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“You take your SUV or the Audi?” Dad asks.
“The Audi.”
He nods and rubs his bottom lip with his thumb. “How long before you got mobbed?”
Hollis laughs. “As soon as I got out of the car.”
“That was a rookie move.”
“I wasn’t thinking.”
“Don’t you remember when we picked Aurora up from one of her high school dances in my Porsche?” Dad asks.
I slap the table. It was green and over the top and impossible not to notice. “I was so freaking embarrassed! And then I had to cram myself in the back seat!”
“Shit. I do remember that. You were pissed at us.” Hollis laughs.
“You were all my friends talked about for weeks. It was so annoying.” I roll my eyes, but I’m smiling. It wasn’t long after that when I flubbed my math test and tried to make Hollis my tutor. Never in my wildest dreams did I actually believe we’d end up here.
“I’m sure it was frustrating.” Hollis gives me a knowing smile.
I elbow him in the side. “Oh my God, check your ego.”
“I gotta use the bathroom. I’ll be right back.” Hollis kisses me on the cheek and slides out of the booth.
“I can’t believe I didn’t see it,” Dad muses.
“See what?”
“The way you look at each other.”
“We were trying to hide it for a long while. And I’m sorry for that.”
He shakes his head. “I would have had a hard time no matter what, Pe—Aurora. I know you’re an adult, but you’ll always be my baby girl. And Hollis is my best friend. There wasn’t an easy way around this.”
“He’s still your best friend?” I ask.
“Yeah. It’ll take me a while to get over this, but I see how he is with you. How he feels about you is written all over his face. That he was able to hide it for as long as he did is a freaking miracle. No one was ever going to be good enough for you, but if there’s one person I trust to put you first, it’s him.”
I reach across the table and squeeze his hand. “I love you, Dado.”
“I love you, too, kiddo, with all my heart.”
CHAPTER 46
HOLLIS
“Iremember going to a keg party when I finished my final exam.” I take a swig of my beer. It’s warm, since I’ve been nursing it for a good hour and a half. I have plans for tonight, and beer isn’t getting in the way of them.
Roman chuckles. “I probably went to all of two keg parties in college.”
“I went to way too many keg parties,” Flip says.
“I don’t like beer.” Ash sips his rum and Coke. “Or keg parties.”
“They are usually full of bad decisions, vomit, and regrets,” Tristan says.
Roman excuses himself to the bathroom, and Tristan glances around before he shifts his attention to me. “Roman seems like he’s rolling with things pretty well, though? You never ended up with a black eye.”
