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  Unsure how to respond to this, I went quiet, calculating what I should say next. And by calculating, of course I meant overthinking. I searched around the pool for my mom and found her on the opposite end, having an animated conversation with one of her friends. “It was really cool how you stood up to my mom in the car.”

  Reagan shrugged her shoulders in response. “It was nothing. Honestly, it would have felt wrong to not say anything.”

  “So, I take it you have a lot of gay friends?” I asked, trying to push the envelope.

  Reagan let out a slight snicker in response to my question. “You could say that.” Her face became oddly serious, and she stared at me for a few beats. “My best friend is gay.” I steadily nodded my head, trying not to show how satisfied this information made me feel.

  “What about you?” Reagan’s voice cut through me and I could feel myself immediately tensing up at the implications of that question.

  “What about me?”

  “Are you cool with people being gay? No offense, but you never quite know how people in a small town will feel about the subject. Case and point—your mother.”

  I exhaled the breath I had been holding and let myself relax enough to laugh at the question. “I lived in California for eight years. Obviously, I don’t care if someone is gay.”

  Reagan seemed to relax a little more with my answer as well. “Good. Because I couldn’t be friends with you if you were some small-minded bigot.” She playfully stuck her tongue out and my mind immediately went into the gutter.

  “So, I take it that means that my brother is not a small-minded bigot?”

  Reagan laughed again. “Quite the opposite. He also has a gay best friend.” Huh. It seemed there was still a lot I had to learn about my brother.

  As if he knew we were talking about him, Jamie walked into the pool area, now wearing a T-shirt and swim trunks. He smiled at us as he approached. “Ladies, how is the sunbathing going?”

  “Quite amazing, actually,” Reagan responded, throwing a wink in my direction.

  Jamie looked between us, then back to Reagan. “Would you like to take a dip with me, sweetheart?”

  Reagan fake fanned herself. “Why, Jamie, I thought you’d never ask.” She pushed off of her chair and quickly ran to the pool, not even hesitating before jumping in.

  The smile on Jamie’s face grew as he shook his head at his girlfriend. Before joining her, he turned back around to me. “Coming, Sis?”

  I lifted both eyebrows and pushed off of my chair as quickly as Reagan had. “Last one in is a rotten egg!” I shouted, while running toward the water.

  “What are we, five?” Jamie yelled after me, but he swiftly tore off his T-shirt and pushed me aside to jump in the water before me. Maybe this would be an okay summer after all.

  Chapter 3: Reagan

  “So, be honest. How are things going?” Jamie asked as we sat by the lake at the end of his parents’ yard. It was the first chance we had to talk alone since arriving Saturday night.

  “Honestly?” I groaned. “It’s only Wednesday, and I feel like we’ve been here for weeks already. That’s not what’s important though. I’m here for you. How are you doing?”

  Jamie let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m okay. It’s nice being around my family. It really is. I know that might seem strange to you given how extra my parents are, but they are still family. I just hate feeling like I have to live a double life. It’s like I am being myself, but some twisted version of myself. I’m me, but the version of me that my family wants me to be. I’m not sure if that makes any sense or if I’m just rambling at this point.”

  It made perfect sense. I felt the exact same way with this part I was playing as Jamie’s girlfriend. The only difference being that when we leave here, I have a supportive family waiting for me. “At least your sister is cool.” That was an understatement. Unlike Jamie and I, Charlie and I did get the chance to spend a decent amount of alone time together over the past few days. Aside from being beautiful, I was learning that she also was fun, silly, and super chill. If she wasn’t the straight sister of my faux boyfriend, she would totally be the type of girl I would go for. Charlie Miller was the whole package; the whole package all wrapped up in the wrong person.

  “What do you mean by that?” Jamie asked, interrupting my thoughts.

  I mean that your sister is my unattainable dream girl. “I mean that she gets down with the gays.” I lifted one eyebrow and smirked, satisfied with myself for being able to obtain this information for him.

  Jamie’s face turned a deep shade of red and I wasn’t sure if he was angry or nervous about how I had come to this conclusion. “How did you find that out, Reagan?” he asked through gritted teeth. Definitely angry.

  I rolled my eyes at him. “I was like, Hey, Charlie, hypothetically, how would you feel if your brother was super duper gay?” When he didn’t laugh at my sarcasm, I rolled my eyes again. “Seriously, dude? Obviously, I was smooth about it. Your sister brought up your mom’s homophobic comments in the car, so we each discussed how we feel about it. We both agreed that we hate bigots and love the gays.”

  A small smile returned to Jamie’s face. “I still can’t believe you called my mom out. That took some balls. Although, I’m not sure how I feel about it from the standpoint of your boyfriend who wants you to impress his mother.”

  “Hey, just think. If I annoy your mom enough, she’ll be happy for you to be with a guy. She’ll just be relieved that I’m not going to be her daughter-in-law.”

  “Yeah right. I can just hear it now. Where did we go wrong? Did your father not take you to enough football games growing up?”

  “It’s because we let you go to school in that city, isn’t it? All cities are corrupt.”

  At this point, Jamie and I were both in tears from laughing so hard. Once I calmed down, I placed an arm around his shoulder. “Seriously though. Maybe you should consider telling your sister. She’s going to be fine with it.”

  “Consider telling your sister what?” a perky voice chimed in from behind us.

  I felt Jamie’s body go rigid as I turned to smile at his mom. “Just that we want her to be the Godmother once we have kids,” I lied.

  Mrs. Miller clapped her hands in delight. “I think that’s a wonderful idea. She will be more than fine with it. She’ll be so happy to hear that.”

  I gave Jamie a satisfied grin and he squeezed me closer to him as a silent thank you. “Any plans for the rest of the night?” I asked, praying that her answer would be no.

  “No, but I think you’ll be very excited about tomorrow. Us girls are going to high tea at the hotel in town.”

  I mustered up my best fake smile and dug my fingernails into Jamie’s arm, hoping that would be at least half as painful as high tea sounded. “High tea? How excellent.”

  Satisfied with my response, Mrs. Miller headed back toward the house. Once I made sure she was all the way in, I turned and glared at Jamie, who was now rubbing his arm where my fingernails had been. “Please tell me that high tea involves smoking pot and spilling the latest celebrity gossip.”

  “It’s kind of like that, only it’s tea instead of pot and you guys gossip about Mrs. What’s-Her-Name’s daughter who just got pregnant out of wedlock.”

  I let out a low groan. “You better hope that high tea is early enough to let me get me home for the World Cup game. I already missed my girls playing on Sunday. I can’t miss another one.”

  ***

  At 2:15 the next afternoon, I stood at the bottom of the stairs waiting to leave for high tea. So much for not missing the game that conveniently started at 3. “You look nice,” Jamie commented, as he walked up beside me.

  I looked down at my outfit, which consisted of a black and white button-up tucked into tight khaki pants. “It would have looked even better with a tie.” I raised two eyebrows at Jamie as a way of telling him that I didn’t appreciate how our scheme was getting in the way of what little fashion sense I had.

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nbsp; He put his arm around my waist and leaned in close to whisper in my ear. “I was thinking. It’s not fair for you to have to do this. I’m going to tell my parents I want more time with you, so I think you should come with the guys this afternoon.”

  “And what are the guys doing?”

  “Going to a sports bar.” Jamie paused before revealing the next part. “To watch the game.”

  “Of course you are,” I scoffed. I then tilted my head at him. “You really think they’ll go for that?”

  A wide grin spread across Jamie’s face. “They will if I tell them I want us to spend as much time together as possible before I propose.”

  “You’re evil. I love it.”

  Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of someone walking down the stairs. I looked up to a sight that literally made me forget how to breathe. Charlie was wearing a short white dress with black polka dots. Her perfectly curled blonde hair was sitting underneath one of those big floppy hats that you always see British royalty wearing. Hell if I actually knew what it was called. I did know that the contrast between her blonde hair and the black hat was perfect. As she got closer, I noticed she was wearing the slightest bit of makeup that accentuated her beautiful face. When she smiled, her lips glistened from whatever lip gloss she was wearing, and all I could think about was how it would feel to have her lips on mine. In that moment, I forgot all about women’s soccer and the World Cup. Heck, I forgot my own name.

  I was brought back to reality when Jamie pulled away from me. When I was able to focus on him, I watched as he walked toward the kitchen where his parents were chatting. I caught up with him and pulled him back by one of his belt loops. “Come to think of it, I think it’s a little early to start rocking the boat. Plus, if we put that thought in your mother’s head, we’ll never hear the end of it.”

  A look of confusion entered onto Jamie’s face. “Are you sure? I don’t mind. I hate the thought of you being miserable.”

  I turned around to take another look at Charlie, who was now standing by the front door. “I think I’ll survive.”

  “Oh no. This won’t do,” Mrs. Miller’s voice shrieked.

  I looked back to find her staring at me, specifically the outfit I was wearing. I looked down at it myself then back at her. She threw a hand over her forehead, as if she was a character in some southern drama. “Oh dear. I guess they don’t do classy events like high tea in the city, do they?”

  No. We do crazy shit, like live in the 21st century and accept others. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Miller. Is my outfit not acceptable?”

  The smile Mrs. Miller gave me in return looked almost sympathetic. I felt like she was thinking, Poor little city girl. Doesn’t even know how to dress for high tea.

  “You look wonderful, dear. It’s just that everyone who goes to high tea wears dresses. Could I bother you to put one on?”

  I looked over at Jamie, sure that I wasn’t hiding the panic on my face. He simply shrugged his shoulders in response. Thanks, dude. “Of course. There is just a slight problem. I only brought my two favorite dresses along and I kind of figured I should save those for big family dinners.” It wasn’t a complete lie. I really had brought two dresses. They just happened to be my only two dresses.

  “You can borrow one of mine.” I looked toward Charlie, whose eyes were now running the length of my body. “We seem to be around the same size.” Even though I knew that she was literally sizing me up, I couldn’t stop my body from reacting to her roaming eyes, and I hoped my face wasn’t turning red.

  Before I could respond, Charlie started pulling me toward the stairs and up to her room. My arm burned where her hand made contact and I felt the loss as soon as we made it to her bedroom and she let go.

  “Sorry for dragging you out of there. You seemed embarrassed. My mother doesn’t do subtlety well.” Her eyes studied me once again. “Personally, I think this outfit is great. I honestly wish I could pull it off.”

  I wanted to tell her I was sure she could pull off any outfit, but I figured that was a line I shouldn’t cross. Plus, she was already standing inside her walk-in closet, searching through a long row of dresses.

  “This will be perfect,” she said, pulling out a form-fitting black dress, which looked to be tighter than anything I had worn in the past.

  “I might not know much about high tea, but that dress strikes me more as something you would wear out to the club than to a classy event, as your mother so eloquently put it.”

  Charlie laughed at my blatant jab at her mother. “Trust me, my mom will love this choice. She loves to show off to her friends and family, and as weird as it sounds, she’ll love flaunting the fact that her son is dating a total hottie. I know it doesn’t make sense, but you have to trust me on this.”

  Truthfully, I couldn’t focus on anything aside from the fact that Charlie had just called me hot. It was clear that she didn’t mean anything by it, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the way it sounded coming from her lips.

  I grabbed the dress from her and pointed toward the closet. “I’m just going to change in there, if that’s okay.” Charlie motioned for me to go and as soon as I shut the door, I released a chuckle over the irony of me going into the closet to put on a tight black dress.

  I stripped out of my current outfit and slipped the dress over my head, struggling to pull it down over my body. When it was on, I reached back to grab the zipper and groaned when I realized it was out of reach. I opened the closet door and found Charlie waiting for me. “Do you think you could get this zipper for me?” I asked, begrudgingly.

  The fingers of Charlie’s left hand came to rest gently on my shoulder, while her other hand slowly lifted the zipper. She was so close that I could feel her breath on my neck and it was causing goosebumps to rise on my arms. Charlie paused once the zipper reached the top. I could have sworn that I felt her moving closer to me, but then I heard her clear her throat and before I knew it, a large gap had formed between us.

  “We better get downstairs. My mom hates to be late.”

  I took a moment to catch my breath, before following Charlie down the stairs and back into the kitchen.

  “Woo wee. Look at how sexy my girlfriend is. That reminds me of the little black dress you have at home, sweetheart,” Jamie jeered. The wink that followed his statement was enough to earn him a subtle middle finger from me.

  When Mrs. Miller turned to look at me, a large smile spread across her face. “That is perfect!” Without hesitation, she looked down at her watch, then briskly grabbed her purse and headed toward the door. “Well, we better go. Don’t want to be late.”

  Within a few minutes, we were pulling up to a hotel that seemed to be a little too nice for the town it was in. It made me wonder who actually stayed there. I didn’t have time to contemplate it though, because Mrs. Miller quickly herded us through the lobby and into a banquet room. As soon as we stepped inside, a short woman with black hair cut into a bob was waving her hand and motioning us over to her table. She was accompanied by three girls who all seemed to be close to my age and an older gray-haired woman.

  “Hello, ladies! Thanks for saving us seats. We had a bit of a last-minute wardrobe malfunction. Everything turned out perfectly though.” Mrs. Miller paused to put an arm around my waist. “This is Jamie’s girlfriend, Reagan.”

  Everyone greeted me with polite, but stiff smiles, except for the gray-haired woman, who immediately stood and wrapped me in a hug. “It is so nice to finally meet you, sweetie. I’m Jamie’s grandma, Pam.”

  “It’s really nice to meet you too,” I answered sincerely.

  When she let go, I was introduced to the rest of the ladies, who I found out were Jamie’s aunt and his cousins’ wives. Jamie’s description of them all having sticks up their asses was very true. As we drank tea and ate scones, the conversation was filled with subtle brags about the girls’ young children. Every so often, Mrs. Miller would find a way to point out the fact that it wouldn’t be long before Jamie and I
had children of our own. Charlie was quiet for most of the conversation, only speaking up when the topic of her new career was brought up. After what felt like an hour, I looked down at my phone and was shocked to find we had only been there for about fifteen minutes. The only thing that was getting me through was stealing sideways glances at Charlie.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t have that opportunity for long. Within minutes of looking at my phone, Charlie stood from the table.

  “Sorry to be rude, but one of my friends that I cheered with in high school works here. If it’s okay, I’m going to slip out and say hello to her.”

  “Is that the one who was on the homecoming court with you when you were crowned queen?” Mrs. Miller asked, her lips curling into a smile, clearly satisfied with herself for getting another brag in.

  Charlie’s face turned red in response to her mother’s antics. “Um. Yep, that’s her.” Before anything else could be said, she turned and walked out of the room.

  I was subjected to more baby talk and was on the verge of dozing off, when I felt my phone vibrate inside my purse. I snuck another peak and noticed I had a text from Jamie.

  GOOOOAAAALLLL USA!!!

  I blinked my eyes a few times to make sure I was reading that right. That game had just started a few minutes ago and we were already winning? I couldn’t take it anymore. There was no way I could sit here and act even somewhat interested in the conversation when I knew there was an amazing soccer game going on.

  Thinking on my feet, I placed a hand on top of Mrs. Miller’s. “Do you happen to know where the restroom is?”

  “It’s right in the lobby, dear. Do you need me to walk you there so you don’t get lost?”

  “That won’t be necessary.” I stood from my seat and hurried out of the room, before she could decide to come with me. Once I was in the lobby, I walked right past the restrooms and up to the bar that I had noticed when we walked in. Just as I hoped, the game was playing on the big TV behind the bar. As I went to sit down, I looked toward the one other person sitting at the bar. My eyes were drawn to her blonde hair and floppy black hat. Charlie? I watched as she took a big gulp of the beer in front of her, never once taking her eyes off of the TV screen. It didn’t take me long to figure out that we must’ve had the same idea. God, could this girl be anymore perfect?