I tried to calm my nerves as Kyle led us back toward the hotel. I wasn’t ready to meet the rest of the family. If Kyle’s dad turned out to be anything like his brother I was in for it. I didn’t do well with jerks. It’s not that I couldn’t stand up for myself, it was actually the opposite. I was likely to say or do something really stupid. At least according to Kyle he wouldn’t be drunk.

“You okay?” Kyle held open the door to the hotel.

“I’m fine.” I was the one who’d agreed to this crazy idea. It was a bad time to be having doubts.

We walked toward the dining room silently. Neither of us was particularly excited about getting this dinner started.

“Kyle!” A bubbly girl bounded over as we neared the restaurant. Her long brown hair fell in waves the way mine never would. “You made it.”

“Hey, Dana.” Kyle gave her a hug. “This is Jade.”

“Hey, Jade. Nice to meet you.” She held out her hand. “My cousin never brings girls to things so consider yourself special.”

I accepted her handshake. “Oh, Kyle always makes me feel special.” I figured I might as well lay it on.

Dana laughed. “No getting too sappy on all of us this weekend. We aren’t all as happy in love like you two.”

“What happened to Bobby?” Kyle ran his thumb over my hand.

Dana sighed dramatically. “He’s history.”

“That’s too bad.”

“No it’s not, and you agree. You hated him.”

“Hate is a very strong word.” Kyle shifted uncomfortably.

“You strongly disliked him.”

“That’s better.” Kyle glanced at his watch. “Is everyone else inside already?”

“Probably. You know how the grandparents are.”

Grandparents? How had I forgotten that part?

“I’m glad I found you guys. I wouldn’t want to walk in alone. Grandma is going to get on my back about finding a man.”

“You’re so young.” Kyle had said she was twenty-five. What was with his family caring so much about people being single?

“Not to her.” Dana rolled her eyes.

“Let’s not get on her bad side by being late then.” Kyle let go of my hand and moved it to the small of my back as we walked into the dining room. The warmth of his hand penetrated the thin fabric of my dress and sent a jolt of excitement through me.

“Right over there.” Dana nodded to a big group at a table by the window.

I followed Kyle over with dread. Even if I was actually Kyle’s girlfriend this would be hard.

“Look who decided to show up.” Dylan announced our arrival while looking right at me. What was his problem? Was he trying to make me uncomfortable? When he winked I got my answer.

“Oh Kyle, is this her?” an older woman stood up.

“Yes, Grandma, this is Jade.”

My stomach fell. Was I really going to have to lie to this little old lady?

His grandmother broke into a grin. “It’s wonderful to finally meet you, honey.” She walked around the table, leaning heavily on her cane, and hugged me.

Finally? How long did everyone think we’d been together? We really should have discussed the back story more.

I took a deep breath and snapped out of it. “It’s wonderful to meet you.”

“Why don’t you take a seat, Jade?” Dylan pulled out an empty spot next to him. “Kyle, it looks like you’re down by Grandpa.”

I looked around. Dana had taken a seat by the grandmother. Couldn’t his family have at least saved us seats together?

Making a scene didn’t seem like the best option, so I accepted the offered seat. Kyle threw me an apologetic glance before taking his seat all the way on the other side of the table.

“Hello, Jade. I don’t believe we’ve met yet.” The man on my other side held out his hand. It had to be Kyle’s dad. He looked eerily like an older version of Dylan.

“Hi, Mr. Bradly. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Please, call me Steve.”

I nodded even though I had no intention of doing it.

“Did you know that Jade works for Kyle at the radio station?” Dylan asked his father. “I never imagined Kyle would have taken advantage of someone that way.”

“He didn’t take advantage of me.” I quickly jumped to Kyle’s defense. What was Dylan’s problem?

“There’s nothing wrong with a man dating someone who works for him. It’s only natural.”

“Is it, Dad? Is it natural for a man to do that?” Dylan leaned over me. “I guess you’d know wouldn’t you?”

“Wait, did Grace work for you before you got married?”

Dylan grinned, and I realized the trap I’d walked into.

Steve cleared his throat. “No. We met when we were still in college.”

“Then pray, tell us, what experience are you pulling your wisdom from?” Dylan reclined back into his chair.

“Dylan…” Steve glared at his son.

“Yes, Dad?”

I was not going to sit in the middle of a conversation of Dylan accusing his father of sleeping around. “So, Mr. Bradley, I heard you’re a Harrison alumni.” I needed to steer the conversation away from relationships.

“I am. Most of the family is.”

“That’s great. How do you think the university has changed since you were there?”

“Oh, there have been a lot of changes.”

I silently sighed with relief as Mr. Bradley went into a long discussion about the school. Hopefully that would buy me some time. I carefully avoided looking at Dylan. I wasn’t about to give him another opportunity to make things awkward for me.

After Steve finished describing his gripes with the new administration I picked up the menu. Hopefully giving him an opportunity to talk about something he wanted to talk about would save me from any more painful conversation.

It didn’t help with Dylan.

“You looking forward to getting in the water while you’re here?” He rested his elbow on the table next tom me.

“Sure. I like swimming.”

“Have you ever been skinny dipping?”

“Seriously? You’re going to go there?” My mouth fell open.

“I’m only making conversation.”

I ignored him and looked straight ahead. Engaging him more than absolutely necessary would only egg him on. I also carefully avoided Kyle’s eyes. I didn’t want him making a scene on my account. Things were awkward enough. I didn’t need him making them worse.

The waiter had just cleared away our dishes when Dana threw me a life line.

“Jade, want to run to the restroom with me?”

“Absolutely.” I practically jumped out of my chair.

She smiled and walked around the table. “We’ll be back in a few.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered as we walked away.

“It’s not your fault.”

“It’s still my family. They can be a lot to handle.”

“That’s putting it mildly.”

“That’s why I still can’t believe Kyle brought you. I’d have expected him to try to protect you more.”

“I don’t need protection.” I responded automatically, although after an hour or so next to Dylan I wasn’t so sure.

“You know what I mean.” She led us out of the dining room.

“I know, I think he just wanted to introduce me to everyone.” I was getting tired of defending Kyle. He hadn’t actually ditched me, but getting stuck on the opposite side of the table from him and forced to sit between his dad and Dylan wasn’t ideal. I’d barely managed to eat my dinner.

“You really like him, huh?” She pushed open the heavy wood door to the women’s restroom.

“Yes. I do.”

“You’re lucky Dylan graduated before you got there.”

“I’m beginning to realize that.” I left out the part about already knowing his awful reputation. There was no reason to go down that road.

“He has this tendency to always go after girls Kyle likes just because he can. I’m sure he assumes you’ll be as easy as the rest.”

I laughed dryly. “I wouldn’t touch him with a ten foot pole.” Then I belatedly realized I was talking about her cousin. “Sorry, forget I said that.”

“It’s ok. I totally get it, but most girls don’t. It’s like he has a magnet that pulls people in. Trust me, I’ve lost more than a few friends that way.”

“He hit on your friends?” I stopped before opening a stall.

“Hit on? That’s putting it politely. It’s pretty recent though. He was much better pre some messy break up he had. I think that girl had also been one Kyle liked.”

“You’re talking about Juliet?”

“Is she a friend of yours?”

“Yes, a good friend.”

“So you know all about Dylan then?”

“She doesn’t talk about him a lot. It’s more that she talks about how much nicer Kyle is.”

“It’s like night and day now.” She hesitated in front of a stall.

“You keep saying now. This really is new? I mean he treated Juliet pretty awful.”

“Not this bad. This whole drunk all the time, picking fights with everyone stuff is new. He used to be fun and charming actually. Not the kind of guy you’d set up with your girlfriends, but one who was nice to have around at family occasions, you know?”

“I know what you mean.” I knew people like that. They didn’t make great friends, but yet they were still fun to have at a party.

I stepped into the stall, expecting it to end the conversation. It didn’t.

“What do you guys have planned this week?” Dana talked through the wall of the stall.

“Uh, I’m not sure.” I quickly finished up and washed my hands. When I’m in the bathroom it’s for one reason, to go to the bathroom.

Dana joined me at the neighboring sink. “I’m sure Kyle has some romantic ideas up his sleeve.”

“Is Kyle usually the romantic type?” I figured digging around couldn’t hurt.

“Shouldn’t you know the answer to that?” She reached around me for a hand towel.

“I mean with other girls.”

“What other girls?”

“Come on, he’s had girlfriends. You said yourself that Dylan always stole them.”

“I said he always stole the girls Kyle liked. He went on dates with girls in high school I think, but I don’t think he ever had a serious girlfriend before you.”

“He did. He was dating Abby last year.” The brat had left him for his frat brother. He was better off without her, but I knew it was pretty hard on him.

“But they weren’t serious, at least I never heard about her.”

“I guess it’s all in how you define serious.”

“You guys are serious though, right?” She turned to look at me. “He wouldn’t have brought you otherwise.”

“His invitation surprised me at first.” That much was true.

“Surprised you, huh? Is he usually big on surprises?”

“Sometimes.”

“What’s he like?”

“Uh, haven’t you known him his whole life?”

“I mean how is he? I’ve heard some things about Dylan, and I wondered if it was a family trait.”

“I’ve heard those too.” My sorority big sister Mallory had shared the details of Dylan’s bedroom inadequacy over Juliet’s protests. If guys only knew what got discussed in a sorority house.

“And since you’re here I assume Kyle isn’t like that?”

“Kyle’s amazing at everything.” The words came far too easily.

“At everything?”

“Everything. He’s very imaginative. I never know what to expect.” If he could hear me now.

“Kyle?” She put a hand to her chest. “Interesting.”

“Doesn’t this weird you out? I mean he’s your cousin.”

“I don’t want more details… but, wait. Didn’t Kyle tell you what I do for a living?”

“No.” I was discovering more and more that Kyle had told me nothing.

“I’m a sex therapist.”

“Oh…” Yeah, probably a detail Kyle could have mentioned.

“So talking about it really doesn’t bother me.”

“I’d guess not.” I looked longingly at the door. “Should we head back? They might all be waiting for us.”

“Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable?”

“No. I talk about it on the air all the time.” But that was in a studio with headsets on. Talking about it face to face with the cousin of the guy I liked was very different. Besides, normally I wasn’t talking about my own sex life—or at least a make believe version of it.

“On the air?”

“On my radio show. It’s called Sleeping with the Band.”

“Clever name. Do you guys transmit online?”

“Kyle has it set up so that shows are archived online afterward.”

“Great, I’m going to check it out then.”

“Oh, great.” Wonderful. That’s all I needed. But then again she was a sex therapist. I assumed listening to my banter about what kinds of guys and girls band members liked wouldn’t phase her.

I was way more excited than I expected to be about returning to the dining room. I didn’t particularly want to deal with Dylan again, but was that much worse than describing my fake sex life to Kyle’s cousin?

“Welcome back.” Dylan smiled as I took my seat. The seat on my other side was empty. As was Kyle’s spot.

Dylan noticed the direction of my glance. “Dad and Kyle went out for a walk.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t sure what to think of it. I hoped Kyle’s dad wasn’t questioning him about me.

“We ordered dessert. Kyle and I argued about what you’d want. He thought for sure you’d want the sorbet.”

“And what did you think I’d want instead?”

“A chocolate torte. You strike me as a chocolate girl.”

“Kyle was right.” I put my napkin back on my lap.

“Really?” Dylan seemed legitimately surprised.

“Yes. Why does my dessert preference matter?”

“A girl’s choice of dessert says a lot about her.” He leered.

“Oh, this I have to hear.”

“A girl who likes rich chocolate is passionate. Wild.” He leaned in.

“And what about a girl who likes sorbet?”

“It means one of two things.”

“Which are?” I leaned away, but he only moved closer.

“Either she’s trying to resist her wild side, or she doesn’t know she has one.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Am I?”

“Yes.” I looked toward the window, but all I could see was darkness.

“Have you found your wild side, Jade, or do you need someone to help you?”

“I already have someone to help me with that. Have you forgotten I’m Kyle’s girlfriend?”

“I haven’t forgotten, but Kyle isn’t exactly the expert.”

“I beg to differ.” Once I started talking about our make believe sex life it got easier.

He raised an eyebrow. “I don’t believe it.”

“I don’t really care whether you do or not.”

“Of course you care.”

“Why would I care at all about what you think?”

“Because you’re searching for approval.”

“Am I now?”

“Yes. Why else would you be dating my brother? He’s older, has more money than you, and is your boss. It’s the approval and status you want.”

“Actually it’s just him.” I glanced up as Kyle returned to the table. “Kyle, I heard you ordered me dessert.”

“I did. Sorbet.”

“Thanks for remembering my favorite.” I smiled at him and ignored the huff from next to me. I had a new goal for the week, stay as far away from Dylan Bradly as possible.