Monday night dinner with the family is mandatory in mom’s house. If your ass isn’t dying or contagious, you better have a damn good excuse for missing the weekly family meal. Of course, what would Monday night be without watching football?

“So, Sebastian,” Nadine says with a falsely sweet smile on her face. Shit. “How’d the date go last night.” The room goes quiet and forks pause midair as everyone turns to look at me with questioning eyes, and Nadine shoots me an evil smile.

“Who was the girl?” Mom asks with excitement already spinning in her head. Fuck.

“Calm down Ma. It was a one-time blind date.” I look at Nadine and say through clench teeth, “And it’s never happening again.”

“Blind date? You actually agreed to that?” Neal is laughing, and I want to punch him in the throat. My cousins may be my best friends outside of Drake, but they are major pains in my ass.

“I’m surprised you didn’t get roped into her event. How’d you manage to escape it?”

“Because I’m smarter than you, asshole.” He replies.

“Language!” Aunt Kathy all but yells at her son, who is smart enough to look contrite. Though the gleam in his eye says, he has no remorse.

I send Nadine a glare and, in her eyes, I see the look her brother lacks for cussing at the table. She mouths ‘sorry’ and looks back at her plate, stirring her food around without eating another bite.

“Mom don’t go picking out wedding venues. It was the charity auction Nadine organized. I was one of the bachelors.” I take another bite of food and hope the conversation will end there. I should’ve known better.

“That’s great honey. So, how’d the date go? What did y’all do?”

I sigh and sit back in my seat. I need to deal with this carefully. I’ve got to be nice enough, so I don’t upset my mother and firm enough that I don’t give her false hope that there is more than one date to Nadine’s matchmaking.

“It went as expected. We met up for coffee to get a feel for one another, and then I took her parasailing on Drake’s boat. At the end of the night, I walked her to her car, and we said good night. There was nothing more to it.”

“By the way Nads,” I say trying to change the subject. “Who was the winner for my other donation?”

“I didn’t text you the name? I could’ve sworn I did.” She pulls her phone from her pocket and starts scrolling through her files. “Ah, one of my other bachelors bid on the tattoo. Dylan McBride, nice guy.”

“Ok. I’ll put it on the calendar at work, so I don’t forget.”

“I’ll text it to you as well. Thank you, Bas. I really appreciate what you did. You went above and beyond, unlike my brother.” She shot him a disgusted look.

“Guy’s got to work.” Neal shrugged, “Plus, I don’t date. Not even the bought and paid for kind.”

Aunt Kathy spews her tea, mom gasps in shock, and starts choking on the food she’d been chewing on. Nadine punches her brother in the arm, dad is patting mom on the back, and I join Neal in laughing our asses off.

“Thanks,” I mumble under my breath to my cousins. They both effectively take me out of the hot seat, because my “date” is forgotten.

After dinner, we all pile into the living room to watch football. Nadine must be a brat and root for the Eagles over our Redskins, but it makes for fun banter and taunting. Monday nights, I’ve learned aren’t something you take for granted. When I was overseas, I missed Monday nights.

“How’d Jaci do?” Nadine whispers to me, while everyone else is watching the game.

“She did fine, Nads. I think she enjoyed herself.”

She smirks, “I will find out tomorrow I’m sure.”

“What do you mean?” I turn to look at her.

She shrugs, “I’m having lunch with Kaiya and Jaci tomorrow at De Luca’s.”

“I didn’t realize you were that close.” I want to question her about Jaci’s past and who she is but doing that will lead to questions I’m not prepared to answer. Let alone thoughts I’m not willing to evaluate.

“I’m close to her sister because she does my hair, but I’ve gotten to know them both pretty well in the last six months. Though I’ve asked them both to go to clubs with me, Jaci always says no and Kaiya comes by herself.”

“Why?” I question.

“Honestly, I’m not sure. At first, I thought Jaci didn’t like hanging out with me, and that’s fine if that were the case, but anytime we go out to eat or see a movie, she will go. It is when we go dancing, she has work to do or just flat out says she isn’t up for it. I finally asked Kaiya about it one day. She told me that Jaci had a bad breakup a few years ago and she hasn’t rejoined the dating world.”

After last night, Jaci is ready to date again. I clench my fist and jaw wondering why the hell it bothers me so damn much.