Page 40 of Fun Together (Make Romance #1)

Eli

It’s taking everything in me not to follow Faye into the house.

I didn’t mean for my speech to the take the direction it did. I had planned to tell the funny pot story about my parents, give the toast, and that’s it. But then I looked out at my family and friends, sharing this moment of celebration together and Faye shifted so clearly into my focus.

The sun was setting behind everyone and there she was, cast in its golden glow.

She was smiling softly the way she does when she’s not thinking about how others are seeing her, like she does when she’s watching a movie she loves or is showing me something funny Rett sent her.

Like she does when it’s just us two, sharing each other’s company.

She was all I could see. And I felt it.

I’m falling in love with her.

The moment just felt so right to tell her, like if I didn’t take the opportunity to say something I’d lose my nerve. I didn’t even think past that, I just started talking and then I couldn’t stop.

Fuck.

I discovered my mistake when I got back to my seat and Faye looked pale, her soft smile wiped away to reveal a tense set to her jaw. She looked like she was going to pass out or puke.

I watch her stop to allow Florence and Pebbles to zoom across her path. She gives Flo a sweet smile and wave and I feel my heart break a little.

This party is not going the way I thought it would. I imagined introducing Faye to everyone and . . . I don’t know, showing her how well she’d fit here. With me.

I look over at Andrew and he’s watching her, too.

“Is she okay?” he asks, as we get up from the table.

Everyone disperses to refill their drinks or stand around talking.

I notice Emmett standing by himself away from everyone, pretending to be interested in the hedge growing along the back fence.

I wonder how he’s doing tonight. If he’s missing Mara and wondering, like me, if he’s made too many mistakes he’ll never be able to fix.

“Yeah, uh, she said she needed to go to the restroom.”

He nods, taking a sip of his drink.

I don’t know what to say to him. I want to apologize, but where do I start? With the dead plant? With missing his calls?

With falling in love with his ex-girlfriend?

My mom and dad make a beeline for me before I get a chance to say anything to him.

Mom has tears in her eyes, and she gives me a tight hug. “Honey, that was beautiful.” She pats my cheek. “We are so lucky to have you—our sweet, funny boy.”

Dad claps me on the back and says, “Great speech, son.”

I’ve never felt this confusing muddle of emotions before.

Where I clearly did something so right, based on how my parents and everyone else reacted.

But also, something so wrong. I feel selfish for basking in the pride of my parents’ praise while the woman I care about is currently feeling upset over what I said.

My parents are pulled into another conversation, leaving Andrew and I standing alone.

I look over to check to see if Faye has come back outside, and see that Evie is standing with her, arms flailing animatedly in conversation.

Faye is smiling politely, listening to whatever my sister is rambling about.

“I’m sorry I missed your calls yesterday. Busy day with work.”

“It’s okay. I was going to see if you could still pick me up from the airport, but I got an Uber.”

“Is everything okay? What happened with the trip?”

He shrugs. “Long story. How did things go with the plants?”

Maybe I’m paranoid, but I sort of think he’s asking to trap me in a lie. The lie being that I replaced the pothos plant that I think I killed in the hopes that he wouldn’t notice. Surely, he hasn’t had time to comb through his entire collection yet and confirm everything is as he expected.

Right?

Fuck, this is such a stupid thing to lie about.

“I killed the pothos,” I admit. “It had two brown leaves and everything I googled wasn’t helping and then I freaked out thinking you’d freak out and then I went to the store and bought one.”

“Okay . . .”

“I’m sorry.”

“Is that all?”

“What do you mean?” My God, he knows everything doesn’t he? I’m not a Catholic, but I feel like I’m in confession. I want to tell him everything. I need to tell him everything.

“Hey Andy,” Evie says, seemingly appearing out of thin air next to Andrew with an impeccably timed interruption. “Did you see our new pool? I was thinking about night swimming later.”

“Don’t have my trunks with me, unfortunately.”

“Who said you need those?”

Andrew just shakes his head and drinks his beer, wisely choosing not to engage with my sister. Evie loves to embarrass him, and I’d think her crush on him was kind of cute if I didn’t feel so uncomfortable right now.

Out of my periphery, I see Faye walk up to us. A bit of color has come back to her face, and I hope she’s okay.

I need to talk to her, alone. But I don’t know how.

“I’ve been trying to convince Dad to put in a hot tub next,” Evie says.

“Hot tubs can be tough to maintain. They can carry disease if they’re not kept up properly,” Andrew says, distracted.

Evie looks at him like he just said he doesn’t like chocolate cake. “Have you ever had a good time in your life?”

“Sorry if getting Legionnaires’ disease isn’t my idea of a good time.”

“Of course, you know the actual name of the disease,” she says, rolling her eyes. Then she turns to Faye. “Faye, you’ll back me up. Don’t you think we need a hot tub, even though they are apparently riddled with bacteria?”

Faye cautiously looks at me, and then Andrew, before shrugging casually. “That’s what antibiotics are for, right?”

“Exactly!”

Faye glances in my direction, but immediately reverts her attention to the beer bottle in her hand.

“Do you need another drink? We can go grab one.” I hope she takes the hint that I want to go somewhere to talk.

She brushes me off. “No, I’m good.”

She’s avoiding talking to me, then. I should expect that, because what exactly do I want to say to her right now?

Sorry I just confessed to maybe being in love with you in a speech in front of my entire family. Can we go have that “define the relationship” conversation that we’ve been too scared to have?

Florence dashes over carrying sparklers in her hands. “Time for sparklers,” she says, handing them out to us. “Dad says we can spell words out with them. I’m going to spell my name.”

Faye takes a sparkler from Flo’s hand. “Well, you have a beautiful name, so I can’t wait to see it,” Faye says to her.

Florence beams up at her as if she just told her she hung the moon.

We congregate together in the yard by the pool and our fearless leader, Evie, makes her way to the front of the crowd. “Everyone line up in two lines to create a path for Mom and Dad to walk through,” she says, shuffling us around and into position.

“Evie-bear, we don’t need to do this,” Mom says.

“Yes, you do! It’s what you do , Mom. You and Dad walk through while all of us hold up our sparklers. I’ll take a photo of you two smiling. It will be gorgeous. It will be happy. It will be perfect. ”

Mom exchanges a worried look with Dad before they both shrug and move to stand at the edge of the path we’ve created for them.

Since everyone is distracted by the sparklers, I take my chance to get closer to Faye. I lean down so only she can hear me. “You okay?” The question feels completely empty at this point, but I don’t know what else to say.

She nods but doesn’t smile at all. Not even a fake one. “Yep, I’m good.”

“You going to spell out your name?” I ask. I don’t like when people are mad at me, or I can’t get them to give me some kind of reaction. No reaction from her feels like I’m losing at a game I forgot I was playing. I think I’d almost prefer if she was behaving like Andrew is right now.

By which I mean, I watched him disappear into the house when everyone was lining up and haven’t seen him since.

“That might be too advanced for me. Maybe I’ll do a heart.” She pauses and shakes her head. “Or a star.”

She and I have come to a fork in the road, and we have to decide what path to take. I want to follow the one that might have some difficult spots, but it leads to the cliff we can look out at the world from. She’s still standing at the trailhead, unwilling to share the journey with me.

“Count of three!” Evie shouts.

I light my sparkler first and turn to light Faye’s with mine. How long can I wait for her to decide I’m worth the risk? How do I prove to her that I am worth it? That’s she’s worth it.

On the third count, I spell out her name in huge swooping letters.

Most of the guests leave in a flurry of hugs and goodbyes until it’s just Faye, Evie, and I left standing in the yard. We walk together toward the house and sit down in the pool chairs.

Emmett comes out of the house with a sleeping Flo tossed over his shoulder. “We’re heading out. This one crashed shortly after Aunt Linda’s famous chocolate cake.” He gives my shoulder a squeeze as they walk past us. “Good speech.”

I swallow a lump in my throat. “Thanks, man. Drive safe.”

We sit quietly, all of us seemingly lost in our own thoughts.

Evie breaks the silence. “What’s wrong with him?” she asks, gesturing to the kitchen window where we can see Andrew moving around the kitchen.

“He’s stress cleaning,” Faye and I say at the same time.

I look at Faye. She looks anywhere but at me.

Evie looks at Andrew for a few more seconds, calculating. “I think a night swim is in order.”

“I don’t know, Eves,” I say. I’m exhausted myself. “Maybe another time.”

“Yeah, I’m kind of tired too,” Faye says. She gives Evie an apologetic smile. “Sorry.”

Evie releases a sigh before hopping up from her chair.

“Well, I’m going to put my suit on because the summer is almost over and I’m getting another swim in.

” She walks inside and pauses to say something to Andrew, probably asking if he wants to swim with her.

He shakes his head and watches her bound up the stairs.