Getting Schooled (The Wright Brothers #1)(47)

If nothing else, I’d see Jason there.



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At 7:28, my mother and I headed up the front steps of a gorgeous two-story brick home. I was nervous like I was the one meeting my man’s family.

Wait…

Technically… I was.

The door swung open, and there was Joseph on the other side, just as salt-and-pepper handsome as I remembered. He pulled my mother into a hug once we were inside, and she just melted, practically purring as he placed a soft kiss against her lips.

I watched them in awe, because they were obviously in love. And I wasn’t the only one entertained – two tall-and-fines were standing at the other side of the living room, watching, amused. It didn’t take much to deduce that these were Jason’s brothers. Mama and Joseph separated themselves long enough to run through introductions.

All of the men shared similar deep brown complexions, with different features. Justin was the spitting image of his father, and Joseph favored, but had the same nose and brow shape as Jason, which must have come from their mother. I assumed Jason looked most like her, judging from the other men in his family.

A gorgeous little girl came bouncing across the room, with smooth deep brown skin and a head full of thick black curls pulled into two puffs on top of her head. “I’m Brielle,” she chimed, showing off deep dimples as she smiled. She was introduced to my mother, who she declared to look like a queen, which tickled mama. Brielle turned to me, with her big brown eyes wide. “You’re pretty!”

“Well thank you,” I smiled. “And so are you! I like your dress.”

“Thank you. You wanna see my hexbugs?”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Umm… sure? If it’s okay with your father.” I glanced up at Justin, who shrugged.

“Fine with me. Take it easy on her please Bri.”

“Okaaaay daddy!” Brielle grabbed me by the hand and led me over to a kid-sized table set up in the corner. I kneeled beside her as she showed me a set of tiny robotic bugs, contained by a maze of tubes. I watched as she disassembled and then reassembled the maze with different paths, then started it up, giggling as the “hex bugs” ran through it, bumping and flipping and climbing over each other as they went.

“Did your uncle Jason get these for you?” I asked, and she turned to me with a big smile, and nodded. I smiled back. Of course he’d given her an engineering and robotics toy, nurturing her brain with science instead of just the typical dolls.

A few seconds after that, there was an influx of action as someone else came to the door. Jason’s voice was soothing to my ears, as I heard him apologize to his father for running behind. I turned around just in time to see the shocked expression on his face as Joseph “introduced” him to my mother.

“My professor, Pops? Really?” he asked, but seemed to be unbothered by it. They laughed through the introduction, and Jason expressed his surprise, but approval. And then he looked around, and his eyes fell on me and went wide. I pushed myself up from the floor, and stood.

“Hey Jason.”

“Reese… hey.”

Our eyes connected, and I could tell he was wondering if I knew before now. I gave him a subtle nod, and he frowned a little, then looked away. Suddenly, I felt almost… guilty.

Maybe I should have said something.

I didn’t have time to think about it too hard before we were being ushered into the dining room, seated, and food was being passed around.

Of course I ended up seated next to Jason.

Everybody was talking, laughing, captivated as my mother explained how she and Joseph met. Jason’s brothers asked questions, engaged my mother, and I was happy for her that they seemed to genuinely like her. And I mean… why wouldn’t they? It was obviously that she was completely enamored with their father. But Jason was quiet, which I hadn’t expected.

Since nobody was paying attention to us anyway, I reached under the table to grab his fingers. He didn’t pull away, so I squeezed them, and he squeezed back, so I looked up at met his eyes. “Is everything okay?” I mouthed, and even though he gave me a subtle nod, his eyes said something a little different.

Squeezing my hand one more time, he leaned toward me, and quietly muttered, “We’ll talk.”

Could he be any more ominous?

From there, the dinner seemed to drag on forever, even though I was willing it to be over, and soon. Internally, I was freaking out, trying to figure out what exactly I’d already done wrong. When everyone was done eating, the party moved back into the kitchen for dessert, and that was when Jason chose to pull me aside, into a small room off the wall.

“Are you mad at me?” I asked, as soon as we were alone, looking up to meet his eyes.

He shook his head. “Nah, not mad. I just… why wouldn’t you tell me if you knew our parents were dating? I remember that day in the professor’s office, when you found out that he was my father. Why didn’t you just say something then?”

“I don’t know. I mean, you and I were talking, connecting… I was more interested in that than discussing our parents. And I didn’t think anything was going to come of me and you, so it didn’t seem like a big deal. And then from there, it just wasn’t on my mind. I didn’t find out about dinner tonight until right before.”

“And you couldn’t shoot me a text?”