We drove to the theater in silence. I rehearsed sophisticated-sounding things to say to his brother and sister. When we arrived, seating hadn’t begun yet, so Colin got us drinks from the bar. Turned out rich people liked to get drunk too. Same beer, triple the price. None of the cocktail tables had any chairs, so we found an empty one to stand around. As soon as we’d settled, Colin got a call on his cell. He stepped off to the side, just out of earshot, but not so far that I couldn’t hear his voice rise. I still couldn’t make out his words, but I felt his anger. One word slipped through a few times: “No.”
Colin returned to the table, frustration seeping through his stoic mask.
“Who was that?” I asked.
“My brother.”
I tensed. He and his hold on Colin were still a sore subject for me, but I knew I had to make nice. “He’s on his way?”
Colin shook his head. “He doesn’t like crowds. We’ll stop by his house after.”
We drank. My mind scrambled desperately for a topic but came up empty. The solemnity was unnatural for me, and the more desperate I became for a topic, the more inappropriate the suggestions in my mind became. Finally the tension got to be too much, and I burst out, “I’ve never been to a ballet before. It’s weird walking on carpet in high heels.”
He said nothing.
“You’ve been before…right?” I asked.
“Just to see Rose.” His sister.
“I’m worried I’ll do something stupid.”
“You won’t,” he said.
I bit my lip. “We got a book about the ballet from the library. I promised to tell Bailey all about the real thing later.”
We fell into silence, with my lame words echoing in my head.
Then Colin said, “One day we’ll bring her with us.”
I curled against his side in answer, my chest feeling too full. The awkwardness fell away, and everything was perfect again.
Chapter Seventeen
I hadn’t realized exactly how long ballets were. Angelina the ballet-dancing rat from Bailey’s books left something to be desired in her descriptions. Okay, so I hadn’t really known what to expect, but too many people dancing in repetitive swirls for two and a half hours wasn’t it. Colin’s brother had the right idea after all. Crowds, my ass.
After the curtains closed, we waited backstage.
“Your sister looked really great,” I said.
Colin nodded. He’d pointed her out to me, though I had no idea how he’d been able to tell her apart.
A beautiful woman with stark black hair, dark eyes, and a stunning smile emerged from the crowd.
Colin gave her a brief hug. “You were great.”
So this was Rose. She looked glamorous, almost ethereal, and I felt incredibly awkward. “That was beautiful,” I said. “You looked great.”
Rose smiled at me with open curiosity and appraisal in her eyes. “Thank you. Colin told me about you. I’m glad to finally meet you.”
“Thanks. You too.” Though that wasn’t entirely true. Colin hadn’t told me much of anything about her. I only hoped she didn’t ask for specifics.
“You have a…baby, don’t you?”
“Yes.” I couldn’t get a read on the undercurrent, whether it was the standard weirdness about my obvious age or whether she didn’t want her brother dating someone with a child. “A girl. She’s twenty months.”
“Where’s her father?” Rose asked. I knew she didn’t mean where he was physically. She meant, where was he while me and my child were freeloading off her brother.
“Rose,” Colin warned.
I put my hand on his arm. “It’s a fair question, but it’s kind of a long story.” A long story, starting with “No” and ending with a plus sign on a stick.
“I see.” Rose glanced at Colin’s glowering face—not that she looked particularly cowed—before shrugging. “Just looking out for my little brother.”
I blinked, then looked over and up at her little brother, all five feet ten inches and one hundred and eighty pounds of him.
“Stop,” he said. I could feel his tension under my hand.
Crap, starting a fight between them was the last thing I needed to do tonight. I didn’t need him to take offense for me, not for this. “It’s okay,” I said to Colin.
He glanced down at me and then, with a deep breath, visibly relaxed.
Rose’s eyebrows rose as she watched our interactions. “You know,” she said. “I just might end up liking you after all.”
It was hardly the ringing endorsement I’d hoped for at the beginning of the night. But then again, it was better than how things could have gone, considering how she’d been gunning for me at the start.
Once we made our good-byes, I was ready to drag Colin out of there. But he was even more eager than I, his long strides pulling ahead of my hurried steps. Once we were back in the comfort of his truck, I sank into the faded fabric of the seats, soft in a way that can only come from wear, and breathed a sigh of relief.