Chapter Three

The Road Trip To Milwaukee

November 12, 2022

Will could listen to Rihanna all day, especially if it meant he didn't have to talk to Becca who he still hadn't forgiven for getting him into this mess. Which was probably why he hadn't engaged in conversation for the first five hours of their drive to Milwaukee. The views didn't interest him—not that he could see much, thanks to the snow—and he was trying not to think about what awaited him when they arrived at the hotel.

I should have said no to this whole scheme.

I should have told her to call her mom and say we've broken up.

There were a lot of things Will should have done, but in the end, he'd kept his mouth shut.

Like she said, it's one weekend. I can be the perfect fiancé for one weekend. Well, not too perfect. There's gotta be a reason for our eventual break-up, right? Knowing Becca, she'd spin it so it was his fault. What do I care? After this fiasco is over, I'll never have to see any of her family ever again.

And speaking of family…

He stopped Rihanna mid-flow and removed his earbuds. "Want to tell me who's going to be at this shindig?"

Becca snorted. "Oh, so now we're talking?"

Will grinned. "I figure I'm gonna be having a lot of conversations when we get there, so I'm conserving my words. It's a well-known fact that males use fewer of them per day than females."

Becca indicated and pulled off the I-94, where a sign indicated the Lake Mills rest area. "We'll talk after I pee."

He chuckled. "TMI, but hey, I could go too." His stomach grumbled, and he decided to see what vending machines were available. A snack couldn't hurt. It would be hours before the party.

They got out of the car and headed toward the sand-colored building. Will was on autopilot, his mind churning now he had no music to lose himself in. He washed his hands in cold water, trying to remember how much Becca had told him about her family during the three years since they'd become friends. It came as a bit of a shock to realize how little he knew. Sure, he'd been told about her parents not being LGBTQ+-friendly, and he knew there was an older brother, but that was it.

She probably knows more about my family than I do about hers .

Will had really lucked out when it came to family.

He found the vending machines and grabbed two bags of chips, then walked with great care across the icy parking lot to the car, thankful he'd worn his thick coat and woolen hat. He smiled to himself as he gazed at his rainbow-colored gloves, his sister Emma's first attempt at knitting. They wouldn't win prizes, but they'd been made with love.

If I had hands shaped like these, I'd be worried.

Becca was already back behind the wheel. "We're almost there," she told him. "It's a straight run to East Wisconsin Avenue now." He fastened his seatbelt and she started the engine.

"What does your mom do at the hotel?"

"She works on the front desk. She's been there for years. She says the hotel has had its share of celebrities over the years: Mick Jagger, Robin Williams, Neil Diamond…"

Will ate a handful of chips to assuage his growling stomach. He pointed to the second bag on the central console. "Got those for you."

"Aw, thanks." Becca pulled back onto the I-94. "So you wanna know who's coming?" She huffed. "About every relative I possess, Mom and Dad's friends from college where they met, people they work with…"

"There's just you and Aiden, right?"

She nodded, her gaze locked on the road ahead. "But there are a ton of cousins. Mom is one of five kids, and Dad is one of four. Grandma Devlin will be there too—that's my mom's mom—and Granddad Taylor." She laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"You're going to get a lot of hugs tonight."

He smiled. "I can deal with that. I come from a family of huggers too."

"Mom says she's expecting about eighty people." Another grin. "And they will all want to meet you." Her phone buzzed and she glanced at it. Becca's face fell. "It's Kristen."

The fact she wasn't answering had alarm bells ringing.

"You did tell her, didn't you? About this whole plan?"

Becca jerked her head in his direction. "Are you crazy? If I did that, she'd cut off my… privileges. Besides, there's nothing to tell—or at least there won't be, once the weekend is over." She sighed. "She's pissed I haven't told my parents about us. I mean, we've been together a while now. And she asked if she could come home with me for Thanksgiving."

"I take it you said no." Will felt for Becca, he truly did. He couldn't conceive of not being out to his family. They were his biggest cheerleaders, and being the rainbow sheep of the family seemed like a blessed position.

Another sigh escaped her lips. "Yeah."

Will seized his courage. "Becca… you have to decide where you're going to go on this. What is more important to you—your future happiness with the girl you love, or keeping your folks happy and being miserable in the process?"

That earned him a glare. "Easy for you to say. You've never been in my situation. Hell, you've never been in love. Well, just you wait till someone walks into your life and turns it upside down."

Will snickered. "For that to happen, I'd need to actually go on a date. You know, meet people?"

She glanced at him. "What about the guys you play D & D with? Any likely candidates there?"

He guffawed. "God, no. You know my standards are flexible, but—"

That got him a derisive snort. "They're not flexible, you ass. You're a gay geek. That's why I was wondering about your D & D friends."

"Nope. Too nerdy, too…." He twirled his hand.

"Too what?" she demanded.

He sighed, as though it was painful for him to admit.

"They're too married."

Becca blinked. "How can they be ‘too married'? Is that even possible?"

"I've met each of the guys' husbands. They've sat in on games. Marco's likes to bake snickerdoodles for us, and Richie's has a seemingly endless supply of pizza snacks and root beer for when we're at their house. No dick is worth giving those things up. Besides, they love their husbands, and I love them."

"So what's your type?"

He thought about it for a moment. "I like gingers."

She smirked. "Like me?"

"Similar." He flashed her a hopefully evil grin. "But not quite as butch."

Becca gave him the finger, chuckling. "Oh really? So how come you've never mentioned that before?"

"Because you tell people you like gingers, and they look at you funny."

"Not me." Becca twisted a strand of hair around her fingers. "In fact, you're gonna be in a ballroom full of 'em tonight." She narrowed her gaze. "And if a guy catches your eye, just remember one thing—you're there as my fiancé, okay? If I see you asking some cute server for his number, I'll—"

"You'll what?" he retorted. "Break off our engagement? Sounds to me like the perfect scenario. We wouldn't even have to wait until after the weekend."

Becca arched her eyebrows. "And if that happened, care to guess where you'd be sleeping tonight? Because remember, you're broke, and my mom won't spring for your room at the hotel if you crush her baby's heart. So don't go thinking with your dick, and remember— I'm the love of your life."

The thought of spending a whole evening acting like some lovesick puppy was starting to turn his stomach.

"Tell me about your parents. What should I expect?" Forewarned was forearmed, right?

"Watch out for my dad."

"Why? Does he maim your would-be boyfriends?"

"No, he's the joker of the family. He's forever pranking us, even when we were little."

"What kind of pranks?"

"Okay, I think you're gonna be safe from his main line in pranks, because we're in a hotel. Dad loves the old trick poop. When I was about five, I remember going into the bathroom and seeing this little brown log on the toilet seat."

"What did you do?" Will asked with a smile.

"I ran out of there screaming, of course. Only, I screamed louder when Dad came in, picked it up with his bare hand—and took a bite off of it." She rolled her eyes. "Chocolate poop. What kind of sick mind invents stuff like that?" Another chuckle. "Probably someone just like my dad. There was that one time he smeared Nutella on a pair of Aiden's briefs and confronted him about them at dinner. That was a whole different type of shit show, lemme tell you. Aiden started having a meltdown at the table. We're talking huge tears with him gulping for air and swearing he didn't do it. Mom glared at Dad, and he relented." She shook her head. "Aiden is still a little hurt over it, even after all these years."

"Did the pranks stop?"

"Lord no. There was the time he told us he'd baked a cake. It had white frosting on it, with blue frosting piped around the edge."

"It wasn't cake, was it?" he guessed.

"No, it was meatloaf covered in potatoes!" She laughed. "You'd think after that episode we'd be wary of anything Dad claimed to have made, but noooo , we fell for it again. Next time he presented us with this round cake covered in cool whip. Except when Aide tried to cut it—at Dad's insistence—it exploded. It was a balloon. There was whip everywhere . Mom was so pissed."

"Has she ever tried to get her own back?"

"No, even though Dad told her it would be totally okay to prank him." She chuckled. "Don't get me started on the chocolate parfait gag."

"I dread to think."

Becca was grinning again. "Aiden caught the worst of it that time. It wasn't cream on the top—it was Crisco. And then one time Dad put food coloring in our cereal, and the milk turned green."

"Your dad sounds like a fun kinda guy."

Her smile grew fond. "Yeah, he is. Mom's more straitlaced. But you know what? I have a feeling that if she ever decided to cut loose, she'd surpass him."

"Did you say Aiden is a teacher?"

She nodded. "He always wanted to do that. He studied physics at college, then did his student teaching program. He teaches science to grades 9 to 12 at Veritas High School. I think he's finding it tough—he's in his first semester there—but he'll stick it out. That's the kind of guy he is."

"Is he dating?"

"I don't know, and I don't ask. We don't talk much about personal stuff. He bawled me out because he had to hear about you from Mom, not me."

"So does he know about Kristen?"

" No one knows about her, all right? And I want it to stay that way." She fell silent.

"Hey." Will touched her lightly on the arm. "You okay?"

She gave him a warm smile. "In case I forget… Thanks for doing this. I owe you, big time."

"Don't worry. I'm not going to forget this."

He was still ruminating on how he was going to get his revenge.

"Except maybe I also need to apologize now," she added.

"For what? Dragging my ass into this mess?"

"No, for pulling you into the craziness of my family. I love them, sure, but sometimes they're just so… random, in a weird kinda way."

Tall buildings of concrete and glass rose ahead of them as they drove toward the hotel, and Will's stomach clenched.

Too late to back out now.