The next day is Sunday. Typically I stick around the house on Sundays, offering help to my parents with cooking and preparing for the family to come over as I spend time with my parents, but I need some time out of the house and away from Max. So instead I take Abby up on her offer when she calls to hang out.

She recently began dating a guy named Jesse that I’m moderately familiar with. The two have been spending a lot of time together, and I’m happy for her, even though my love life is really sucking lately. She adamantly declares it’s just a “casual relationship” and I know she’s doing it to try and protect my feelings so I try to be overly enthusiastic about everything she shares with me.

When we pull up to my house it’s obvious we’re some of the last to arrive based on the congested driveway.

“Finally! I thought you were going to be a no-show!” Kyle cries, kicking a soccer ball across the yard with an impressive arc that I catch at chest height as Abby squeals and jumps.

“Sorry, Abs!” he calls, jogging over to us. I’ve stopped paying attention though because I’ve spotted Max. He’s standing beside my dad, holding a beer, as Jameson and my dad laugh at something. His face is stoic as he stares at me.

My line of sight is interrupted as Kyle wraps me up in an aggressive hug that has my feet dangling a few inches off the ground.

“You want to go golfing Thursday? Dad said you were on fire last week!” He sets me down and steals the soccer ball from my hands.

I close my eyes to move my focus and nod. “Sure.”

“I’m glad you’re so excited to hang out with me!”

I laugh, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’m so excited that I’m overcompensating to keep it all in.”

“That’s better.” I laugh, wrapping my arm around his waist as he wraps one around my shoulders. We walk to the yard, dribbling the soccer ball back and forth.

“How come you never get that excited to see me?” Caulder teases.

“Seriously,” Mindi says with a laugh from her lounge chair. “He doesn’t get that excited to see me.”

“Obviously he gets pretty excited to see you,” Savannah says, lifting an eyebrow as she motions to Mindi’s growing stomach, making us laugh. Kyle and I head to the back corner of the yard as Abby sits down to chat with my two oldest sisters.

“You’re rusty.” Kendall approaches with Jameson and Max flanking her.

“Don’t provoke her. She can still kick my ass,” Kyle says, dribbling the ball on his knees.

“Don’t lie.” I watch as he begins alternating from his feet to his knees with his dribble; Kyle taught me everything I know about soccer.

He grins and catches the ball with his hands and tosses it to me. “I wish I were. I need to go check on Mindi before she really does kick my ass.” He grins.

I watch Kyle make his way over to her chair and dip down as he kisses her sweetly on the cheek. I turn back to Kendall and offer her the ball.

“Don’t be a smartass,” she mutters, eliciting an innocent smile from me. I drop the ball and watch it roll.

“What did you guys do today?” I ask, trying to ease the awkwardness that’s quickly swallowing us.

“I want to see your mad skills,” Jameson says, nodding to the soccer ball that has ironically stopped a few inches short of Kendall. He’s either oblivious to the mood, or trying to distract them as well.

“You’d feel like you lost a piece of your manhood if I showed you,” I tease.

“She is pretty good,” Kendall admits.

“Why don’t you play anymore?” Jameson asks.

“I just was.”

“Like for college.”

I shrug. “We’re pulling your leg, really, I kind of suck.”

“She’s lying.” Kendall’s growing annoyance with me is evident in her tone as she kicks the ball at me in frustration. I laugh, raising my sandal-clad foot to stop it from hitting me in the shins.

“What did you guys do today?” I repeat.

“Mom and I made a bazillion tamales. Since you weren’t here to help it took forever.”

“You should’ve called. Abby and I would’ve come.”

“We did! Guess who answered your phone?”

I look at her confused, trying to recall where my phone is. “Who?”

“Eric! He said you left it there yesterday! I thought you were breaking up with him!” I don’t mention that I’d left it because Eric was acting like a complete idiot and had friends over that made Nate look like a boy scout and didn’t feel safe going back to get it by myself.

“Call Abby next time,” I reply, earning a scowl.

“Want to go do a shot before dinner? It’s a full house tonight.”

Kendall looks at me and slowly gives her head the slightest shake. “You’re such a pain in my ass.”

I grin, knowing that she’s just agreed to drop it at least for the moment. I wrap my arm around her shoulders directing her to the house. After a few steps I look over my shoulder at Jameson and Max. They haven’t moved. “Are you guys coming?”

Jameson grins and immediately falls into step with us, but Max lags behind, staring at me again with the same puzzled expression that he looks at me so often with.

Once inside, Kendall grabs a short stack of shot glasses and heads to the living room where I’m showing the guys their liquor choices.

“We’re having tequila.”

I furrow my eyebrows at Kendall, finding this demand to be ridiculous and bizarre.

“Unless you’d like to continue our conversation, we’re drinking tequila,” Kendall says with a glare.

I grab the bottle of Jose Cuervo and lift it up in response. Kendall sets down the glasses and fills each of them before raising her glass for a toast. We each follow suit, and look at her expectantly.

“You waiting for something?” Jameson asks, cocking an eyebrow at Kendall.

“All of my toasts are filled with bitchy comments.” She makes it a point to look directly at me.

“To Utter. Fucking. Confusion,” Max declares. My eyebrows rise when I turn to see if there’s more. Max looks down at me with hard eyes.

“Cheers to that,” Kendall says, sounding exasperated as she leads us in throwing back our shots.

When we emerge from the house I notice Paul’s arrived and quickly shuffle myself behind my dad and Caulder, who are talking as my dad grills. Although I’m standing right beside them, their words fail to penetrate me as I watch Abby sit beside Max.

“Why are you avoiding Max?” I give a sideways glance to Caulder and realize he and my dad are both looking at me.

“I’m not.”

“Then what’s going on with you two? It seems like you’re avoiding him.”

“She is,” my mom says, coming up behind me carrying a couple of glasses of slushy red margaritas to my dad and Caulder.

“I am not.” My voice goes higher with each word.

“She’s been busy with getting ready to head back to school.” I look at my dad appreciatively, but catch the look of concern that crosses his face as he covers for me.

“So what do you think? Which Bosse do you think is the hottest?” I turn at the sound of Paul’s voice and watch as he takes a swig of his drink. His inappropriate comment thankfully distracts the prying eyes of Caulder and my mom, who looks at him with disdain, and for the first time that I can recall I feel grateful for Paul and his dickish ways … until I realize he’s posing his question to Max. Great.

“I think the Bosse women are in a class of their own,” Max responds gracefully, seemingly unfazed by Paul’s question, or the fact that he’s settling in next to him, looking eager to discuss more inappropriate topics.

“You played that card very safely, my friend,” Paul says, grinning and slapping Max on the back.

“So, you’re friends with four and five?” Paul leans in closer to Max with a cocky smirk that has me straining to hear what he’ll say next.

“Four and five?” Max asks, raising his eyebrows.

Paul’s smirk widens to a grin, “Kendall and Ace, four and five,” he explains as though this is the cleverest of ideas. Max gives a single slow nod, and I can tell from just seeing his profile that he thinks Paul’s a complete tool.