Page 8 of Dearly Unbeloved (Spicy in Seattle #3)

ROSE

I know you hate plants, but I think a certain plant could do wonders to calm you the fuck down, if you know what I mean. - S

I spin my ring around the ring finger on my right hand.

Walking in with a diamond on my left hand felt like flashing a neon sign.

I’ve noticed Sierra wears hers on a dainty gold chain around her neck, but I hate how jewelry feels around my neck.

I hate how jewelry feels in general—I begrudgingly wear my smart watch because I like tracking my steps—but the ring isn’t so bad.

Everyone made it to family dinner at Maggie and Cal’s place this week: my parents, Jazz and Liam, Liam’s moms, Eliza and Danisha, and Xan.

Sierra and I—god, I hate that we’ve become a duo—strategically picked the spot at the table closest to Eliza and Danisha, and furthest from my parents.

I love my parents, I do, but Liam truly hit the parental jackpot.

I know Eliza and Danisha will at least pretend to be happy for us, and Sierra said Cal took it relatively well when she told him.

My parents will be pissed off, I know that.

Xan will probably just be confused. Jazz is the wildcard.

Not that she isn’t always the wildcard, but I’m not usually on the other side of it.

She’s side-eyed Sierra and me multiple times already, probably wondering why we’re willingly sitting beside each other.

We’re waiting until everyone’s finished eating to drop our news.

It seemed like the best thing to do, but now I can barely choke down Cal’s mushroom ravioli, and it’s my favorite.

There’s a lull in the conversation, and Jazz and Liam exchange a look before she clears her throat. “So I have some news. I went to the doctor last week and?—”

“Oh my god, you’re finally pregnant?” my mom interrupts, and Jazz visibly flinches. It’s not a secret that she and Liam are desperate to be parents, and it’s not a secret that they’re trying, but Jazz was diagnosed with PCOS last year, so it’s not as simple as just trying.

“No,” Jazz replies through gritted teeth. My mom knows better than to ask. She just doesn’t give a shit. But Jazz takes a deep breath and forces her lips into a tight smile. “I’m sure this will come as a huge shock to everyone, but I was officially diagnosed with ADHD!”

There’s silence around the table because it comes as a shock to literally no one.

Maggie leans across the table toward Jazz. “Is this a ‘yay, you finally got an answer’ or an ‘oh no, we’re so sorry to hear that’ situation?”

“The first one.”

“Yay!”

Congratulations erupt around the table from everyone except my parents.

They don’t look upset, just like they’re not sure how to act.

To say my parents’ relationship with Jazz has been rocky is an understatement.

It all came to a head when they kicked me out for dropping out of med school, and Jazz called them out on how they treated us all growing up.

At first, it seemed like things were getting better.

They stopped passing quite so many judgmental comments and pretended to be happy when Jazz and Liam surprised everyone by getting married at their Halloween party just two months after they started dating officially.

But as time’s gone on, it feels like they’ve gotten comfortable slipping back into their old ways.

Jazz is telling Xan about the medication her doctor recommended when my mom interrupts. “What are your doctors saying about you not getting pregnant? You’ve been trying for months.”

“Mom, I don’t think everyone at the table wants to hear about that.”

My mom waves a hand, and Jazz’s shoulders slump. No one does dismissive like Lilia Cannon. “Will this new medication cause problems with you getting pregnant? Are you not doing what the doctors are recommending? You need to be sleeping and eating right, and exercising, but not too much…”

I can see Jazz getting more and more upset as my mom talks, but it’s Liam I’m keeping an eye on. His usually sunny disposition all but disappears around my parents when they’re on their best behavior, and Mom is far from on her best behavior tonight.

She shakes her head and grabs her purse, rummaging for her phone. “Maybe you need more testing done. I’ll get you the name of my doctor. Make sure you mention you’re my daughter. This shouldn’t be so difficult, Jazz—you’re a Cannon.”

“She’s a Michaelson, actually.” Liam sounds perfectly calm, but he doesn’t look it. He glares at my mom, his expression stony. You could cut the tension at the table with a knife.

Liam and his parents are pissed. Jazz is dejected.

My mom seems confused about the issue. My dad looks ready to jump in and defend her if Liam says anything else.

Maggie’s on edge because any kind of family conflict stresses her, and Xan just looks exhausted, because we’ve been dealing with this shit for so long.

And I have the perfect thing to take the heat off Jazz.

The nice thing to do would be to warn Sierra, but I don’t see any way to do that without making things more awkward.

I clear my throat, and everyone looks at me. “Sierra and I got married last weekend.”

Jaws drop, and hands are slapped to mouths, but the silence is deafening. It’s Cal who finally breaks it, clapping his hands and making Maggie jump beside him.

“That’s lovely news, girls. Such a surprise, really, could never have guessed, but I’m happy for you. Aren’t we happy for them, love?” He nudges Maggie, but she just narrows her eyes at him .

“Did you know about this?”

Sierra mutters something that sounds suspiciously like, “Fucking hell, Cal,” under her breath before speaking up. “I had to tell Cal, since Jazz is now my sister-in-law, and that could be a conflict of interest at work. Legally, he wasn’t allowed to tell you.”

“I think we’ve strayed away from what’s important here,” Xan says, disbelief on his face. “What the hell? You two hate each other.”

Sierra and I exchange a glance, and I try not to look like I loathe her. Based on her answering grimace, I’m not sure I succeeded. “Well, you know what they say. There’s a fine line between love and hate.”

“Yeah, and you were firmly on the hate side, like last week.” Xan scrunches his face up, like he just can’t comprehend it. And really, who can blame him? This was a bad idea. We should’ve told everyone individually.

“Hate’s a strong word,” Sierra says, grabbing my hand and threading our fingers together. It’s awkward and clumsy, but I’m hoping everyone is too stuck on the shock of our announcement to notice.

“You came to work a few weeks ago and ranted for almost an hour about how you couldn’t understand Rose and I coming from the same DNA because she, I’m quoting here, ‘doesn’t have a likable bone in her body,’” Jazz says.

Ouch. It’s not the worst thing either of us has said about the other in the year we’ve been living together, but it still stings. I want nothing more than to pull my hand away, except maybe to leave, but I can’t.

“That was then, and this is now,” Sierra replies, like it’s the most simple thing in the world.

“When did you even have time to get married in Vegas? We were with you all weekend except when we left you doing shots with those red-headed twins,” Maggie says.

“Well,” Sierra begins, “that’s actually what made us figure out how strongly we felt about each other. You know, we were about to leave with the twins, and we realized we didn’t want to go home with them because…”

She looks at me, eyebrows raised and dark eyes panicked.

“Because we were already home, with each other,” I finish lamely. God, I might be sick.

“Aww,” Liam says, the only one at the table who doesn’t look like he’s been clubbed over the head. “I’ve been rooting for you guys to have a hate-to-love, roommates-to-lovers arc since day one.” He gasps. “ Roomhate to love. I think this is great.”

“Not everything is a romance book, Liam,” Maggie says.

He raises an eyebrow. “Okay, miss boss-employee, age gap?—”

Jazz nudges him until he closes his mouth. Once Maggie and Liam start quibbling, it can go on for a while. Jazz shakes her head, sitting back and sighing up at the ceiling. “This just feels like it’s come out of nowhere.”

I know it’s not a real marriage, and I know we blindsided everyone, so I can’t explain why the reaction of the people we care most about stings. It shouldn’t feel as personal as it does .

“It’s not nowhere,” Sierra says. She sounds a little tired, like maybe she wants to get out of here as much as I do. “Don’t you remember the day I met Rose? I told you then I thought she was beautiful.”

“I believe your exact words were ‘she’s pretty hot,’ actually. And I told you to stay away from my baby sister.”

I frown at Sierra. I didn’t know that they’d spoken about me at all. That day is kind of a blur for me. I showed up at the office to beg Jazz to let me stay with her since my parents had just kicked me out. Truthfully, I barely remember meeting Sierra.

“You did tell me to stay away from her, that’s true. But you married your best friend’s stepson.” Sierra shrugs, and Jazz snorts.

“It’s hard to argue with that.”

“Liam’s right. You guys are perfect together. We’re happy for you,” Danisha says, and, slowly but surely, congratulations are muttered around the table. I can’t say they seem genuine, but it’s better than silence.

“Well,” Maggie says, with a truly baffled smile. “I’d say this calls for…” She glances at Jazz.

“Hard liquor?” Jazz asks at the exact moment Maggie says, “A toast?”

“I’ll grab some champagne.” Cal jumps up quickly, like he’s been waiting for an excuse to leave the table.

My parents are suspiciously silent. In fact, I haven’t heard a peep out of them since I broke the news. “Mom, Dad, you guys have been pretty quiet.”

My dad sighs, his lips pressed together in a thin line. In theory, Xan is his double, but there’s a softness to my brother that I’ve never seen on my dad’s face. “I don’t really have anything to say, Rose.”