Page 107 of It's Not PMS, It's You

Ruth glanced back over at me again and smiled.

Lovely. Just lovely.

Brandon approached. “Better close your mouth before you choke on a sand fly.”

I played it off, taking a sip of my root beer. “My mouth was open to take in some cool liquid refreshment. It’s completely necessary unless I want the drink to dribble down my chin and stain my shirt.”

Brandon looked toward Ruth. “You like her a lot.”

I decided to come clean. “I do.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Unless I have a problem with what she does for a living.”

“It’s not like she’s an assassin or a drug dealer.” Brandon put his hand on my shoulder. “I think it’s great you’ve been trying to eliminate negativity and stress from your life since the heart attack, but you can’t make the entire world turn into sparkly unicorns who poop marshmallows and cupcakes.”

“Where the heck did you get that from?”

Brandon laughed. “I have no idea. I was trying to be eloquent and failed miserably, but I do have another point.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“Love lasts forever. Jobs don’t.”

“Okay, now you’re back on track.”

“I must admit that was a good one. Anyway, why don’t you just have a good time and see what happens?” He glanced over at Ruth, who was playing beach paddle ball with my daughter. “Looks like Ruth is enjoying herself. She’s a completely different person.”

“I was thinking the same thing.” I moved a few chairs under the canopy, so they were in the shade. “I thought you were going to invite Dee.”

Brandon had let me know in between one of the many wheelbarrow hauls this morning that he and Dee had the most amazing dinner last night. Then he asked if he could bring her to the reunion. Every single person in my family, including my parents, thought of Brandon as a family member. He really didn’t even have to ask.

“I did invite her.” Brandon pointed to Dee at the beach entrance. “In fact, there she is now. I’ll be right back. I need to go kiss somebody.”

“Seriously?”

“Hey—I don’t ever joke about kissing.”

Brandon walked over to Dee and, sure enough, he kissed her.

I walked toward Ruth, planning on kidnapping her back from my family.

Ruth smashed another ball way over Lindsey’s head with the paddle. “Sorry!”

“No worries!” Lindsey turned to run after the ball, then stopped to talk to with two of her cousins who were heading to the water with their surfboards.

Perfect timing.

“Hey,” I said, approaching Ruth from behind. “I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to get you back from my family.”

Ruth spun around and smirked. “Looks like I’m all yours. What are you going to do with me, now that you have me, Nicky?”

I swallowed hard, wondering if this was another one of those trick questions.

I could answer it a thousand different ways, but I just needed to choose one.

Just one . . .