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“The whole family. I’m dating the most beautiful girl in town. Why wouldn’t I want to show you off?”
I couldn’t decide between being overjoyed at the compliment or pissed off at the show-me-off comment, like I belonged to him.
“I’m not sure I can—”
“Decision time again, Nickels,” he said, verbally cutting off my avenue of escape. “It’s too dangerous to leave you alone, so either you’re coming with me, or I’m staying home with you. Which will it be?”
“Demanding much?” I shot back.
“Indecisive much?” he answered.
“You don’t have to stay with me. I’ll be fine home alone.”
“After what just happened in your backyard, I’m not leaving you alone, Nickels. Now make up your mind.”
“Which do you want?” I asked.
“Either way, I get to spend the day with you, and that’s all I care about. Now make a damned choice, Stanford.”
The sweet words didn’t help. Everything with him was about making snap decisions.
I wasn’t getting a chance to put this off. As much as I dreaded being thrown in front of his family after less than a week together, I would feel terrible if he skipped his sister’s party on my account.
“I’d love to meet your family.”
I’d done it, jumped off the cliff into the deep water.
He offered his hand over the console. “Trust me, they’ll love you.”
I took his hand and received a warm squeeze in return.
A minute later, his phone rang with his father’s train ringtone.
I pulled it from the cup holder, and the screen verified what I suspected. “Do you want to answer it?”
“No… He can wait. I’d rather spend the drive talking with you.”
And so we did.
* * *
Josh
After droppingNicole off at work, I headed home to change.
When my phone rang with Dad’s ringtone for the third time, I answered it. “Hello?”
“Josh, you’ve been a hard man to reach this morning.”
A mild rebuke by my father’s standards.
“I’ve had a busy night and morning. One of my employees had a police emergency last night.”
“The body at the Rossi place?”
“Yes.” I shouldn’t have been surprised. Dad was incredibly well connected with both the Sheriff’s Office and the LAPD.
“I apologize for pushing you last night. I didn’t realize the situation. We can put off this meeting about you going out to Camper Heaven for a little while if you need time to deal with that.”
