He leans back into the couch and starts to read, continuing to ignore my presence. I take a couple more pictures before settling beside him on the couch. I lean my head on his shoulder as he reads.
I’ve never been a big reader, and that was something that shocked me about Jace—that he always has a book to read.
“We better go,” I warn him, when I realize that time’s ticking away and we should’ve left ten minutes ago. We’ll be late to the restaurant—we’re usually the late ones of the group, so it’s probably not much of a shocker to everyone else.
Jace looks at the clock and reluctantly sets his book down. He grabs his coat and I do the same.
Outside it’s windy enough that long-fallen snow swirls through the air.
Jace and I head to his truck. My poor car only gets taken out when I go to class and to work if the weather is bad enough that I can’t walk.
The restaurant where we’re meeting is a nicer Italian restaurant on the other side of town, closer to where they live.
I turn the radio up and sing along as we ride. My singing voice is nowhere near as good as Jace’s but he doesn’t complain.
When we arrive at the restaurant the place is packed and it takes us a moment to find an empty space. It ends up being kind of far from the restaurant so I’ll probably turn into a popsicle before we get inside.
“Ready?” Jace asks me, shutting off the truck.
I nod, gathering my coat around me.
We make a dash for the building, hurrying to get out of the blistering cold wind.
Jace takes my hand and says to the hostesses, “Hey, we’re meeting the Montgomery party.”
She smiles. “Right this way—they’re all already here.”
“Of course they are,” I grumble.
Jace chuckles and squeezes my hand.
She leads us to a table that’s in its own separate room. I’m surprised to find that not only are all our friends there, but so is Cade and Thea’s mom, and Rae’s parents.”
Jace and I take the two empty seats across from each other—so I end up beside Thea and he’s beside Xander.
“What’s going on?” I ask Thea under my breath. “Why are the parents here?”
“I don’t know.” Thea dances in her seat. “I think I know, but I don’t know.”
I roll my eyes. “Because that’s not vague or anything.”
I pick up the menu and scan the items. I wasn’t feeling hungry, but suddenly I feel like I’m starving.
“What are you getting?” Jace asks.
“I don’t know.” I flip the pages of the menu. “Maybe lasagna, that’s always good.”
He nods. “Lasagna sounds good.”
The waiter comes and we all place our drink order. It’s a large group, so it feels like it takes forever for him to get that information.
I look at the menu for a few more minutes before deciding to just go with the lasagna since it’s the safest choice.
I set the menu aside and glance at Thea.
She looks dreamily at Xander while he peruses the menu so I bump her with my elbow.
“What?” She blinks at me. “What’d I do?”