“Don’t. Say. Anything. Else,” I command my brothers. “And for fuck’s sake, when I bring her to family dinner, don’t get into the whole Granddad-matchmaking-fantasy bullshit.”
“We wouldnever,” Shane says, and Preston raises his eyebrows at me, grinning, and I roll my eyes again and stride back to the guesthouse before my brothers can be any more of their pain-in-the-ass selves.
33
Eden
“If this family dinner is anything like the Wilder family dinners,” Mari says, “you should wear jeans and a sweatshirt and expect to end up with dog hair—if not vomit—and spit-up and a good amount of dinner on you. And that’s if they don’t make you play flag football or wiffle ball or—knowing the Hotts, it would actually be Nerf-blaster tag and Jell-O wrestling.”
I set my favorite sparkly shirt back on the bed. “I’m not sure I should be going to this.”
“Why not?”
“Because it feels…presumptuous. I’m not family, and I’m not likely to become family.”
“Did he say, ‘I want you to come to family dinner so you can practice being my future wife’?”
“No,” I say. “But I feel like it’s…implied. And I already feel like I have a history of rushing into relationships—and then rushing toward the altar—and regretting it.”
Mari shakes her head. “When a lot of stuff goes wrong, it’s easy to start second-guessing yourself. But that’s actually when it’s super important to lean in to trusting your instincts. Youknowwhat you want. And just because you can’t guarantee a perfect future doesn’t mean you shouldn’t let yourself enjoy what’s happening now.”
“You sound like the voice of experience.”
“I may have a bit of that,” she admits. “Hey, how’s the quilt show going?”
“So well!” I say. “We got a piece in theOregonianand one in theSeattle Timesand Five Rivers Arts and Crafts has been flooded with visitors.”
“That’s amazing! I bet that makes you feel better about driving halfway across the country.” She gives me a sideways smile. “Not that you have many regrets.”
“No,” I admit. “Not about the drive, anyway. Just about the chain of events thatcausedthe drive.”
“Speaking of which, what happened with getting Paul to take responsibility for returning the gifts?”
“I called him and said, ‘I need you to return the gifts.’ I was ready to say he owed me, but I didn’t have to. He just agreed to do it.”
She rolls her eyes. “It’s too little, too late, but at the least the fucker said he’d do it.”
I laugh at her vehemence. It’s good to have a bestie. “I told him I wanted them all returned by the end of the month, and he promised me he was on it.”
“Good work,” she says, beaming. “Is he back in Rush Creek?”
“Yup. Packing up the condo. I saw him briefly yesterday. I’d left some books behind. He said he’s selling the condo and moving to Bend. He thought that would be better for both of us, and I couldn’t argue.”
“How are you feeling about the whole thing? Seeing him?”
“It was honestly fine,” I say. “I couldn’t believe I’d ever thought he was a good idea, and that was about it. I’m definitely starting to think my pride was hurt worse than my heart by what Paul did.”
“And you have agreatdistraction.” She grins.
I’d come home and confessed everything that had happened with Rhys to Mari, who was sitting up waiting for me with a knowing look on her face.
“How are things with him?” she asks.
“I mean, there’s no chance that it could actually go anywhere. I’m basically viewing it as a rebound.”
Well. I’mtryingto remind myself that Ishouldview it that way. And not to float away on a kissy cloud.
Mari’s eyebrows go way up.
