Page 38 of The Curveball
She touches a spiral knot in the wood, voice hoarse. “Marti. She was very nice.”
All at once, the texts from Marti are starting to make a bit of sense. “Did you two talk about something? She sent me some weird text messages threatening my life. It’s cool if you did, she’s awesome, but you look nervous. And, again, my life was threatened.”
Wren lifts her gaze to me, eyes glassy. She looks so small. “Please don’t get mad.”
“At you? That’s physically impossible.”
Wren scoffs and hugs her middle again. “I didn’t know it was your family’s bakery. Then, I got this awful phone call from my dad, and he insinuated I was some gross plaything you were using. It’s offensive, you know?”
“Um, yeah. If anything, I’d be your plaything.”
“No.” She jabs a finger at me. “Don’t make me laugh. This is serious, and you’re going to hate me in a few seconds.”
“Even more impossible than getting mad at you.”
“Anyway, my dad is sort of difficult, and he was getting demanding about me coming to stay in his guest house where I can’t embarrass him since I’d be on his leash.”
I wrinkle my nose. I don’t know Wren’s dad, but I already don’t like how he makes her feel. “I’m sold on this arrangement here, Birdie. I’m not going to tell you what to do, but I hope you won’t go.”
“I’d rather sleep in the gutter than live under his thumb.” She huffs. “That’s the problem. I think I blurted it out to get him off my back, but your cousin was right behind me. I didn’t know.”
“What happened?”
Wren fidgets and tugs on the ends of her hair. “It’s possible both my dad and your cousin believe we’re, um, together. Dating, I mean.”
The second she finishes, Wren buries her face in her palms. A good thing. My head is taking too long unraveling what she just said, and I could use the pause.
I scrub my chin, take the “crying” cookie from the box, and stride over to Wren. Without a word, I mimic her stance against the edge of the counter and hold out the cookie.
Wren cracks her fingers, peeking out between her middle and ring finger. Her sage green eye drops to the treat, then back to me. Cautiously, her hands slide off her face. She’s skittish like a mouse about to scurry in front of a cat, but she takes the cookie out of my fingers.
We take slow bites, saying nothing.
“So.” I toss the final bite of my ‘no’ cookie into my mouth and wait to swallow before going on. “If I understand this right, my cousin now thinks I have a girlfriend in my house.”
“And my overbearing father, yes. Who, by the way, insists that I bring you to my stepsister’s birthday in two weeks, so he can see if we’re real. Because, and I quote, a man with an eight-figure salary doesn’t settle down with just anyone.”
Yeah, I’m not a huge fan of Wren’s dad. “Okay. Stepsister. Birthday. Got that stored away, but now I’m trying to wrap my head around the fact that my cousin has a huge mouth and believes I have a woman in my life that I haven’t told my family about. My loud, nosy, Irish-Italian family.”
Wren’s face turns a deep red. She closes her eyes and nods. “Yes, and, uh, she wanted me to tell you that the family knows. I can only assume she’s going to spread the word.”
“Oh, if she hasn’t by now, I’ll pass out from shock.”
Another ten seconds of thick silence fills the space between us.
Wren drags in a quivering breath and turns to me. “I’m sorry. I never should’ve let him get to me. I wanted to make your day a little better since I heard people think you were drunk.” Wren winces. “I only made it worse.”
I’ve never seen her so despondent. She keeps curling away like I might smack her in the face any second, and I’m pretty sure I hate everything about that sort of body language.
Instead, I plan to cling onto the truth that this woman claimed me as her boyfriend. She claimed herself as my girlfriend. Mine.
I’m not sure I’m getting out of this kitchen without kissing that mouth.
“Griffin,” Wren whispers. “Will you please say something? I can’t stand this silent treatment. Unless you’re going to yell, then I’d rather you stay silent.”
I arch a brow. “Birdie, if I ever yell at you, then you have my permission to sock me in the mouth.”
She blinks, as if stunned, and I swear her chin quivers.