“How could you do this to us?!” Nigel screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Nigel, stop it, you’re acting hysterical.” Tanner turned back to me. “How could you do this to us?!”
I laughed. “I have no idea what the two of you are upset about but…”
“You’re engaged?!” Tanner said as he glared at me.
For fuck’s sake.How did they know about this? I should have known better than to ask for Rob’s help. Now the whole world knew. Not that I wasn’t planning on bringing Tanner into the loop. I just thought I’d get a chance to tell him myself. To avoid exactly this.
Nigel stood up before I could respond and kicked his chair. It rolled into the wall with a quiet thud. “Ow,” he said and grabbed his foot, hopping awkwardly in his lederhosen.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He collapsed back in the chair. “I’ll never be okay again,” he said with a heavy sigh. “And now my foot is broken to bits.”
“You guys, I’m not engaged.”
“You’re not?” Nigel asked. He suddenly didn’t seem at all concerned about his hurt foot.
“No.” I sighed. “I was thinking about asking Kennedy to marry me. But I haven’t asked her yet. And I was going to tell you. How did you even find out?”
“Young Robert called me to gloat,” Tanner said. “Hours ago. Where have you been all morning and afternoon?”
“Where have you been all morning and afternoon?”
“I was here the whole time,” he said.
“I thought Nigel said you were at church?”
Tanner laughed. But when he saw that I was serious he cleared his throat. “Yeah. That’s where I was. I’m a religious man of worship. Of many gods,” he added.
Why did Nigel and Tanner both talk so weirdly about church? And what was he talking about many gods for? Was he a big believer in Norse mythology or something? I shook my head. It wasn’t important. “So yeah, guys, I’m sorry. I was going to tell you when I saw you next. But you weren’t here.”
“I was here,” Nigel said and folded his arms in front of chest.
“Nigel, why are you here? Don’t you havethingsto do?” I gave him a look which I hope he knew meant he was supposed to be finding dirt on Poppy. We had a deal. And that didn’t involve him angrily staring at me.
“I’m on a break,” Nigel said. “It’s scheduled into my calendar. I’ll show you if you’d like. It’s very full. Do you have a problem with that?”
Yes, I did have a problem with that. Nigel and his stupid calendar. How many breaks did he get? His sassy response seemed to mean he didn’t get my subtle hint about histhingstodo. I needed out of this mess. And I needed Nigel’s help to do that. Which meant being angry with him wouldn’t help anything. I took a deep breath. “Sorry, Nigel. I know you have scheduled breaks.”
He smiled. “It’s okay, Master Matthew. You’ve been forgiveth.”
Tanner gave him a weird look.
Nigel cleared his throat. “I meant Mr. Caldwell.”
I actually thought Tanner was looking at him strangely because Nigel had just said forgiveth. But yeah, the Master Matthew thing was weird too.
“So you’re going to propose to Kennedy?” Tanner asked, quickly changing the subject. “And you went to Robert instead of me?” Normally he was joking around, but he looked a little hurt.
“I’m sorry. I would have told you first but you weren’t here.” That actually had been my plan.
“Right. I was with the gods.” Tanner sighed. “But you’re serious about this? You’re in love with Kennedy?”
“Yeah.” I nodded my head. “I love her.”
“So that means the two of you must have slept together?”
