Page 72 of Last Night Was Fun

Emmy sucked in a breath and stilled with worry. Vera and Frank Jameson were thelastpeople to talk to about a sports injury.

Gabe glanced over at the sound Emmy made and raised a brow at her sudden rigid posture.

Of course he had charmed the pants off her parents. Her mother was already calling him sweetheart, for goodness’ sake. They werethrilledshe’d brought a date, even though she’d introduced him as a friend. The doting looks on her mom’s and dad’s faces made Emmy want to throw herself in front of the oncoming bus that would surely smash the pleasantries to bits by bringing up any reminder of her brother.

“He got stung by a bee,” Emmy covered.

“Just now?!” Vera asked with wide eyes and looked around like there might have been more bees ready to attack. But there weren’t. Only a long table with a centerpiece runner made of palm and plumeria and tea light candles. Glittering wineglasses and champagne flutes sweated in the sinking sun. Dishware clinked.

“No, when he was golfing earlier,” Emmy went on, her face flaming as the lie snowballed.

Gabe side-eyed her.

“Golfing?” her dad piped up. “Hey, we should play a round tomorrow!” Grayed at the temples and curly haired like Emmy, he was all smiles and welcome.

“You don’t have time tomorrow, Dad. We have to get ready for the wedding starting at noon.”

Her father waved his hands. “Oh, how long can it take to put on a suit? I won’t want to get dressed too early anyway in this heat.” He tugged at his shirt, a tasteful short-sleeved button-down Piper had approved. She’d forbidden anything floral printed or too loud. “What do you say, Gabe? We could fit in a morning nine?”

“Oh, um...” Gabe said, still squeezing his shoulder and now looking at Emmy for advice.

“He can’t either,” Emmy blurted again. “He has... a thing with his cousin.”

“Your cousin in the other wedding?” Vera asked, and delicately cut into the piece of fish artistically draped over her dinner plate.

“Yes,” Gabe said, still eyeing Emmy. “We’re, um... going fishing?”

“Hey, nowthere’sa sport!” Frank cheered. “The billfish down here will pull you overboard if you’re not careful.”

“I thought Emmy said you get seasick?” Vera added.

“She did?” Gabe said, and quickly recovered. “I do! I meant we are going fishing off the pier.”

“Well, I’d certainly have time for that,” Frank said, lifting his wineglass in a toast. He gave Gabe a lippy smile and sipped.

Right then, one of Emmy’s aunts came up behind her parents and wrapped them in a boisterous hug.

Emmy took advantage of their distraction and leaned in to whisper to Gabe. “Fishing?Why are you such a bad liar?”

“Why are we lying to your parents about bees?” he hissed back.

“Because sports injuries are a very,verytouchy subject for my family. It’s how my brother—” Her throat choked up with tears, and she couldn’t say any more. Apparently, she didn’t want to talk about it either.

Gabe read the truth in her eyes. She could see him remembering the conversation from that morning they’d had breakfast in her apartment and putting the pieces together. He stopped holding hisshoulder and reached for her hand on the table. He squeezed it and gave her a soft smile. Then he turned to her parents, who’d been freed from the embrace of Aunt Mary and smiled again. “Frank, I’d love to go fishing from the pier with you tomorrow morning.”

Emmy almost cried at the delighted twinkle in her dad’s eye.

He lifted his glass in a toast again. “Well then, it’s a date!”

Emmy felt her mother’s eyes on her hand clasped with Gabe’s. She didn’t want to let it go, but she also didn’t want to have the conversation she could sense brewing in her mother’s mouth.

“So, I hear you two are competing for the same promotion at work?” Vera said exactly what Emmy was expecting. She knew how seriously Emmy took her job, even if she didn’t exactly approve of said job, and she was rightfully wondering why she was crossing personal boundaries with a co-worker, even if she was perennially lobbying for Emmy to find a partner.

Emmy would rather have gone back to talking about fake beestings and sports fishing. Work had been a distant memory for the past day and a half, and she was not ready to invite it to the party now.

“Um, we are, yes,” Gabe said with a gentle laugh, still holding her hand. “And Emmy is stiff competition. Your daughter is really remarkable. I’ve learned a lot from her.” He gazed over at Emmy, and she almost fell out of her chair.

Now he was reading from a script titledThe Exact Right Thing to Say to Emmy Jameson’s Parents.