Page 16 of Just A Date

Those two are hopeless.

“Sean bet Michael he couldn’t fall in love in a month,” Grant says.

“Suck up,” I mutter under my breath.

He just smiles and shrugs.

“A month isn’t that long.” My mother muses, twirling spaghetti around and around on her fork. “I better start setting you up.”

Trent snorts so hard water comes out of his nose, and Dad pounds on his back.

“I know a wonderful lady in my chess group,” my grandma chimes in.

So, this is how the night is going to go.Awesome.

Everyone laughs, but I hardly see the humor. My love life, or lack thereof, is not a joke.

“He can’t date an eighty-year-old,” Mom tells her, completely serious. “No one over forty.”

Does she even know my age?

“I have to find someone online,” I say, sparing them, but mostly myself, from the remainder of this conversation.

“Online?” Mom gasps, dropping her fork to her plate. “Why on earth would you go there?”

She’s acting like I’m going to prison to find a priest.

“Don’t give him such a hard time,” Grandma chides. “I danced on the pole once. Very nice ladies.”

Sean gags, and Lennox spews her drink of water across the table.

On me.

Isit across from Lennox.

This dinner has gone from bad to worse.

I swivel until my scowl rests on Lennox. “I’m giving you a head start.”

She jumps from the table and darts for thebackdoor.

That’s all she gets. I take off after her, but before I can toss her into the pool, she jumps in herself.

“Coward,” I yell when her head pops out of the water, but I can’t help the smile that finds me. She’s learned.

“Spinster!” She shoots back.

“That’s it.” I leap into the pool, and she screams.

I catch her before she can make it to the edge of the pool and dunk her until she cries uncle. Then we float on our backs, relishing the warmth of the heated pool. This is howour family dinners end, with someone in the pool. The good ones, anyway.

“Seriously though, why are you doing this?” Lennox lazily swishes her arm through the water.

I stand and push my wet hair off my forehead.

“Doing what?”

She knows why I have to dunk her. It’s my duty as a big brother.