be comfortable at a dive bar, I’d guess it would be him with his pressed collared shirts and lack of tattoos.
The smile he gives me is small but no less earth-shattering. “My family can be a lot.”
“I’ve been called a lot my whole life,” I say. “I can take it.”
“I know you can,” he says, his voice low and quiet. It shoots through, heat rushing to every corner of my body.
I take an abrupt step back. “We should probably, you know … not talk like this.”
Owen blinks and backs away, too. “Oh, yeah. Of course. Sorry.”
Owen turns suddenly for the door and walks away from me without another word, and I fall into step a couple of feet behind him, like a sad, reluctant baby duck. There’s a tightness in his shoulders that’s not normally there.
“I hear you’re the permanent designated driver around here,” I say. It’s the opposite of what I just promised myself. I shouldn’t keep encouraging conversation when I’m trying to put distance between us.
Owen flicks the keys around his finger again. “Yup.”
“Don’t you ever just want to let loose with your family?”
He looks over his shoulder, his feet never faltering. “Of course.”
“Then why don’t you?”
He lets out a heavy sigh. “Because they ask me to drive.”
“Have you ever told them you don’t want to?”
He stops on a dime, twirling to face me. “What’s with all the questions, Thea? I thought we weren’t spending time together.”
It’s the harshest he’s ever spoken to me, and I’m a bit taken aback. But I’m also happy to see him not just saying whatever he thinks I want to hear.
“We aren’t. I’m just wondering.”
He runs a hand down his face. “No, I guess I’ve never blatantly said it before.”
“Camila told me you like driving, that you want to take care of everyone.”
Owen blinks a few times, like this is news that his brain can’t process in regular time.
I shrug. “Just seems like everyone’s making assumptions right now, and it may be worth a conversation.”
Owen watches me for a couple of seconds, something in his gaze softening. But one of his cousins calls out from the door of the bus, and the indifferent mask slips back into place. “I can handle my family, Thea.”
It feels like a slap, even though it’s true. This isn’t my place. I have no place with this family, just a transient role to help the real new member of their family settle in.
“Yeah, of course you can. Let’s go,” I say, turning away from the flash of regret I spot in his eyes.
Addy and Harrison are on opposite sides of the front row, and Addy bounces as she pulls me down to sit next to her.
“I’ve barely seen you today,” she says with a little squeeze of my arm. “Harrison can handle a bit of space.”
“No, I can’t,” Harrison says, winking before turning his attention back to his own seat buddy.
I slip into the window seat, and Addy starts whispering about her plans to win over each of the cousins.
I try to follow, but I can’t focus past the buzzing in my head.
Owen’s the last to board the bus, and his eyes find me immediately.
I break the eye contact first, refocusing on Addy and her plotting and only glancing at the back of his head a half-dozen times as the bus twists down the winding roads from the inn to downtown Elk Ridge.
I can’t stop thinking about Vaughn’s comments earlier. He has every right to worry, because I’m absolute shit at putting distance between me and Owen.