"Oh, I know you," she says to him.
"This is Foster and Talon and Cole," I point them out to her, but she's barely paying attention. The brightly wrapped presents have her hypnotized.
"Oh no, those are not all coming into this house," Emma says as she hurries towards us.
"Mommy, those are mine," Cora argues with her.
"And we don't have room for them. Maybe Auntie Blake needs to make a playroom at her house."
Cora contemplates that until a friend comes up to take her back to play.
"Did you buy out the friggin toy store?" Emma asks me.
"It was all of them. I bought the toy computer like we agreed on," I insist.
"Is there somewhere we can put these all?" Cole asks from behind the stack in front of him.
Emma leads us all to the present table, and the guys set the boxes down. I look around and spot some familiar faces.
"Looks like you have a good turnout," I tell Emma.
"Yeah, Cora's got some friends from preschool, and some of Matt's coworkers, and, of course, both our families," She points to a table across from us, "There's your mom and Cole's sitting together. I think they were leaving room for all of you."
As we're chatting, Matt walks up with another man. I hug him, “Hey Matt.”
When I step back, I look at the man who came with him and recognize him, “Oh, hi Chris,” I say, feeling awkward. It’s not like I even consider him an ex, but we rounded the bases together, which makes this feel a little weird.
"Em, my mom wants to know when you want to put out the food," Matt tells Emma, distracting everyone.
We leave them to deal with that situation and head to the table with Mom and Mrs. Thorne. I lean in to hug and kiss my mom, and Cole does the same with his.
"I didn't expect to see you two come together," Mrs. Thorne says.
"She was at the house. She's dating…" he looks between Foster and Talon, unsure how to proceed.
"Me," the two of them say, practically in sync.
My mom, already aware of my dating situation, doesn’t react. I was initially nervous to tell her, but she’s supported me being happy over everything else as long as no one gets hurt.
"Both of them," I confirm.
Mrs. Thorne is shocked, going on the blank look on her face. She opens her mouth, probably to ask us a question, but Cole nudges her and shakes his head.
We all sit down at the table. The silence is stifling until my mom says, "Blake, you'll have to invite your boyfriends for dinner. I would love to get the chance to get to know them better, and I'm sure Stacy wouldn't mind having Cole and his friends over."
"I'd love to have dinner with you all," Foster says to her with his most charming smile.
"I'll be there, but only if we can watch Home Renovations," Talon says, making my mom laugh. Foster looks over and gives him a confused look.
"What?" Talon asks. "Mrs. Knox and I love that show."
"Since when did you get an in with our girlfriend's mom before me?" Foster says incredulously, making all of us laugh.
We sit and talk amongst our group, but I can feel the looks we get from the tables around us. I can almost hear the whispers as the gossip spreads, making my skin crawl. Nothing stays hidden in a small town for long. By tomorrow, everyone will know I'm dating two of the town's most desirable bachelors. I'm enemy number one to all of the single women.
“Blake,” someone calls out as I leave the bathroom to go back outside.
It’s Olivia Hammond, my frenemy from grade school. She was always closer to Emma but mostly rude to me because of my close relationship with Cole, the shining star of high school.
