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“Oh, quit whining. If you keep it up, I’m feeding you Mum’s leftover casserole.”
I physically recoil. “Is that a threat?”
“Damn right it is. Emilia, help us out here. You’ll drag him back, won’t you? We’re way cooler than he is.”
Emilia grins. “Why not?”
And there goes the last sliver of hope I had. I swear I feel my lifespan shrinking. “Are you absolutely sure about this, Em?” I ask again, desperate.
Her grin widens. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
The best that can happen is my mother’s casserole, and that’s saying something. I bite down a groan. “Fine. Get my room ready.”
“Already done!” Maya says brightly. “See you in an hour!” Then the line goes dead.
Emilia bursts into full–on laughter. Her eyes are still a little pink, but now she’s glowing.
“So the great Liam Calloway is a total softie for his siblings?”
“Shut it.”
She just laughs harder,
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EMILIA
–
I don’t start getting nervous until Liam and I pick up ice bags because, apparently, to the Calloways, they’re the equivalent of cake in normal households. (His words, not mine.) I don’t ask. I just nod like that makes sense and pretend I’m not already sweating through my shirt.
By the time we get to the car, my palms are so clammy I have to rub them on my thighs. Liam catches me and snorts.
“You’re the one who wanted to come,” he says. “You can’t back out now. You tossed your out the minute you said yes.”
“I didn’t think of it like that,” I mutter. Then something awful occurs to me. My stomach drops. “Wait. To them, our relationship is real.”
He hums, annoyingly casual. “Feels pretty real to me.”
“No, I mean – they think we’re actually dating. Not fake–dating. Oh my God.” I stare at him, horrified. “I’m the girlfriend. Meeting my boyfriend’s family.”
The words hang in the air like a death sentence. I clutch the ice bags like they’re emotional support bricks. Liam glances at me out of the corner of his eye, clearly trying not to laugh.
“You’ll be fine,” he says, infuriatingly calm as he pulls into the driveway. “They’re like raccoons with Wi–Fi. Loud, a little feral, but ultimately harmless if fed.”
“That’s… not comforting.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
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I spot movement through the curtains before we’ve even gotten out of the car.
“Oh my God,” I whisper. “They’re watching us. They’re waiting.”
“Of course they are,” Liam says. “We’re late.”
I whirl on him. “Liam.”
He’s halfway to unbuckling his seatbelt when I grab his arm. He pauses, glancing at me with that infuriatingly calm smile. “Mhm?”
“I just realised you actually have seven siblings. Not metaphorically. Not exaggerated. Seven. That’s cult numbers.”
He laughs under his breath, then turns fully toward me. “You’re panicking.”
“Understatement of the year.”
Liam studies me for a second – then sighs, leans over, and gently cups my face. He kisses me softly, right there in the car, like we’re the only people in the world and not being actively surveilled by an entire gene pool. I swear I hear a squeal from the house. I ignore it.
When he pulls back, he rests his forehead against mine.
“I’ll only say this once, okay?” he murmurs,
I nod, barely breathing.
“It’s not that deep. They’re not sane enough to take anything seriously. They once held a full–blown intervention because Seth became a vegan for three days.”
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“That… doesn’t help.”
He huffs a small laugh. “Look, even if it was a big deal, you’re kind of perfect. They’re gonna love you. And if they don’t – which won’t happen – it’s because their brains are held together with duct tape and whatever it is Mum puts in that porridge of hers.”
I smile, just a little.
“And just in case you need reinforcements – Veronica and Luka are your safest bets. And Lucille, sometimes, if she’s not plotting global domination with Eliza.”
I try to keep up with the names, but then give up. “Comforting.”
“You’ll be fine,” he says again. “They’re a mess, but they’re my mess. So I kind of hope that makes them yours too.”
The worst part?
That sounds dangerously like something I want.
BECCA
“Everything is perfect,” Darcy, my wedding planner, chirps through the speaker. I’ve got the phone wedged between my shoulder and ear as I wrestle with the key card to the suite. It takes three tries before the light finally turns green.
The moment I get the door open, I wave Tonia off with a tired smile – bless her, she’s been glued to my side all day – and kick the door shut behind me, letting the exhaustion finally settle in.
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