Kye reaches beneath the table and gives my knee a gentle squeeze. I offer a lame half-smile and push some chicken around my plate.
“So, Sofie.” Diane cuts through the silence with her happy tone. “Where you been, darlin’?”
Cuts the silence, not the awkwardness.
“Oh. Charlotte,” I answer, making sure Mila has a bite on her spoon now that it’s cooled. “I rented a small apartment on the outskirts of the city.”
“That’s lovely! And still so close.”
“I didn’t want to be too far from Dad because of his treatment.”
“Absolutely.” She nods. “And here some gossips were saying you were in a Mexican prison for being a drug mule.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Really? How did they even get there?”
Tate grins across the table.
“That was you?” Leila shrieks. “What the hell!”
“Chill, Lei!” he says, laughing. “I thought I’d add something funny into it. All it takes is a text message from a blocked number to Nina and everyone knows.”
I cover my hand with my mouth and laugh into it. “And she thought it was serious?”
“Of course she did,” Aidan interrupts. “She thinks Tate is serious every time he calls her.”
“Can we refrain from discussing Tate’s extracurricular activities around the table?” Phil asks, although it’s obvious he’s amused, too.
“Yeah, Aidan, we’re trying to eat here!” Leila adds.
“Okay, seriously, what other rumors went around?” I ask.
“Hmm, let’s think,” Aidan answers. “You were kidnapped for an elusive uncle’s debt and sold to the mafia in Vegas.”
“You ran away to be a porn star.” Tate.
“You went to save the rhinos in Africa.” Kye.
“You went to adopt a Thai baby and decided to stay there.” Leila.
I put my fork down and frown. “How do people even think up these? Tate? Any idea?”
“Hey, mine was just for shi—hiz and giggles,” he corrects himself. “These guys were deadly fu—froggin’ serious.”
“Blows my mind.”
“Mine, too.” Conner finally rejoins the conversation. “Because they also guessed you ran away because you were pregnant. They just didn’t guess the baby was mine.”
I shift uncomfortably in my seat and take a sip of my water.
“Jerk,” Leila mutters.
Conner opens his mouth, but his mom stands. “Who wants more pie?”
Conner’s sitting on the sand with Mila, and I’m on the porch steps, watching them play together in the waning light. It’s a magical sight, even if I am really annoyed by his unnecessary input at the end of dinner.
Yeah, he’s pissed. I get it.
But did he really need to make a fool of me in front of his family?
“Asshole move,” Kye breathes, sitting next to me.
“Kind of justified, kind of not,” I reply, picking at some lint on my jeans.
“Kind of justified?” he repeats. “If he was saying it in private, then yeah, okay. But not in front of fuckin’ everyone. It’s not like you waltzed in here and announced to us you had his baby.”
“I didn’t exactly tell him, either, though. He forced it out of me.”
“Yeah, he’s racking up the asshole points this week.” He snorts. “You can thank Tate for that, by the way.”
“I already figured that much out for myself, to be honest. He’s usually putting the ass in ‘asshole.’ ”
“Sof, he is the ‘ass’ in ‘asshole.’ ”
He has a point there.
“He’s good with her, huh?” Kye nudges my arm.
“Yeah. She adores him.” I keep picking at my jeans. “Makes it easy.”
“What you gonna do, girl?”
“She’s his. You guys have three weeks before you go back on tour. I’m not gonna stop him from doin’ anything he wants to with her.”
He laughs. “Nice. I meant about you two. He looked like he was ready to turn my dick inside out at dinner.”
I rest the side of my head against the post next to me and smile, looking out at the beach. “Nothin’, Kye. There is no me and Conner anymore. It doesn’t matter if we still have feelings for each other because there’s too much history there. We’ll never get past the fact I kept her from him. It’ll always be the thorn in our sides.”
“Why’d you do it?” He shakes his head when I go to tell him what I already told Conner. “And I don’t mean that crock of shit. I mean the real damn reason.”
“That is the real reason, and if there’s any more, it’s my business.” I chew the inside of my lip. “I explained what I had to, and that’s the end of it.”
“Okay,” he replies, drawing the word out. “I’ll believe it. For now.”
I shoot a glare at him and he throws me back a cocky smile. Typical Burke boy.
“Shoot. What’s the time?” I ask, digging my phone from my pocket. “I need to get Mila to bed. Conner!” I yell down to the beach.
He doesn’t even look up. Shit. I dial his number, and when he answers, I say, “Mila needs to go to bed.”
“She said no,” he responds.
“And I’m saying yes,” I say tightly. “It’s time for her to go to bed.”
“All right, all right. I’ll bring her back up.”
“You do that.” I hang up and shove the phone in my pocket.
“Wow, that was tense.”
I look up at Tate in the doorway and give him my sweetest smile, a smile I reserve especially for his brand of douchebag. “Really? You don’t say.”
I shove past him and grab Mila’s bag from the dining room. After making sure she has everything, I hook it over the stroller. Conner’s back on the deck with her and he straps her in.
“Sand tomorrow, okay?” he bargains with her. “All day?”
Mila pouts but nods.
Great. That’s the summer accounted for.
I say good-bye to everyone, and Mila gets smothered in kisses, much to her delight. She hugs Bunna tight to her chest, and Conner lifts the front of the stroller to get it down the steps. I wave over my shoulder at Kye and push her toward the woods to take the shortcut home.
“Here.” Conner grabs the handles.
“No. I’m fine.” I nudge him out the way.