Hate to Date You (Dating #4) - Monica Murphy Page 0,84
But I think you scared her.”
“I know I scared her. What can I do to convince her we could have something real?” I ask, hoping my little sister has all the answers.
“Maybe you should just…tell her?” Caroline says with a sunny smile.
“You make it sound so easy,” I mutter, sipping from my drink. I can already feel the effects of the alcohol, which means I’ve somehow turned into a lightweight.
“It is, you know. You two became friends, right?” When I nod, she continues, “Then go to her as a friend. Tell her how much she means to you. How you value her friendship and you don’t want to lose her.”
“I sort of already did that.”
“Well, do it again. And again and again, if you have to. If she means that much to you, she’s worth the fight,” Caroline says. “Right?”
Stella is definitely worth the fight. Maybe I gave up too easily.
I frown. There’s no maybe about it. I definitely gave up too easily.
“When do you move into your new place?” Caroline asks, thankfully changing the subject.
“In about two weeks. The place was already pretty much empty. It’s a twenty-one day escrow,” I say. “When I pick up the keys, maybe you can come with me and check the place out. It’s nice.”
“I’d love to see it. I’m so excited you bought a home here.”
“Why?”
“This means you’re willing to stay. You want to live here. Where you belong,” Caroline says.
Returning home made me realize it’s not so bad. When you’re young and frustrated, you think your hometown sucks. It doesn’t matter where you live—you just want out. All I could think about my senior year was how fast I could escape this place.
Now here I am, returning home over ten years later, and I’m actually…
Glad.
I have a good job. The real estate market is booming. The potential to make great money is possible, and I know I can find success here.
Now if I could just convince the woman that I care about more than anyone else that we could have an amazing future together, my life would be…
Perfect.
Twenty-Nine
Stella
Before I meet up with Carter again and put my plan into action, I have some other things to take care of first.
Namely, my family.
I leave for Sunday dinner a few hours later than normal, hoping to avoid small talk so we can get right down to the meal, and the weather is so bad—rainy and windy—that it takes me extra-long to drive on the winding road to get there. When I finally show up, it’s already around a quarter to six. By the time I walk into the house, Mama’s just setting the last dish on the table and encouraging everyone to dig in.
Mama spots me pulls me into a hug, kissing both of my cheeks. My brothers give me crap for being late—the jerks. My father just scowls because I know he hates tardiness, but guess what? I don’t like it either. I will do what it takes, though, to avoid talking about Carter with my family. At least for tonight.
Leave it to Nonna to bring him up almost immediately.
“You didn’t bring Carter?” Her innocent tone means nothing. She’s asking on purpose, the wily old woman.
I pause in serving myself my mother’s famous chicken marsala. “Nope.”
“Why not? Where is he?”
My brain scrambles for a reason. “He had to work.”
“On a Sunday night?” Nonna makes a tsking noise. “Not so sure about that.”
I hate lying to her now. To all of them. It doesn’t come easy.
Not anymore.
“Fine. You’re right. He’s not working.” I scoop out some pesto noodles before passing the plate to my brother, who takes it with a dumbfounded look on his face. “I’m lying to you all. I’ve been lying for months.”
The table goes quiet. No one is scooping any food out of serving dishes or scratching their silverware across the plate, nothing. It’s just silent.
“What exactly have you been lying about?” my father asks, his voice deceptively calm.
Taking a deep breath, I decide to go for it, though I’m gonna leave out one little detail—the fact that I had a one-night stand with Carter over a year ago. “Carter Abbott has been living with me for a couple of months. When Caroline moved in with Alex, she convinced me that her brother should take over her room. That it would be temporary, since he just moved here and was looking for his own house anyway. In the meanwhile, he needed someplace to stay so…he became my roommate.”