Here's to Us(What If It's Us #2)(14)

Mikey looks amused. Also, vaguely alarmed.

“Hi, Author,” says Mia. Mikey murmurs something into her ear, and she looks back up at me. “Arrrrrrrthurrrrrr,” she adds, enunciating her r’s like a pirate and earning a fist bump from Uncle Mikey.

He’s so good with her. When I met Mia in person on New Year’s, she was too shy to speak to me. But Mikey never pressured her—he just held her and let her bury her face in his shirt while we talked. It made me melt. I couldn’t stop staring at him all night, couldn’t stop thinking about kissing him, even in front of his family.

It’s strange knowing I could be with them in Boston right now, living out this domestic-fantasy summer with my unbearably sweet boyfriend. If I think too hard about it, it aches a little. Maybe more than a little.

I swallow it back. “Mia! How old are you now?”

She mutters something shyly, too soft for me to hear.

“Sixteen?” I ask.

She giggles. “No!”

“Seventeen?”

“No!” Mia looks incredulously at Mikey before turning back to me. Mikey holds up four fingers behind her back.

“Okay, okay,” I say. “Hmm. Are you . . . four?”

“And a half!”

Mikey makes an oops face and shrugs.

“Of course!” I smack my forehead. “Wow. I miss you. How are you guys?”

Mikey pauses. “We’re . . . okay.”

“Just okay?”

“Mimi, want to go find your dad?”

“No,” she says promptly. No bullshit, just a rock-solid nope. Because Mia McCowan Chen is an icon.

“Go find Daddy,” says Mikey. Mia scowls and disappears from the frame.

“What’s up? Did something happen at dinner?” I try to remember if anything was off about Mikey’s texts last night. It’s hard to tell with him—no matter how good I get at reading his face, he’s still so mysterious in writing. I meant to FaceTime him last night from Bubbe’s house, but Bubbe always makes such a big scene about dinner, and then Jessie got in from Providence and we stayed up half the night talking in my mom’s childhood bedroom.

“Dinner was fine.” Mikey rubs the bridge of his nose. “We found out this morning—my brother eloped.”

“Robert did what?” My jaw drops.

“And he told my parents via text message.”

“He did not.”

“He did!”

“Nope. That’s too much, even for Robbie.”

Mikey cracks the tiniest smile. He gets the biggest kick out of my iron-jaw memory for random personal details. I can tell you Ethan’s top five most cursed insects, Ben’s ex-boyfriend’s zodiac sign, you name it. I may not be able to get through a page of a book without having to reread every third paragraph, but at least I remember my second-grade teacher’s husband’s name. It’s my vaguely creepy superpower. But I’m starting to think it’s not such a bad skill to have. Mostly because my boyfriend’s big, loud, tight-knit family is his whole entire world, and I could basically write a book about every single one of them.

“My parents are freaking out,” Mikey says. “Laura’s been over there since ten, and apparently Mom hasn’t stopped crying. It’s a mess.”

“I thought your parents liked Amanda!”

“They do—”

“He didn’t run off with some other girl, right? Or guy?” I gasp. “Did Robert marry a guy? That is—oh my God, that is the most epic way to come out. Why didn’t I think of it?”

“He’s straight,” Mikey says. “I mean, as far as I know. And everyone loves Amanda. They’re just upset about the elopement.”

“Is Amanda pregnant?”

Mikey shakes his head. “No, it’s just the whole wedding thing is really important to my parents, you know? They went all out for Laura and Josh—invited basically everyone they’d ever made eye contact with.” He pauses. “Which is probably why Robbie and Amanda bowed out.”

“Probably. Wow.” I shrug. “At least it’s kind of romantic. An elopement!”

“Well, Laura thinks they actually did it because of health insurance. Amanda just turned twenty-six—”

“Right. And she’s working freelance now. That makes total sense.”

“Literally how do you remember this stuff?” Mikey smiles for real. “You know you don’t have to keep tabs on my brother’s girlfriend’s job details, right?”

“Brother’s wife. She’s your sister-in-law now.”

Mikey looks momentarily taken aback. “Yeah.”

“So, not even a tiny wedding, huh?” I lean onto my pillows, holding the phone aloft. “No first kiss, no cake? Nothing?”

“They can still kiss and eat cake.”

“True. But. I don’t know. Aren’t you a little sad you don’t get to watch Robbie’s face when Amanda walks in? That’s what I’d do—”

“I know,” Mikey says. “You sent me that BuzzFeed list four times.”

“And I’m going to keep sending you grooms blown away by their beautiful brides until you actually start appreciating them.”

“Is that a threat?” He wrinkles his nose and smiles, one of my all-time favorite Mikey expressions. But a moment later, his face falls. “I can’t believe there’s already family drama. I’ve been home less than twenty-four hours.”