Fall Guy (A Youngblood Book) by Reinhardt, Liz (knowledgeable books to read TXT) 📕

My mother's face is openly disapproving, my father looks annoyed, Benelli is texting like crazy under the table, my guess filling Lala in on everything that's going down. Remy is pouring himself an extra glass of wine and not bothering to try and hide his chuckles, and Colt looks like he wants to get back to practicing football as soon as humanly possible.

"Why Mexico?" Ithaca demands.

"I think she loves being on the beach. And the real estate market is decent," Evan muses. "Also, my mom loves vacationing. And this is kind of like a permanent vacation." Her hand has a vice grip on mine.

"I hear that. My mother constantly says she needs a vacation after she takes a vacation with us." Ithaca jabs at her dinner with the tines of her fork.

Evan's laugh bubbles out politely, but her words rip at me. "Maybe that's why my mother didn't take me along."

"Ithaca." My mother finally swoops in with laser eyes and a set, hard mouth. "That's the end of your little question and answer session. Evan is a guest of your brother's, and we don't put our guests on the spot like that." She turns to Evan. "I apologize. Ithaca is…" She glances at my sister and grits out, "…a free spirit."

"She means a 'pain in the ass,'" I whisper. Evan bites back a smile.

"So, Benelli, speaking of vacations, you mentioned Lala might be coming with us on our trip to the Cayman Islands this fall?" my mother asks, taking a delicate bite of her pumpernickel bread.

I grimace and shoot a look at my plate I don't dare direct at my mother, no matter how much I want to. Evan sits a little straighter at my side.

Even Benelli looks a tiny bit shocked that my mom would play her hand so obviously. I guess she's more threatened by Evan than I initially thought.

"Yeah. Her family was thinking of doing Bermuda right around the same time, but we thought it would be more fun if we had each other for company." Benelli lays her phone aside for a minute and throws me a pleading glance, I guess hoping that I'm not pissed about her and Lala taking their schemes to whole new levels.

Mama purposefully keeps her eyes off of Evan, as if she's not sitting next to me. "Well, that's just silly. We've all been friends for so long, it's like our families are married in. I'll give her mother a call and see if we can't all arrange something. What do you think, Tobar? Maybe we could rent a villa for the adults, and keep the kids in another one. They could have some privacy, we could have some privacy." She nudges his arm, and he gives her a distracted look.

"Whatever you think, love. I have some big shipments coming in right around then, so I may need to fly down later." He rubs the back of his neck and up through his thinning, graying hair.

My mother never disagrees openly with my father, but she offers a quiet, "It's our one vacation together all year, Tobar. I understand that work is important, but family always needs to come first."

The words are in answer to my father's statement, but her dark blue eyes bore into me when she says it.

"Family vacations are wonderful, Jazmin, but we need money to afford them, and that's where the boys and I come in." He takes her hand and rubs it.

She looks at him, her face twisted with shock. "You and the boys? Tobar! The children have never missed a vacation."

My father tucks a huge, scarred hand on the side of her face, rubbing his thumb on her cheekbone, his fingers loosening little pieces of her dark hair from her bun.

"The children are grown men, love. When I was Remy's age, we already had two kids and Benelli on the way. I was working on getting us a second mortgage and opening the Florida branch of our demolition company. It's time you stopped treating them like children."

It's a gentle scold, but I'm shocked my father brought it up with Evan at the table. My mother's blue eyes flash at him.

"My sons will always be their mother's children."

My father is a wise guy. He knows better than to push any more buttons. "Let's save this conversation for when it's closer to our vacation time. You make the reservations, and the guys and I will work hard to see that it all goes according to your plan, okay?"

Mama nods, but takes an extra-long gulp of her wine. Colt finally can't stand another second of this tense, stomach-curling dinner away from his beloved football.

"Mama, Pop, may I please be excused?" he pleads. "Coach went through a few new plays he wants me to practice."

"Dinner is dinner," Mama objects. "You spend too much time with football. By the time your brothers were your age, they were working for your father."

Colt nods to his plate, working hard to keep the aggravated scowl off his face.

"Yes, ma'am," he murmurs.

Luckily, Colt doesn't have to wait too long before we run out of awkward, stupid, griping things to talk about and dinner is over. Evan attempts to help clear the table, but Mama and Benelli shoo her away in a move that's less 'you're our guest' and more 'you don't belong in our kitchen.'

I seethe on Evan's behalf. I love my family, would lay down my life for them, but they're doing their best to deliver a clear cold-shoulder that will make Evan feel pushed right out of our world.

Which is good. I should be glad. She doesn't belong with all this insanity anyway.

So why am I feeling so panicked that this dinner, which I knew would be all kinds of catastrophic, wound up being so quietly catastrophic beyond even my expectations?

Evan 10

I feel like an imposter. Wearing this sweet dress that isn't mine and isn't me, sitting at the big cherry table and keeping