3. Three #2
That was enough to have me clearing my throat. I would not let this situation get away from me. The one thing I had going was that this would nip Bree’s matchmaker instincts in the bud. She wouldn’t dare try putting me with Wylie. I mean, it was Wylie freaking Dixon. What was she even doing here?
For a moment, just a split second really, I heard my mother’s voice.
In a few years, every guy you know will be salivating over Wylie.
She’d been convinced that Wylie was going to mature into a heartbreaker. She’d been right. Wylie was the most attractive woman I’d ever seen in real life. Sure, she was the daughter of the devil — at least in my mother’s world — but the daughter of the devil had grown up to be hot.
That didn’t mean I was in the mood to reforge old bonds.
“It’s fine,” I said, finding my voice. It was a little rustier than I expected, but otherwise I sounded strong and in control. That was what I was going for, so I continued. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Definitely not,” Wylie said. Her voice was more of a squeak, and I felt sorry for her, although I had no idea where that inclination had come from. “It’s fine. I’m fine. Everybody is fine.” She was babbling and likely didn’t realize it. For some reason, that relaxed me.
This Wylie might have looked like a model — seriously, where had that body come from? — but she was still the same old Wylie. She was awkward and weird, and she said ridiculous things.
“Will somebody tell me what’s going on?” Bree demanded on a wail. “I’m going to explode from the tension that is flying around this table.”
I took a deep breath to center myself. “This is Wylie Dixon,” I started. “Her mother is Agnes Quincy.”
“Agnes Quincy?” Bree’s eyebrows knit, and I recognized the moment she realized exactly what was happening. “Oh.” She sent Wylie an appraising look. “Interesting.”
Interesting? This was the exact opposite of interesting.
“It’s fine,” I insisted, refusing to cede control of the conversation. “Wylie and I don’t have a beef with one another.” I sent her an imploring look. “Correct?”
“That’s true,” she confirmed. “We haven’t seen each other since we were kids. We never fought or anything. We didn’t even really know each other.”
“Exactly.” I smiled to encourage Wylie to continue. “We only saw each other here and there.”
“He was embarrassed by me,” Wylie volunteered to Bella in a very loud aside. “He thought I was an idiot.”
For some reason, that response triggered me. “Oh, I didn’t think you were an idiot,” I shot back. “I thought you were weird. You knew Klingon, for crying out loud.”
Even I was surprised by my response. Where had that come from? Why had I practically yelled that at her?
“You know Klingon?” Nathan gave Wylie a fresh once-over. “It’s a good thing you snapped me up when you did, baby,” he said to Bella. “There’s nothing hotter than a woman who knows Klingon.”
Bella didn’t look worried. She rolled her eyes even as Nathan and Brody bumped fists. Apparently, my new friend, who had a wife and child he absolutely adored, didn’t agree with me on the Klingon thing. The world had suddenly gone topsy-turvy.
“Who cares if I know Klingon?” Wylie shot back. “It was a hobby, and I always wanted to learn a second language.”
“Klingon is not an official language,” I snapped. Seriously, how was I stuck in this argument? “It’s a made-up language.”
“Well, I know elvish, too.” Wylie looked smug. “I went through a phase where I Lord of the Rings cosplayed every weekend. Ah, the dresses.” She mock-clutched at her heart.
“How proud your mother must be,” I said before I realized I was going to go there. Seriously, there was something wrong with me. I’d lost control of my mouth. I was never this way.
Everybody at the table froze.
“Oh, man,” Nathan said. “Something tells me that was the wrong thing to say.” He was likely trying to defuse the tension, but all that did was stiffen Wylie’s spine.
“Don’t you say a thing about my mother,” she hissed in a low and dangerous voice. It didn’t fit her appearance.
“I didn’t say anything about your mother.” That wasn’t entirely true, and I regrouped. “Maybe this is a bad idea. Perhaps one of us should drop out of the reader event.” I cast Wylie a significant look.
She balked. “I’m not dropping out of the reader event. I’ve been looking forward to it.”
“Well, I’m not dropping out of the reader event,” I fired back. “I’m the top-selling romance author in the world right now. I think the organizers would prefer to have me here over you.”
The second I said it, I regretted the words. Wylie looked as if she’d been smacked across the face with a fist instead of a misguided sentence, and the others at the table — all four of them — gave me dirty looks.
I deserved the looks. I shouldn’t have said that. It was mean … and gross … and I hated people who did what I’d just done. Seeing Wylie had thrown my entire world into a different orbit, however, and it was one that would collide with a planet-killer asteroid before it was all said and done.
“I’m sorry.” I held up my hands. “That was wrong. I just … I haven’t seen Wylie since we were kids. It’s very weird for me.”
“They wouldn’t even let us say goodbye to one another,” Wylie added, surprisingly taking my side. “He’s not mean. Even when he thought I was being weird as a kid — and that was pretty much every single day — he never said mean things. He’s far too kind.”
I felt a pang in the vicinity of my heart. Had she known how weird I found her when we were younger? Despite my complaints to my mother, which were constant, I’d never let Wylie see that side of me. Perhaps she’d been more perceptive than I’d imagined.
“I am sorry,” I said to Wylie, and I wasn’t just talking about the mean things I’d said to her tonight. “This has thrown me. I just didn’t realize it was going to be you. My mother …” I trailed off.
She nodded in understanding. “My mother won’t be any happier than yours will likely be.” She paused a beat. “How about we just have dinner, not talk directly to one another, and then avoid each other at the reader event?”
It was the best offer I was going to get — we really didn’t have a lot of other options — so I nodded. “Yeah. Let’s do that.”
The server picked that moment to ask for our drink orders.
“I’ll have a vodka and soda,” I said to her before anybody else could order. “And keep them coming.”