“How are you liking Bellevue?” Fallon, Emery’s mom, asks me, and I look from where Quinn and Emery are laughing to her.
I nod as I finish the steak I’m chewing. “It’s going great. I’m enjoying all my new roles.”
“Shea said you’re working with the gymnastics team,” Lucas mentions. “That has to be different.”
“It is. Lots of chalk and tape,” I say with a smile. “But they’re a good group, and they respect me. I’m learning a lot.”
“That’s awesome. My friend Shantae is on the team,” Stella says, bringing my attention to her. She sits by her fiancé, Wes, who plays for the Assassins with Aiden, as well as Posey’s husband, Boone. “She told me about her hot new athletic trainer, and I laughed, saying we grew up together.”
Great. “I bet she had a lot to say.”
She grins widely. “Oh, she asked me to hook her up. But I got the feeling from what she told me that you weren’t interested.”
“Your feeling is right,” I say, nodding to her.
“Are you dating anyone right now, Evan?” Fallon asks, and I shake my head.
“No. Just focusing on school and my new roles.”
“That’s good, but remember to have fun,” Dad says, and Aiden points his fork at me.
“You can have a lot of fun there,” he says, and Shelli pokes him in the ribs with her elbow.
“Please, don’t encourage my brother to have sex,” she says, and everyone chuckles along.
Asher’s wife and our longtime family friend, Ally, laughs. “Let’s be honest. Evan isn’t the type. He has to know you to want to be with you.”
What the hell is happening right now?
“Absolutely. Remember when we tried to get Stella to date him?” Shelli asks. “He’s known her forever and she’s easy on the eyes, and he still said no.”
Can I please leave?
I look around as everyone laughs.
Stella grins at me. “It’s okay, Evan. My heart was only a bit broken.”
For the love of God.
“It’s too bad, really,” Fallon says, her eyes full of love for me. “We hit the daughter-in-law jackpot with Shelli and Ally. Would have been great to do the same with Stella.” She winks at Wes, who looks up quickly, and then he grins.
“Hey now, Mom. At least I asked you for your blessing to marry Stella, unlike how Asher and Ally did it,” Wes throws at her, and she snickers as Ally holds her hand up.
“We had to elope. Y’all are all suffocating,” she says, and Asher nods beside her.
“For real. I can’t breathe sitting here.”
“Same,” I mumble, and he laughs.
“Fine, but there is still Emery,” Fallon teases, pointing to her youngest. “She’s not of age yet and mildly obsessed with serial killers—”
“Mildly?” all the Brooks siblings say, and Emery just sits there, grinning from ear to ear.
“But we’ll hold on to her for you, and we can offer three goats and a donkey,” Fallon finishes as we all laugh, and I am mortified.
“Do I look desperate or something?”
More laughter ensues before Emery responds, “I don’t need goats and donkeys in my dowry, Mom. Plus, I’ve been with an Adler. I’m good. I’ve got the T-shirt.”
“And the V-card,” Quinn adds, laughing, and they snicker together. To which everyone, and I mean everyone, goes quiet as our gazes fall on them.
It takes a second for them to realize everyone is staring at them, and together they say, “What?”
Mom perks a brow. “Are you two dating?”
Emery snorts as Quinn shakes his head. “No. Her obsession with serial killers scares me.”
“Yeah. He’s a wuss.”
They laugh while we all continue to gawk at them. “So, explain your comment,” Fallon says to Emery.
Quinn looks at Emery, and she shrugs. “Mom, you know this,” she says, holding Fallon’s gaze. “You sent me to stay with Gram and Pop Adler when I was doing that seminar in Boston, and you told me to call Quinn. What did you think would happen?”
Fallon just blinks, and I notice Stella is covering her face. Holy shit, those two hooked up, and our families had no idea.
“I thought you would hang out with your childhood friend!” her mother yells, a little louder than I think she intended to.
“Quinn, what did you do?” Mom exclaims loudly.
Quinn gawks at Mom. “What? We hung out.”
“Hung…or hung,” Aiden draws out, and Shelli pokes him once more as he snorts with laughter. He grins at her. “I’m gonna poke you in the gut if you don’t stop.”
“Okay, maybe we are all taking this out of context,” Lucas says, trying to get ahold of the situation. I don’t think we are, but maybe he’s right. “When you say you two hung out, were you dating?”
They look at each other and then at their parents. “Sure,” they say together, but they’re lying.
“They totally hooked up,” Aiden says, chortling.
“Oh, for sure,” Asher adds.
All eyes fall on them once more, and Emery shrugs. “Yeah, so? I’m seventeen, and he’s, like, how old are you?”
“Nineteen,” he supplies, and she nods.
“And, like, it was sad and pathetic that he was a virgin, so I helped out.”
I cover my mouth, and along with some of the other siblings, we all start sliding down in our seats to hide from the wrath that is the Adler and Brooks parents. I wish I could be a fly on the wall watching this because there is so much to look at. Shelli gets up to “pee.” Posey is looking at Zac, while Boone goes to get another beer. Aiden and Asher are watching everyone intently, and Stella still hasn’t dropped her hands. I’m pretty sure Wes has no clue what is happening, but Lucas is turning a shade of red that is quite impressive.
Lucas looks across the table at my dad, and my dad shrugs. “I don’t even know.”
“Was it consensual?” Lucas asks, without looking at Quinn and Emery.
“Yes, Lucas. Please stay calm,” Fallon groans.
“And I can’t kill the kid, right?’ he asks under his breath, and Fallon shakes her head.
“No. It sounds like this was all your daughter.”