I look down at the black stilettoes I’m wearing—that even I have to admit are pretty spectacular. Still, his response is annoying.
“Can we forget about your previously unknown shoe fetish and instead concentrate on why you’re here before you make me late?”
“I’m here to take you to the family dinner.”
“I… you’re what?”
“Mom said you were having a family dinner with Tommy’s family tonight. We couldn’t let you show up without someone in your corner. Since I’m the one least likely to spear Cynthia with my steak knife during dinner, I was elected. Later on, you can explain to me why Tommy’s ex-wife is at the dinner.”
“But, you don’t want me to marry Tommy,” I tell him.
“I don’t,” he agrees. “But I care about you, Kayla. You have a family dinner and you need your people around you. You’re going to get it. All of us offered, but I didn’t figure you wanted your fiancé pissed because someone killed the mother of his child. So, you get me.”
“All of you?”
“All of us. Even Green.”
“Wow.”
“So are we ready? Where’s Tommy?”
“I’m meeting him there.”
“Shouldn’t he have picked you up? You are meeting his fucked-up family, after all.”
“It’s just a ten minute taxi ride, White. I offered to meet him there,” I tell him, leaving out the part that I really didn’t want to talk to Tommy either. I’ve been having second and third thoughts about this wedding, and they only seem to get worse after spending time with Tommy.
“Okay, then. We’ll take my car,” he says standing to the side and holding out his arm. “Come along, my lady. Your chariot awaits,” he jokes, his blue eyes sparkling with humor. This is the White I love—the White I fell in love with.
And this is the White I can’t think about—especially tonight. “You’re more than a little scary right now,” I tell him, not confessing why I find him so frightening.
Flustered, I turn and lock my door and then take White’s hand. It will be nice to have him there tonight. Tommy is a good person. Unfortunately, the rest of his family is more like Cynthia, and I’m dreading them more than I could ever say.
“Live dangerously, Buttercup,” he says, and I smile despite my nerves. With White’s help, I can make it through tonight. It’s good he’s here, even if it was a surprise.
CHAPTER 4
WHITE
“I just find it strange that my son’s fiancée is escorted to a family dinner by another man,” Tommy’s mother says for the fourth time.
It’s all I can do not to ask the woman if she has short term memory loss. Kayla looks at me and I see the tension in her face and it pisses me off. Just as she’s about to placate the prissy bitch yet again, I decide to take control.
“I have to admit, Mrs. Haynes, I found it strange that Tommy decided not to escort Kayla to the dinner himself. But his oversight is my good luck. I guess I should be thanking you, Tommy. Though, you don’t want to leave a door like that open too many times. You might find a man has swooped in and taken her away from you. Women like Kayla are hard to find.”
I hear a few gasps around the table. Tommy is looking at me and I can’t tell if he’s upset or not. He’s been pretty withdrawn this whole night. I can’t for the life of me figure out what Kayla was thinking, hooking up with him. Kayla’s coughing catches my attention. She’s putting her glass down, obviously choking on the wine.
I put my hand on her back and pat lightly. “You okay, Buttercup?”
“Buttercup?” blurts Mrs. Haynes.
Before I can answer, Kayla has settled her coughing and speaks up, though her voice is a little tight and winded. “White’s mother gave me that nickname when I came to live with them. She had named all of her girls after flowers and she didn’t want me to feel left out.”
“So you two are… step-siblings?”
“Exactly—”
“—Not at all,” I say at the same time, talking over Kayla. Her eyes go huge in disbelief, to which I just grin.
“I’m afraid I’m back to not understanding the dynamic here.”
“Kayla belongs to our family. She’s one of us. But I don’t know of a man who could look at a woman as beautiful as her and think of her as a sister if they aren’t blood related,” I tell Mrs. Haynes, but I’m not looking at her. I’m looking at Kayla—a Kayla who looks like she wants to strangle me.
“White, will you quit joking around? I’m sorry, Mrs. Haynes. White has problems realizing he’s not always as funny as he thinks he is.”