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“Well, you’ll need to do something about that promptly,” she said.

“I’m trying, Mum.”

A single finger trailed across the slick skin of my hip bone. Hunter smiled slowly, those blue eyes burning into mine.

“Try harder because time is running out. This is important, Jamie.” The anxiety throbbing like a live wire in her tone forced me out of the moment. I couldn’t feel Hunter anymore, not while I was listening to her. “Nadia is just lovely and her family is so close. Her mother has been incredibly welcoming of your father and I, which is such a pleasant surprise after the dramas that went down with Amber and her family.”

I blinked, remembering exactly how my in-laws dealt with Mum’s overbearing bullshit.

“We need to make a good impression, make them feel that Nadia marrying Frankie is a good thing.”

“Not sure if the parents have much choice in the matter,” I said. “Nadia, for reasons I don’t understand, loves Frankie.”

“The engagement party needs to be perfect, Jamie.”

And there it was. Sometimes it felt like all my mother focussed on was the pursuit of perfection, followed by her inevitable disappointment. When I was a kid, I’d tried my damndest to meet her expectations because hey, she was my mother and I loved her. I wanted her to be happy, so if trying a bit harder was what it took, I’d do it. Of course the problem lay in the fact she never was. People were too weak, too fallible to ever meet her lofty standards, and so me and my brothers developed a strange kind of camaraderie. If we were always going to fail, we’d do so together.

“I can’t do perfect, Mum,” I told her bluntly and when I looked up, Hunter began to smile. An encouraging nod from him had me forging on. “I’ll be there. I won’t drink excessively. I’ll bring the happy couple a nice present.” She sucked in a breath, ready to instruct me on what to buy. “One I’ve already talked to Nadia about.” My future sister-in-law wanted this pretty dining setting for their new place, so I’d ordered it ages ago. “And I’ll do my best not to embarrass you and Dad. No funky chicken dances.”

“With a date.” She ground that out, because weirdly, this was my mother compromising. “If you’ve managed to find three men willing to date you despite the fact you spend most of your time dressed in men’s clothes, then you can find someone suitable to attend the party. A man that looks good in formal wear.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

My hand reached out then, running a finger down the lapel of the short-sleeved, button-down shirt Hunter wore, because it wasn’t hard to see him in the suit he’d worn on our first date. He looked sharp enough for anyone, let alone Mum.

“In a dress.” I’d surrendered some ground, which meant that my mother needed to push harder and see what other compromises she could wring from me. “You can look at dresses at the bridal shop when you come to see Nadia try on some wedding gowns.”

“Mum, I told you I wouldn’t be able to make that?—”

“Because you’re busy.” Her tone turned acidic. “Too busy messing around with cars to accept a very kind offer from Nadia’s family. In-laws often don’t get a look in on these things. Nadia’s trying to bring us all together as one. You can call in sick if that Brock won’t give you the time off.”

“Call in sick…?”

I was making progress seconds ago, but it was like trying to hold back an avalanche with your bare hands. The sheer weight and velocity of her intentions smashed into me.

“I tried to reason with that Brock, making clear why this is important to the family, but he went on and on about your schedule. This is our opportunity to get to know Nadia’s family, get the relationship off on the right foot. You can try on some of the dresses in the wedding shop?—”

“Wedding dresses?” I squeaked, almost able to imagine Mum taking over the entire afternoon. Nadia would be shoved aside, as my mother’s burning need to see me walk down the aisle would not be denied.

“What? No, I thought you could find something suitable in the bridesmaid section. Though it wouldn’t hurt to take a look at some of the wedding gowns…”

I pulled my phone away from my ear, staring at it for just a second before Hunter swept in. He ended the call abruptly, tossing the phone on the couch and then turning to me.

“Hey… hey…” He was treating me like a spooked horse, and maybe that was apt. My heart beat as fast as a racehorse’s, my muscles quivering with a need to run. My whole body jumped, my eyes jerking up as his hands landed on my shoulders, pinning me to the spot. “You’re OK.”

But I wasn’t. I communicated that mutely with my gaze, and his expression softened. I was tugged closer, his arms wrapped around me as he held me. Suffocated and soothed, those contradictory responses raged inside me as I stood there, tolerating his hug.

“C’mon,” Hunter said, finally pulling away to hold out his hand. “We’re going down to the beach. I’m going to feed you up with a whole lot of grease, salt, and carbs, and then you’re going to tell me everything.”

I snorted, the initial numbness washing away, but a feeling of being weak, inconsequential, was left behind. No one can cut your legs out from under you better than a parent. I’d tried to push back, to make clear my feelings but… My head moved of its own accord, nodding along with his suggestion, because when he pulled me out the front door once I’d gotten dressed, I felt like I was walking away from all that shit.

“What about your phone?” Hunter asked as I locked my apartment door.

“Don’t need it,” I replied, looking up at him and smiling. “Anyone who really needs me will have to come find me.”

The sun was starting to drop lower in the sky, creating a halo around his head, but his smile was brighter as he held out his hand.

“They’ll have to get past me first,” he told me, that smile widening as I grabbed it.