21. Twenty-One #2
“You should have worn tennis shoes,” I noted, trying not to be too impatient. I was hungry and eager to get the grilling over from our friends.
“I wanted to look good for you.” She obviously hadn’t realized what she was going to say until it was out of her mouth because she jerked up her chin. “I mean … I … well …” She scratched her cheek.
I loved it when she got awkward. I couldn’t help it. “You always look good to me. The sandals are nice. Your legs look great in them. These cobblestones are ridiculous, though.”
“Yeah, you would think they would replace them with flat cement and asphalt so people wouldn’t fall as much.”
“I think they like the look. Plus, since the cobblestones are historical, they probably save a lot of money by not having to replace them.”
“They’re stupid, though.” She almost tripped again, but I caught her.
“They’re very stupid,” I agreed, swinging her up in my arms. She was light, so even though it was hot, I didn’t struggle.
“What are you doing?” she asked, looking around with wide eyes. She appeared shocked by my actions.
“I don’t want you twisting an ankle. I have big plans for you this weekend at my place. I won’t be able to carry them out if you’re hobbled.”
“Huh.” She stared up at me in such a way that I felt self-conscious. “You’re kind of heroic carrying me like this.”
“Like Superman would carry Lois?” I asked hopefully.
“Like Worf would carry Troi.”
I made a face. “I should have seen that coming.”
“You really should have.” She rested her head against my shoulder, and I didn’t care that she’d just turned me into a Klingon.
It only took me a few minutes to get her to the flat sidewalk. I helped finger-comb her hair once she was on her feet. Then I took her hand for the rest of the walk. It was time to face the music.
As expected, everybody else was already seated. All eyes were on us as we joined them at the table. I noticed right away that they’d left two seats open together. This was the first time they’d purposely done that.
“Evening, everybody,” I said as I pulled out Wylie’s chair.
She banged her shin into it as she tried to sit, and then hit her face on the table when she reached down to check her shin.
I took her arm to help her back upright and searched her forehead for signs of a lump.
She hadn’t hit it hard enough to do any damage, but knowing Wylie, if anybody could manage that feat, it was her.
When she was finally settled, and I was in my chair next to her, I lifted my chin and took in the myriads of stares from around us. “Get it out of the way now,” I instructed. “After tonight, I don’t want to hear anything about it.”
Instead of peppering us with questions, Bree held out her hand. “Pay up, suckers,” she ordered.
To my surprise, everybody started throwing money at her. It looked like 50 bucks all around. When she had it all, Bree happily folded it and stuck it in her purse.
“We’re happy that you’re happy,” was all she said.
I waited for the avalanche of questions — How did you get together? How long has this been going on? Why did you hide it? — but all I got were comments about the menu.
“I’m getting the grouper,” Hayley said. “I’ve had it here before, and it’s amazing.”
“I’m getting the scallops,” Bree replied. She was the only one looking at us.
“That’s it?” I demanded as I rubbed my hand over Wylie’s back. “You’re not going to say anything?”
“What do you want us to say?” Nathan asked. He looked calm and collected. “We all knew it was going to happen.”
I made a face. “How could you possibly know that?”
“Because it was obvious from the first night that you guys had unfinished business,” Bree replied.
“Plus, you just sparked when you were together,” Bella added. “You had energy whenever you were around one another, although I think you guys believed that it was bad energy at the start.”
I had no idea how to respond to that, so I cast Wylie a sidelong look. She appeared as baffled as me.
“Well, I guess that’s good.” I focused on my menu.
Wylie, however, gave her attention to Hayley. “Is Lucy still mad at me? She hasn’t talked to me in days.”
“Don’t worry about Lucy,” Hayley replied. “We had a long talk about how obnoxious she was to you — trying to blackmail her own sister is not allowed — and we’re working on her attitude.”
I cast Hayley a surprised look. “You’re working on it together?”
“We are,” she confirmed. “She might not know it yet, but we totally are.”
If anybody could get Lucy on the straight and narrow, it was Hayley. I had no idea what their relationship looked like — seriously, how could Hayley put up with Lucy? — but I applauded the fact that somebody was working on it other than Wylie. It was what had to happen.
“We’re spending the weekend at my house,” I volunteered. “You have all the space in the world to whip her into shape this weekend.”
“She’s coming around,” Hayley insisted, giving Wylie a sympathetic look. “You did the right thing with her. You had to put your foot down. She’s a sweet person, deep down —”
“Way deep down,” I muttered.
She ignored me. “She just has Little Sister Syndrome. She sees you as being the perfect child, your mother’s favorite, and she’s built up a victim complex in her head,” Hayley explained to Wylie. “She really is coming around. It might take a little more time, though.”
Wylie blew out a hefty sigh. “Well, I’m glad she has you.” She leaned closer to me, and I kissed the top of her head.
Talk turned to everybody’s weekend plans, and before I realized it, Wylie had volunteered ours.
“So, you’re going to be in our territory this weekend, huh?” Bree looked between us, and I could practically hear the gears in her mind working.
“No, we’re going to be at my house,” I countered. “Alone. No visitors.”
She snorted. “I’ll visit if I want. I was just thinking that Wylie could help me change Gertrude’s clothes. It’s time for her to get decked out in her finest red, white, and blue ensemble.”
I groaned. “I thought you were taking her.”
“I can’t take her until I know where I’m going to put her,” Bree replied. “I’ve already used the birdbath exclusion. I have a call in with a guy to see if we can turn her into a water filtration system for a pond.”
“You’re going to put a pond in your yard?” That seemed like a lot of work to own the HOA.
“Oh, she has a whole list of ‘improvements’ she wants to do in our yard,” Brody replied. He looked less than thrilled. “It’s going to be a long summer.”
“You love it and you know it,” Bree fired back.
“I love you. That’s enough.”
The others laughed at the schmaltz, but I grew contemplative. I knew it was too soon to love Wylie. Still, something inside of me yearned. For the first time in my life, I wanted to fall in love with someone, I realized.
When I looked over at her, she was smiling. Light somehow bathed her face and made her look like an angel. That’s when things became clearer.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t wanted to fall in love before. It was that I could never fathom it. Now I could. I felt open because of it.
I continued rubbing her back, basking in my epiphany. Things were finally going in the right direction for me. There was a pathway for me to get everything I never knew I wanted. It would mean getting past our mothers, though, and I had no doubt that my mother would be more difficult than Aggie.
I had to start figuring things out on that front, and sooner rather than later.