Victoria and I had strategized how best to handle Family Dinner Night, but so far nothing was going how we’d predicted. For starters, it appeared all of her brothers knew our secret.

She’d filled me in on her conversation with Drew the morning of our parents’ wedding, and I’d told her about Alex’s “I’ll be watching” you speech just before their walk down the aisle, but Theo had been the wild card. Seemed like the only people who didn’t know Victoria and I were together were her mom and my dad.

At least now we could forget about a few of the rules we’d concocted for getting through the night with our secret intact. The one we still had to be careful of, however, was me not showing her any preferential treatment.

I pulled Victoria’s chair out, and as she sat, she glanced up at me and rolled her beautiful green eyes. I knew she thought this small act of chivalry was because I was in love with her, but the truth was, I would have pulled her chair out regardless. It was just good manners. My dad might not have set the best example for me growing up, but in this, he’d done well by me.

As we dug into plates piled high with gloppy, monochromatic turkey tetrazzini, the conversation flowed easily from subject to subject. Having attended a couple of these dinners already, Victoria had prepped me on what to expect. Even so, I’d anticipated the meal being more awkward. If The Brady Bunch had taught us anything, it was that combining two families was never an easy thing.

But as it stood, there were no long pauses except to accommodate people’s chewing, no side glances between the Witherspoon siblings that I could discern, and no talk about religion or politics. Which was a good thing since I had a sneaking suspicion my father had voted for Trump, while every member of Victoria’s family had actively campaigned for Clinton.

All in all, it was an enjoyable meal. Except for, you know, the actual food.

Which I nearly choked on when my dad set his utensils down and pushed a remarkably empty plate aside and mentioned my love life.

“It’s been awhile since you’ve brought a woman home, son. Not since Stacia, come to think of it.”

Alex’s head shot up, his eyes mistrustful and his hand fisted around his fork. In that moment, it looked remarkably like a deadly weapon. “Stacia?”

I shot my dad a quick look that I hoped he’d be able to interpret as SHUT THE FUCK UP OLD MAN. Alas, he didn’t.

“Richard’s ex-wife.”

Next to me, Victoria reached for her glass of water while simultaneously pounding on her chest with her free hand. Drew jumped up and started slapping her on her back, while across the table, Theo leaned back in his chair, his eyes darting between his sister and me. His lips turned down in a frown. “You were married?”

I glanced at Victoria, but she refused meet my eyes. I’d never meant to hide my marriage from her, but I hadn’t been in a rush to tell her about it either. For starters, it didn’t reflect well on me, and I hadn’t wanted to scare her off. Everything was so new between us, and while I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I loved her, the truth was, we didn’t actually know each other that well.

What I did know was that she fervently believed in happily-ever-after. Meanwhile, I’d long operated under the assumption that it was a farce Hollywood and romance authors routinely sold to naive women.

I knew better now, of course, but I didn’t think she’d see it that way. Not when I’d already failed at the whole marriage thing once already.

Bringing my gaze back around to her brother, I reached for my wine and took a deep swallow. The food might have been terrible, but Mrs. Witherspoon—scratch that, Mrs. Carstairs—knew her chardonnay. And I needed a lot of it to bolster my confidence during the coming inquisition.

But before I could answer Theo’s question, my dad chimed in again, completely unaware of the havoc he was causing. “For two years. Never liked the woman.”

Something inside of me snapped. I’d always known he didn’t care for Stacia—he’d done nothing to hide his distaste when I’d told him we were getting married, nor his glee when I’d confessed we were getting divorced—but he had a ton of nerve airing my dirty laundry. “Which I should be thankful for, since if you had liked Stacia, you might have married her instead of me. Although, that probably would have been for the best. Like Jenny before her, at least then she’d be your ex-wife instead of mine.”

“Who’s Jenny?” Alex barked, his eyes flashing.

To my surprise, it was Victoria who answered, her voice detached, as if she were reporting the facts of a story she was working on, and not discussing the moment I’d first learned about heartbreak. “She was David’s girlfriend in grad school.”

Alex’s jaw dropped open for a brief second, while Theo stared hard at my dad. “You stole your son’s girlfriend?”

My dad rolled his eyes. “You can’t steal someone.”  

Alex sat back and crossed his arm over his chest. “No, but you can be a good person and not go after your son’s fucking girlfriend.”

Roni gasped. “Language!”

“Fuck my language,” Alex growled, pushing back from the table and stalking out.

All around us, the room went silent. My dad appeared completely unruffled while Drew and Victoria looked shell-shocked. Across the table, Theo’s eyes were locked on his sister, his gaze probing.

After several charged seconds, Roni folded her napkin and set it next to her plate. She grabbed ahold of my father’s hand and looked at me, her gaze filled with sympathy. I got the impression that while I’d failed to fill her daughter in on my brief, tumultuous marriage, my father hadn’t skipped telling Roni about all of his.

“And how long ago was your divorce, David?”

Underneath the table, I set my hand on Victoria’s thigh, but she quickly scooted out of reach.

“Three years,” I answered, my voice cracking. I hoped it seemed as far in the past to her as it did to me.

Victoria pushed her chair back and set her napkin over her plate of uneaten food. “I’m going to go find Alex.”

I started to reach for her hand, but then stopped when her mother’s gaze landed on me. Her lips were flattened into a grimace and the look in her eyes was shrewd and assessing. My palm fell back down onto the table as Victoria speed walked out of the room in the direction her brother had just disappeared. I followed her with my eyes, but knew better than to go chasing after her. We’d have zero privacy if I did, and this was not a conversation we should have surrounded by her family. Or what was left of mine.

Drew dropped down into Victoria’s vacant seat and let out a long, theatrical sigh. “Since this seems to be the time for dramatic pronouncements, you should probably all know that I’m bisexual.” From the tightness in his shoulders and the clenching of his jaw, it was clear to me that he expected shock at best, or outrage at worst.

He got neither.

His mother smiled fondly. “You think we didn’t know that already, dear?”

“You did?” he gaped, pressing his palms to the table and leaning forward. He stared at Theo, who was nodding in agreement. “Did Victoria rat me out?” Drew’s eyes squinted into narrow slits.

Theo shook his head and his lips hitched to the side with a small smile. “I was at the House of Blues with a business partner a couple months back. So were you.”

“Shit.” Drew winced, then fell back in his seat. Running a shaking hand through his hair, he faced his mom. “How did you know?”

“I’ve always known,” she answered calmly.

Figuring this discussion required privacy, I moved to leave when Drew’s gaze darted to me and then flicked toward the door. “No, stay.”

I heard his message loud and clear. He didn’t want me chasing after his sister.

I nodded and settled back down in my chair.

Satisfied, he swung his eyes back to his mom. “How could you know when I didn’t even know myself?”

Roni’s face softened. “When you were a little boy, you went through a long phase where you were very fascinated with kissing. You frequently asked why boys couldn’t kiss other boys.”  

“I did?”

She nodded. “You did. And I used to tell you a boy could kiss anyone he wanted, provided the other person wanted him to. It was more important to me that you understood consent than it was who you might grow up and feel attraction toward.”

“Wow,” Drew breathed, his gaze fixed firmly on the table. Eventually, he raised his eyes back to Theo. “Does Alex know?”

“I imagine so,” Theo replied. “You know Alex. He notices everything.”

“Did Victoria tell you?”

“Why would Victoria have said anything David?” my dad asked.

Interesting.

Roni suspected Victoria had a crush on me, but apparently she hadn’t mentioned it to my dad. Maybe she’d chosen to remain silent on the topic lest the idea of their two children being together upset him. Not that I thought my dad would have cared. At this point in his life, if the scandal over marrying his son’s girlfriend hadn’t sullied his reputation, me falling in love with his wife’s daughter wasn’t going to be what did. If anything, the old man probably would have slapped me on the back and congratulated my fine taste in women.

Across from me, Theo gave a tiny, imperceptible shake of his head. It was so small that had I not been paying attention, I might have missed it. But like Drew before him, Theo’s message was clear. Now was not the time to spill mine and Victoria’s secret. Not that I had any intention of doing so.

Not, at least, until I could talk with her at length. There was a lot that needed to be said before we went public with our relationship. The most pertinent topic being whether or not we still had a one.

But first, I had to answer my dad’s question. My mind flashed through at least a dozen explanations, and I quickly discarded each and every one. None of them made a lick of sense. Inwardly, I began to panic.

But not Theo. “He and Victoria talk sometimes.”

Their mother’s eyes zeroed in on me, and if looks could kill, I’d have been a dead man. “They do?” Her words were like ice. I’d have been a dead, frozen man. A white walker, if you will.

Theo nodded. “You know how much Vic loves books. David’s been giving her recommendations on ones she might enjoy.”

“He has?” Drew and Roni asked at the same time. Drew’s voice was high, while Roni’s had dropped low. They each sounded incredulous, but for entirely different reasons.

Suddenly, I wondered just how much Drew knew about his sister and me, because clearly he didn’t think we spent our time discussing old books.

Thankfully, we had as we’d drifted off to sleep the night before. Victoria’s thirst for knowledge was another reason why I’d fallen for her.

“We’ve established she’s not a fan of Faulkner, but adores Zelda Fitzgerald and Edith Wharton.”

As Roni’s eyebrows slowly settled into a normal position and the angry crease in her forehead smoothed out, I realized my statement seemed to appease her. “That’s true,” she said. “Do you two discuss anything else?”

Aiming for nonchalant, I sat back in my chair, my elbow resting on Drew’s chair next to me. “Sure. We’ve swapped a few recipes, and I invited her to a talk at the University.”

“Which one?” Theo asked, leaning forward to study me more intently.

“The role of feminism in modern literature.”

He relaxed. “Did she tell you about that paper she wrote in college?”

I nodded. “Sure. That’s what I invited her in the first place. I thought she might like it.”

Theo craned his head toward the other room where we could hear Alex cursing. The oldest Witherspoon sibling’s eyes bounced back to me and he smiled. I couldn’t say why, but I got the impression I’d just passed a very important test.

One Witherspoon down, three to go.

Four, if you counted getting back on Victoria’s good side. And judging by the look on her face as she’d chased after Alex, I definitely had some groveling to do.