Back to Square One

“Mom! I don’t want another fucking blind date!” I yelled at my phone once I got in my car after the meeting.

“Come on. You’re not with Hazelyn. You’re just wasting your time!” she argued with me.

“Ma!”

“Son!” she mocked.

“You’re so difficult!”

“You want that share? Get it. Either you find somebody decent to date or marry Hazelyn. Pick one. And when you do, we’ll talk about your share of the company,” she said and hung up.

I groaned and started my drive back home.

I was instantly greeted by the smell of cinnamon rolls and I followed it to the kitchen where Hazelyn was taking it out of the oven, giving me a great view of her fine ass.

“Stop staring perv,” she called out as she set the tray down and faced me. I pouted and walked over to her, grabbing one of the cinnamon rolls that had already cooled. “Get your filthy hands off my cinnamon rolls,” she said as she slapped my hand away from them.

I pouted and grabbed her hand, spun her around and hugged her around the waist - locking both her hands to her sides as I grabbed a cinnamon roll and shoved it into my mouth. She squirmed as she tried to free herself from my grasp. I loosened my grip since I already got my treat.

“Did you get some kind of self defense training in the past three years or something?” she huffed. “Bastard,” she mumbled as she straightened her clothes and I hopped up on the island eating the pastry.

“These are so fucking awesome,” I said as I licked my fingers. “That just totally made my day,” I smiled at her. Sweet talking her about her cooking skills always soften her up.

“What’s up? Anything happened at work?” she asked as she transferred the newly baked rolls on the cooling rack.

“Yeah, mom just set me up with a blind date,” I huffed like a kid.

“That sucks,” she mumbled monotonously.

“Yeah. She said either I get a decent girlfriend or get you back, or else she’d keep sending me dates,” I frowned.

“God I love Laura,” she laughed at me, and leaned against the sink in front of me.

“Not funny,” I mumbled. Then an idea hit me. “Hey, you can keep pretending to be my girlfriend! Then I’m solved!”

She raised her eyebrow at me. “Uhh… No,” she said and pushed herself off the counter and walked out of the kitchen.

“Please Hazelyn. Last favor, then I’ll leave you alone. Please?” I begged her.

“You ate my cinnamon rolls, no.”

“Please? Anything you want, I’ll give it to you!” I pleaded. “You want the house? Go ahead. Have it. You want the hotel in France, go ahead too! And if you want me to leave you alone, I will!” Okay, now that’s just desperate.

Fuck that. I am desperate.

“Are you two lovebirds quarreling about?” Tristan walked in with my sister then Kyle and Samantha behind them. What’s with all the couples?! It’s getting on my last fucking nerve. It seems to be that they’re shoving their happiness in my face. I’m afraid that one day I’ll just burst and get down on my fucking knees desperately begging for Hazelyn to take me back.

“Hazelyn won’t pretend to be my girlfriend!” I whined like a child, pointing my finger at Hazelyn.

“Did you just whine?” Hazelyn asked cracking a smile.

“Just pretend! Come on! I didn’t propose or anything! I’m not asking you to marry me!” Ooops. Wrong thing to say. Both our eyes widened and I looked down at my feet.

“Hey Haze, weren’t you finding a way to keep mom off your balls with the date thing?” Tristan asked.

“I’m telling you! It’s a conspiracy!” I groaned. One because I have a fucking date, and two, Hazelyn might actually fall for another guy! Well, my chances are ruined. Though, I’d prefer Hazelyn to grow old as a single woman with dogs around the house. She hates cats.

Her eyes narrowed. “Yeah, but I don’t think this is gonna solve it,” she fidgeted.

“Listen. This is perfect. You don’t have to use anybody else,” Kyle smirked. “Look at it this way. Two birds, one stone,” he shrugged as if it were easy. “You get your parents off your backs, and you don’t have to do much. Just pretend like you’re dating again. And damn, that would be so fucking convincing. Even we’re convinced that you don’t hate each other right now. Plus, if you use each other, both your mom’s won’t have a problem. Drama averted.”

“See? Two birds, one stone,” I clapped my hands together with a hopeful grin on my face.

“And, Laura and Leslie would try to chase away anybody you date unless they approve of it, so you can’t really use anybody else. I mean, you could’ve used Caleb, he was pretty hot,” Samantha piped up earning a glare from both Kyle and I. “But you’re still my number once boo,” she cooed at Kyle and kissed him.

My face contorted in disgust, but averted my attention back to the main problem. “See? Listen to your wise friends!” I told Hazelyn.

She took a moment to think about it and contemplate. She finally sighed and answered me. “Fine,” she agreed, making my grin wider. I get my company back, and I get Hazelyn back! At least temporarily and in a fake way. But still! “But! We have rules!” she reminded me.

“Yeah yeah yeah. No getting carried away. Yada Yada Yada,” I rolled my eyes.

“No, I mean we seriously need to have written rules,” she said seriously.

“What? Are you gonna write a contract?” Stephanie scoffed.

“That’s a good idea Stephie,” Hazelyn beamed and skipped over to the kitchen. We followed her and saw her grab a notepad and pen from the refrigerator. I raised an eyebrow at her but let her do her thing.

“Rule #1 – No getting carried away,” she said as she wrote it down. Kyle scoffed, making her glare at him. “Rule #2 – no intimacy whatsoever,” she glared at me, which made me laugh.

“Please. If we’re not carried away, that shouldn’t be a problem,” I smirked. It was Tristan’s and Stephanie’s turn to scoff.

“Rule #3 – no intimacy with other people,” she glared at me.

I rolled my eyes and took the pen and paper from her. “Rule #4- no seeing other people,” I said and scribbled it down.

“What?” she asked with horror evident on her face. Fake or not, it was convincing.

“How do we make it convincing if we start seeing other people?” I asked rolling my eyes at her.

“Touché,” she agreed.

She grabbed the pen and paper from me once again and started writing something down, and started walking away. “I want the house, the hotel and for you to leave me alone after this!” she called out before disappearing from my sight.

I took the paper and looked at what she wrote in her neat handwriting. “Rule #5 – No falling in love,” I read out loud.

“Too late for that now,” Samantha smirked.

“You’re screwed bro,” Kyle laughed before pulling Samantha out the kitchen with him.

I looked at my sister and her husband, and they both had awkward smiles on their faces. “He’s right, you’re both screwed,” Tristan scoffed before leaving the kitchen as well.



“Where’s Hazelyn?” I asked as I walked into the living room the next afternoon.

Tristan raised an eyebrow at my bluntness and not bothering to hide my curiosity. “She had a date, why?” he asked as he pulled my sister closer to him- making me look away.

“Nothing,” I mumbled. What happened to the no seeing other people rule?!

The door opened, immediately followed by a screech of her familiar voice. “Yes mom! I’m dating somebody!” A pause. “Why does that seem so shocking? Can I not find a boyfriend for myself?” she huffed and a moment of silence followed. “It is not my fault that a full grown man would call his mommy 10 minutes after I leave and cry for being turned down,” she mumbled. “Bye mom,” she said and walked in, shocked by the number of people that were there. “You didn’t hear that,” she said to us. We just nodded and she plopped herself on the couch, groaning.

“Should we go have dinner?” Tristan asked.

“Let’s go!” Hazelyn jumped from the couch, taking me by the arm and dragged me out to the front. “Who’s driving?” she asked me.

“Are you okay?” I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Ryan, if we’re going do this whole fake relationship thing, we better make it believable. You know our mothers are not stupid,” she raised an eyebrow at me. “We gotta start practicing now so we can make it believable to our audience.”

“Touché,” I mumbled. “I’ll drive,” I said grabbing the key from her, and recognized a familiar keychain. “Did you just-,” I glared at her. “Cannot believe that you’d take my LFA without even telling me,” I mumbled.

“Sorry. I thought that it would be okay,” she looked up at me innocently.

“It’s okay,” I sighed. Who can resist those mesmerizing hazel eyes? “Get in,” I told her as I opened the door for her and jogged over to my side of the car.

“Where’re we off to?” I called out through the open window to the people piling into the cars.

“Bouchon!” Stephanie called out and got into the SUV that they were taking.

I nodded and instantly I was hit by déjà vu. First of all, we’re in the same car that we took five years ago. And second, we’re going to the same place. Creepy much?

We walked into the restaurant and we were directed to a long table. I pulled out a seat for Hazelyn and took the one next to her. Everyone seemed to be eyeing us carefully. Eventually, the stares died down and everyone engulfed themselves in their own conversations.

“You guys seem to be pulling this off quite well,” my sister leaned over to me since she was sitting right next to me. I smiled smugly at her.

“Please don’t point anything out. I’m freaking out,” I told her honestly.

“Relax. You’re doing fine. This is just a show, right?” she rhetorically asked me. “Plus, you’ve done the real thing before. Just try doing that and you’ll be fine,” she soothed.

“That’s the thing. I forgot how I should treat her,” What the hell is with me being so emotional about this?

She smiled sympathetically at me. “Treat her the way you wanna treat her if you were together for real,” she told me before Nate had called for our attention.

“So, tonight’s dinner is for a number of reasons,” he announced to the table. “The first reason is to congratulate my brother and my sister-in-law,” he said and everyone gave them both a smile as they cuddled closer into each other. Damn their happiness. “I’d say welcome to the family, but we’ve already been family for a long time,” he chuckled. “The second reason is for having the whole crew back together,” he beamed. “Having my sister back home, staying for more than two days- means a lot to me, and I’m pretty sure it means a lot to everyone,” he said eyeing me, and Hazelyn gave him a half smile. “We’re all happy for this little reunion.”

“The third reason is to welcome Savannah, Chelsea and Caleb to California. Welcome to the West Coast, and welcome to our crazy life,” he laughed which was followed by everyone else.

“Now you’re in, you can’t get out!” Kyle laughed out loud, causing a few other people in the restaurant to look at us.

“The next reason is to tell you guys a good news,” Nate announced with the gleam in his eye. I knew that moment what it was about. There is no other reason that could make a man’s eyes gleam that bright and make a man’s smile so wide. “Sandra and I are engaged,” he gushed like a girl.

Everyone was quiet for a moment, eyes wide in shock. “Holy motherfucking shit!” Hazelyn was the first to speak. Her voice was so blunt that you’d think she wasn’t happy about the news. But her actions proved otherwise because she jumped form her seat, knocking the chair over and ran over to the couple that had a nervous look in their eyes. “I’m so fucking happy for you!” she gushed and hugged them both, making everyone in the group laugh, and people around us clap.

“I thought you were going to pull my hair out for a moment there,” Sandra mumbled nervously.

“I would, because you took my favorite brother!” Hazelyn whined and stomped her right foot making everyone know she was just kidding.

“Hey! I thought I was your favorite brother!” Tristan whined from a seat away from me.

“Since you got married to my best friend, no you’re not,” Hazelyn retorted sticker her tongue out at him. People that were sitting around us laughed at the childish ways of these grown adults.

“I didn’t get married to Tristan,” I stated in a confused tone.

“You’re not my best friend,” Hazelyn stated bluntly, making everyone quiet down. “You’re just a guy that’s saving my ass from dating a random freak,” she sheepishly grinned at me. “Just kidding,” she laughed.

Everyone had started congratulating the couple, and asked about the details. It eventually died down when the food came and we started to eat.

Halfway through our meals, Nate spoke up once again. “That’s not the last thing,” he smiled. “We have one more reason for this dinner. We all looked at him, trying to figure out what could be better than their engagement. “Scotty? Jack? Luke? You guys wanna take this one?”

“I’ll announce it!” Jack jumped from his seat with a huge grin. We all chuckled and he beamed even more. “X-games is coming up in a few months,” he said as if it weren’t obvious. “We’re gonna start training in a few weeks. Well, at least off-ice training,” he said.

“Is that it?” Stephanie blurted.

“No, be patient, Mrs. DeLuca,” he teased, making Stephanie blush and cuddle closer into Tristan.

“We’re at a dinner table. Do all that sweet stuff when you get home,” I mumbled at them making everyone’s eyebrows raise. “It’s gross seeing my sister being all sweet with somebody,” I defended, making them chuckle and Stephanie leaned over to kiss Tristan dead on the lips just to annoy me.

“Hey! I’m not done!” Jack pouted.

“Go on,” Kyle laughed.

“So, we’re not the only ones that got into X-Games this year,” he said and looked at Hazelyn. “You got in Ms. Hazelyn DeLuca. You’re training with us,” Jack announced.

“We’re inviting you to be part of Frends!” Scotty cheered.

“You’re kidding,” Hazelyn stated with a smile on her face.

“We’re not,” Luke stated matter-of-factly. “Are you in?”

“Fuck to the yes!” Hazelyn hooted.

“We then, congratulations Ms. Hazelyn DeLuca. You’re the first female to join out group!” Scotty beamed and the three stood up walking running around the table and squeezed the bejeezus out of the woman.