Page 21 of Gin and Bear It

“Because you’ll laugh.”

“I won’t laugh. I’m not that big of an asshole,” I say. She huffs. “I mean it.”

The whole idea of a grand proposal feels like overkill—just ask the damn question and move on—but we need to sell this relationship.

“I’ve always wanted it to be in a gazebo,” she says, almost like she’s embarrassed.

“I can do that. I was expecting some off-the-wall shit, like skydiving.” Why a gazebo, though? I’ll have to ask later.

“My ass is staying on the ground unless I’m strapped into a plane,” she says, laughter in her tone for the first time on this call. “And we don’t need to do a whole fake proposal. You just need to know about the gazebo thing.”

“Good.” At least something is going right. “And I’m picking up a ring in town today. It’s not fancy.”

“It’s fine. This feels as romantic as taxes,” she says, shuffling something around on her end. “Waylon’s going to think I’m dead if I don’t pick up soon. I’m going to tell Jeremiah tonight, then my dad and my friends tomorrow. Then I’ll see you Friday, I guess, so you can move in.”

“Sounds good.”

We hang up and I let my head fall back onto the headrest. As much as the speed of this is giving me whiplash, I’m glad we’ll be over the worst of it by next week.

SEVEN

JADA

Waylon’s latest call comes through the moment I get off the phone with Ash, just as I expected.

“Are you alright?” Waylon asks. His tone is more concerned than mad. Not that Waylon’s ever been seriously pissed off at me the whole time we’ve known each other. We’ve never truly fought, and his worry loosens the massive knot in my chest. He’s not mad at me.

“Yeah. I’m just at home working on some admin because I wanted to get stuff done without people popping in. Why?”

“Because Ash just told me you two are together? The question in his tone is laced with a laugh. “He’s trolling me, right?”

I swallow and shut my laptop. There’s no way I’m going to get anything done after this conversation.

“No, he’s not trolling.”

Waylon is silent on his end of the line for way longer than I’m comfortable with.

“You’re dating Ash? And y’all are planning on getting married? Is that part of the reason you’ve been distant for the past six months?” he asks.

“Yeah.” I take a take a deep breath. “We just…I mean, can you blame us for keeping it quiet?”

“I can, a bit. I wish I’d heard it from you instead of him.” He sounds so hurt that it steals the breath I just took.

“I’m sorry. We just thought it would be better this way,” I say. “You didn’t even believe it at first and I would have spent a while convincing you.”

Waylon sighs softly. “I’m just…I believe you now, but why Ash? After everything? I know you had a crush on him when we were kids⁠—”

“Oh my god, you knew?” I want to die. I thought I was so sneaky.

“Yeah, even stupid teenage me knew.” He chuckles. “But Ash isn’t your type at all and he’s kind of a wreck right now. He doesn’t even date or believe in relationships. It’s just sudden. Why him?”

I pace and bite the inside of my cheek. I should have thought this through. The reality of faking it is different than talking about it.

“We just clicked,” I say. “It’s hard to explain.”

“The last time I saw you two together, you were bickering,” he says. When did he see us together? As if I said it out loud, he asks, “At Wes and Rose’s wedding?”

“Right.” I clear my throat. When he didn’t even recognize me and was flirting up a storm in his own backward way. “It’s just… He interests me. He doesn’t mind my rambling or get exhausted by me. We can just talk and relax and it never gets old no matter how long we spend together. There’s a spark there, even if it’s unconventional.”