Page 159 of Hale Damage
All eyes turn to me, and I lift my arm and drape it along Mindy’sshoulders in a display of possessiveness. “I just wanted to let you all know, Mindy and I are a couple now.”
We’re met with a few looks of surprise and a lot of smiles. “I called it,” Phoenix crows, pointing at Helix. “I said they would get together within six months, and you guessed Remi would hold out for at least eight. You owe me.”
Helix grumbles and pulls a ten dollar bill from his wallet, passing it down. Nicolette produces a bottle of hand sanitizer from seemingly nowhere and makes everyone who touched the money clean their hands.
“I already lost,” Perri laments. “I predicted you two would get together after only two months.”
“You were betting on us?” I ask incredulously, though I shouldn’t have been surprised. My siblings will bet on virtually anything.
“Duh,” Phoenix says, shooting an apologetic look at my girl. “Sorry, Mindy. No disrespect toward you. It was just obvious to us all that you two were meant to be together.”
“It’s okay,” she says easily.
“I think it’s ironic that you two started with a bet, and now it’s ending with one too,” Helix muses.
Mindy turns her head oh so slowly toward me, lifting her eyebrows. I shift uncomfortably in my seat and rub the back of my neck, praying to god I’m not screwing up our relationship already.
I explain the bet from seven years ago, filtering some of it since little ears are listening, and to my utter shock—and relief—Mindy thinks it’s hilarious. Reason 537 of why I love this woman.
“So that’s where the name Joe came from,” she says, dabbing her eyes with her napkin.
“Joe Blow, at your service,” I reply, tipping an imaginary cap at her.
“I already knew Mindy was your girlfriend,” Reece announces, adding more cheddar cheese to her bowl. “Cuz you did the love eyes at her when you got here.”
“The… love eyes?” I ask, amused by my niece.
“Yep, like this.” Reece looks up at me, eyes wide, head tilted, and mouth smiling goofily. Then she bats her eyelashes at me, and the entire table bursts into laughter.
“I don’t look like that,” I protest, but Helix waggles his pointer finger at me.
“Yeah, bro. You kinda do.”
Our niece calls him out. “You do too, Uncle Helix. When you look at Aunt Nicolette.” She lets out a little gasp and looks around me toward Mindy. “Does that mean I can call you Aunt Mindy?”
Mindy stammers as her pretty face flushes. “Oh, um, I d-don’t…” She looks at me and then back at Reece, her voice soft. “You see, we’re just dating, Reece. We’re not married or anything.”
Reece shrugs. “You will be. I know because this guy,” she jerks a thumb at me, “was doing the love eyes, remember?”
Everyone laughs again, but I simply smile because I’m pretty sure my niece is the smartest person in the room. Because I will make Mindy Espinoza Mindy Hale as soon as she’ll have me.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
The bestie
Mindy
“I can’t believehow well everything went last night,” I say as we drive down a surface street toward my aunt’s house.
“I told you,” Remi says, resting one hand on my knee. “I hope everything goes as well with your aunt tonight.”
I stroke the back of his hand with my fingertips. “It will. She’ll be happy for us.” Squinting at a familiar sign a few blocks ahead, I say, “Oh, can we stop at Target for a second? I want to pick up a bag of Takis for Aunt Lorraine. They’re her favorite.”
He turns on his blinker, and a few minutes later, we enter the store. “Have you ever even been inside a Target?” I ask, amused.
“Yes,” he scoffs. “My roommate and I shopped at Target all the time when I was in college.”
“I’d have guessed you just had anything you needed delivered.”
