Chapter 12

E liza and Danisha lived in a white picket fence dream house in the Seattle Suburbs. From the outside, it looked exactly like the house in Marysville, Washington Jazz had grown up in, but she knew a lot more love existed in the four walls of Liam's moms' home. The first time she'd visited, she'd watched Liam interacting with his parents with ease and comfort, and wondered what that felt like. It wasn't jealousy, as much as resignation. She was happy for Liam, she just wished… It didn't matter what she wished. There was no point in thinking about something she couldn't change.

It had been Eliza's idea to start twice monthly Friday night family dinners, alternating between their house and Maggie and Cal's place. Though not technically family, Jazz had been included from the first dinner and, unlike her actual family's dinners, she rarely missed one.

Maggie pulled into their driveway and turned her car off. Jazz and Liam were sitting in the back seat, and Cal, sitting in the passenger's seat on a call with his parents back in Ireland, hadn't taken his hand off Maggie's thigh for even a second of the drive. His silver wedding bands, one on his ring finger, one on his pinky, stood out against Maggie's dark wash jeans, and Jazz watched as her best friend's gaze fell to Cal's hand. A smile curved her mouth, and she lifted his hand to her lips, kissing each ring in turn. Jazz looked away, undoing her seatbelt.

Liam reached across the middle seat, dragging a finger across the back of her hand. Jazz looked at Cal, but he was too focused on his call to pay them any attention.

"Are you coming over tonight?" Liam asked softly.

Jazz didn't think twice before nodding. "But I want you inside me tonight," she replied, just as quietly. Though she and Liam had spent three nights together since she'd almost made him come on her couch with her mouth, he was holding back. He'd had his mouth on her, his tongue and fingers inside her, bringing her right to the edge and stopping before she could even consider stepping off. Because even if she could—which she couldn't—she wasn't allowed to come.

" We're taking it slow. I've got a plan, darling, " he said, whenever she glared at him. It was killing her.

Liam shook his head, a wicked smile on his face. God, she wanted to lick his dimples. "Not tonight. I've got plans tonight."

"I hate your plans," she grumbled.

"I promise you'll like these."

His voice skittered over her spine, setting the butterflies that had taken up residence in her stomach aflutter.

"Let's go, you two," Maggie said, closing the car door behind her. Jazz hadn't even noticed Cal saying goodbye to his parents, let alone him and Maggie getting out of the car.

She shook herself, following Maggie. Her phone rang in her bag just as she reached down to grab it from the footwell. By the time she'd found it, rummaging around the messy depths, whoever was calling had been sent to voicemail.

Thank God , she thought as she finally pulled it out and read the notification on the screen:

Mom

Missed Call

Jazz shoved the phone back in her bag and followed Liam, Maggie, and Cal up Eliza and Danisha's picture perfect stone path to their front door. She'd call her mom back later. Or tomorrow.

But Lilia Cannon was nothing if not insistent, and before Jazz could even step onto the porch, her phone was ringing again. Three heads swiveled in her direction as she cursed, pulling her phone from her bag again.

"It's my mom. If I don't answer, she's just going to keep calling. I won't be long." Hopefully. She waved them on and, though Liam hesitated, the three of them disappeared through the open front door.

"Hey, Mom," she said, forcing the annoyance out of her voice. "Everything okay?"

"Everything's fine." Her mom sniffed through the phone. Fuck. Jazz could practically hear her frown down the line. "You know, Jazz, your brother follows Maggie's husband on Instagram. "

"Okay. That's…" Weird. "Nice."

"He's a very respected man," her mom chastised. Apparently her skepticism hadn't been as subtle as she'd hoped.

"Cal or Xander?"

"Both."

More confused than ever, Jazz rubbed her eyes before remembering, too late, that she was wearing eye makeup. Shit. "Right. Okay. I'm sorry, I don't really know what we're talking about here."

"What we're talking about is the fact that you have time to take pictures with Maggie's husband and attend her family dinners, but not ours. Your actual family."

Ah. She suddenly regretted teaching Cal how to use his Instagram story. "I'm sorry, Mom. It's just that Marysville is a longer drive and?—"

"That's not an excuse. Your brother and sister make it every month."

"We can't all be as perfect as Xan and Rose," Jazz replied without thinking.

Her mom was silent for a moment. "I'm not even going to justify that with a response," she said, finally. "Your dad and I expect to see you at dinner tomorrow night. Six o'clock at Reveres."

Jazz clenched her jaw. She had every intention of spending her Saturday night at Liam's apartment, somehow tricking him into watching her favorite reality show and then trying to make him come. The last thing she wanted to do was sit in a fancy restaurant while her parents laid out all the ways she'd disappointed them since she last showed face at a family dinner. Not that she cared. "Mom, I?—"

"No buts. And that's not all I wanted to talk to you about. Your dad was in Seattle for a colleague's retirement dinner last week and he ran into Robert Avery."

"Who?"

"His daughter is India Avery—India Heasman now, I suppose. I hear you attended her wedding. With your boyfriend ." Jazz winced. Shit. "When exactly were you going to tell us you were dating Maggie's stepson?"

She couldn't tell her mom the truth without getting a lecture on lying, so Jazz sighed and said, "I was going to tell you when I next saw you. I was waiting until things were more serious."

"I assume they're serious now, since you're going to weddings together."

She'd walked right into that one. "Yeah, I guess they are serious."

"And Maggie's okay with this?"

Why the hell would her mom even consider that she would go behind Maggie's back? Maggie was her person. She was Maggie's person. Best friends didn't fuck around like that. "Of course."

"And her husband is okay with it?"

"Of course." He'd been okay with the fake dating, at least.

"And do you love this boy?"

"Of course," Jazz repeated without really listening to the question. When she realized what her mom had asked, her heart skipped. Lying about love felt like a step too far .

"How on earth can you love someone your family hasn't even met, Jazz? I'm so disappointed in you." Her mom was disappointed in her? What a shocking twist of events! Jazz could hardly believe it.

Jesus . Last time they'd spoken, her mom had been begging her to settle down. "Xan and Rose met him at Maggie's wedding." Her parents had been on a month-long vacation to the Caribbean and hadn't been home in time for the wedding. Such a shame.

Her mom tutted. "You'll bring him tomorrow."

Absolutely not. "I'll ask him, but?—"

"Tomorrow, Jazz. Six o'clock. I'll see you both there." Her mom hung up the phone before she could answer and Jazz clenched a fist around it.

"That escalated quickly," she muttered under her breath, stomping up the porch steps and taking a deep breath before heading into the house.

" I need you to do something for me."

Liam eyed her warily. "At my moms' house?"

Jazz peered around the living room to make sure no one was listening before answering. "It's not a sexual something."

"Oh. Then why are you looking at me all like," Liam gestured to her face, "that?"

"I think this is just my face."

Liam's expression softened. "It's a good face. "

How was she supposed to hold it together when he said shit like that? "Stop trying to butter me up. I'm trying to ask you for a favor." Liam gestured for her to go on. "Apparently my dad knows India's dad and now my parents think we're dating. And I might have made it sound like things were really serious between us on the phone, so now I need you to come to family dinner with me tomorrow to meet my parents."

"Is that all? Of course I'll come. I'm great with parents," Liam said, and while Jazz didn't doubt that was usually the case, she needed to prepare him for Alexander and Lilia Cannon.

"Not my parents," she warned.

"They can't be that bad."

Jazz turned toward where Maggie was sitting, listening to Eliza and Danisha bickering about their vegetable garden. "Maggie."

She looked up. "Yeah?"

"Tell Liam what my parents are like," she said, and Maggie frowned at the mere mention of them. "He's coming to family dinner tomorrow."

"God help you," Maggie said with a shudder. She leaned toward them. "They go around the table and make everyone talk about their biggest achievement from the past month. And if your achievement isn't good enough, they won't move on until you think of a better one. One time, in college, they grilled me for thirty minutes on why I got a B. And they're not even my parents."

"Wait, you got a B?" Liam looked more surprised about Maggie's imperfect GPA than Jazz's parents .

"Shut up. It was one B," Maggie growled, glaring at him. "You want to compare GPAs?"

Liam's eyes lit up with the challenge. "Let's do it."

"Children," Danisha admonished, as Maggie and Liam readied themselves to see who could one up the other.

"Please don't call them children," Cal begged. "It's already weird enough."

Liam and Maggie really did act like long-lost siblings, which was a little fucked up, given the actual dynamics of their family. But it was also hilarious. Traditional was overrated.

"You wouldn't win. It was her only B," Jazz told Liam. He frowned but didn't protest. "Either way, she's not exaggerating about my parents. They really are that bad."

Liam glanced between Maggie and Jazz in alarm. "What the hell is going on with parents in Marysville?"

"I thought you avoided dinners with your family?" Eliza asked, frowning.

"I do avoid them, but someone, and I'm not naming names—Cal—posted this on Instagram." She held up her phone, showing the room the selfie Cal had posted from the car with Liam and Jazz behind him, complete with cat-ear filter, and the caption dinner with the fam!

Maggie turned to her husband. "Dinner with the fam ? I love you, but you're too old to be saying that."

"Jazz told me to say it!"

"Jazz is also too old to be saying it," Maggie pointed out and Jazz glared at her. She was only thirty. Maggie needed to lighten up. "I still don't see how this led to you and Liam being roped into dinner with your family. Cal's Instagram is private."

"Apparently Xander follows him."

"Oh yeah, we talk all the time," Cal chimed in while Jazz stared at him open-mouthed. "What? We met at the wedding and we like the same books. Do we not like him? Because if you don't want me to talk to him, I won't," he told Jazz, his tone turning serious. "You're family, Jazz. He's just a man."

"Oh my God." Maggie hid her face in her hands, trying not to laugh. Liam didn't even try, and his moms just looked at each other, confused.

Jazz held a hand up. "Okay, I take full responsibility for teaching him that one. It's cool, Cal. My siblings are only a problem when my parents are involved."

She explained the rest of her conversation with her mom, leaving out the fact that she'd told her she was in love with Liam.

"I guess she's pissed off because I come to family dinner with you all, but not my real family."

"We are your real family," Eliza interjected. "You and Maggie are the daughters we never got to have."

"Again, let's not say things like that," Cal muttered under his breath, frowning at his ex-wife, who pointedly ignored him.

"You know, you and Liam could actually get together and make it official," Danisha said, her tone not entirely teasing.

"Oh, we have big plans for that," Liam joked .

Jazz nodded her agreement. " Big plans. Our wedding is going to blow yours out of the water." She nodded toward Maggie and Cal. "One word?—"

She and Liam exchanged a look and said, in perfect unison, "Clowns." They cracked up, doubling over, laughing, Liam's parents not far behind them, but when Jazz looked up, her best friend wasn't laughing.