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He wrinkled his nose and shook his head as if I had just disappointed him in the worst way possible. “Is that really what you think of me?”
“Yes,” I said again, equally serious. “You literally told me five minutes ago that I look like a bloated seal in my charcoal blouse.”
“Well, you did. Luckily you changed.” Danny held my gaze for a minute longer, neither of us blinking—another childhood game we hadn’t kicked—and then he turned back to the kitchen. “Well, for your information, the main reason I want to meet this guy, the father of my
nephews—”
“We don’t know the sex,” I interrupted. “We don’t want to know yet, not until the baby shower.”
“Call it a feeling,” he said, adding the tomatoes I had diced earlier, together with the sauce, beans, and broth into the pot. “Anyway, as I was saying—”
The front bell rang.
Danny’s head whipped in its direction, and I knew what he was about to do: he was going to answer the door first and spill something terribly embarrassing about me to Alex. It was a typical Danny move; he once ruined a date with a cute senior I had planned on losing my virginity to by telling him that I had terrible morning breath, like the kind you’d get from a tooth abscess. Charlie had refused to stand within three feet of me for weeks.
“Don’t you dare say anything stupid,” I said, sharply pointing a finger in his direction.
But Danny never listened to me, and just as the bell rang again, we both sprinted into the hallway—me, at more of a jogging pace considering I was carrying extra weight and felt perpetually exhausted.
He got there first and yanked the door open, revealing an awkward-looking Alex standing on the top step, holding two bottles of wine.
“Well, well, well. Look who it is. The man who knocked up my sister.” Danny swaggered over, enveloping Alex in a hug before stepping back with a smirk on his face. “How do you do, brother-in-law? I can call you that now, can’t I?” His eyes flicked to me mischievously, knowing full well that Alex and I weren't officially together yet. "Or maybe not yet, Soph?" He raised an eyebrow suggestively.
Heat flushed my cheeks and my heart rate progressively stepped up the longer Danny blocked the doorway. The whole evening suddenly seemed like a terrible idea. Yes, Danny wanted to meet Alex, but I also wanted Alex to meet my brother, to bridge the gap between my two worlds. It was as much my idea as it was Danny’s, and now it all seemed way too soon, as if I was rushing into something I wasn’t prepared for—as if I was diving into deep water without knowing how to swim.
“Please ignore my brother,” I said quickly, walking forward and pushing Danny out of the way. “Come in.”
“Something smells great,” Alex said, walking in. He kissed me on the cheek and lifted up the bottles of wine for me to see. “They’re both nonalcoholic and come highly recommended.”
“Good idea,” Danny said, in that over-eager way that had me rolling my eyes. “Sophie’s been pining after wine. I’ve even caught her staring at the Merlot like she wants to make out with it.”
“He’s lying,” I said. “He’s very good at it, that’s why he’s such a good lawyer.”
Danny gasped, and then he walked off muttering something under his breath that I chose to ignore.
“Thanks,” I said, trying not to pay attention to the sudden clanking in the kitchen. “This is a game changer.”
“I won’t advise drinking the whole bottle though,” said Alex. “Everything in moderation.”
“Noted.”
I led the way to the kitchen, though Alex already knew his way around my house, and embraced the fluttering flaps of butterflies in my stomach. Alex wasn’t just walking close behind me, he was also resting his palm against my lower back. His hand was like a hot coal, one of those lovely therapeutic ones at spas.
“By the way, Becks is joining us tonight,” I said, breaking free from Alex’s touch before it consumed me, and walked way too fast to the kitchen cabinet to retrieve plates and bowls.
“She’s just running late.”
“What about Caleb?” Danny asked, finishing up the chili “I always thought the two came in a pair.”
“He’s out of town. At some convention or other.”
“Comic-Con?”
The bell rang again.
“Speak of the devil,” said Danny, turning off the gas at the hob. “I’ll get the door.” This time I didn’t race him to it. I wanted at least two minutes alone with Alex to warn him about my brother, andneededat least a hundred, or however long it took for Alex to kiss me so hard I forgot my name.
“Just so you know, whatever Danny says about me tonight, it’s probably a joke.”
