“I can tell that’s not true.”

She didn’t attempt to bolster the lie. He kept checking the rearview mirror, so she twisted around to see why. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“You seem worried that someone might be following us.”

“You trusted me enough to come out, so I’m being cautious, just in case.”

She checked again, but there wasn’t even a car there. She was too nervous to focus on anything except meeting more of Seth’s family, anyway—so nervous that as they drew closer to New Horizons, she started jiggling her leg.

He put his hand on her knee to stop her. “Will you calm down?”

She didn’t want to like the warmth or the weight of his hand as much as she did. After last night it felt somewhat familiar—and far too welcome, which only made her more anxious. “No,” she said simply. “Who’s going to be there?”

“You know who’s going to be there. My family.”

“All of them?”

“My four younger brothers won’t be in town until closer to Christmas.”

“So it’s just the older ones? And their wives and children?”

He took his hand off her knee as he turned under the New Horizons arch, and the coldness that rushed upon her in its absence felt grossly disproportionate. “I don’t know. We’ll have to see.”

“Just give me an idea,” she pressed.

He rolled his eyes as though she was being ridiculous. “Fine. We’ll go over them one by one. Gavin might be there. He does the grounds and maintenance for the school, so he might be able to shuffle his duties around a bit.”

“And Eli?” She didn’t mind Eli, since she’d already met him, but Seth shook his head.

“I doubt it. Eli will most likely be running the school, since my mother’s not there.”

“Eli and Gavin have wives, don’t they?” She remembered hearing a handful of children the night Seth had first arrived. It was doubtful that they all belonged to one person.

“Yes, but Cora teaches, so it’s unlikely we’ll see her, either. Savanna could be there, if she doesn’t have something else going on.”

“So four, maybe five people?”

“Tia, you’re making too big a deal out of this.”

She probably was, but the scars on her face suddenly felt like they were on fire. She flipped down the visor so that she could see herself. Fortunately, the scarf did a decent job of concealing the damage, but she couldn’t leave the scarf on inside the house...

“Relax.” He flipped the visor back up. “We’re going to have a nice meal.”

She was overreacting, but she was a celebrity. Most people were excited to meet her. She didn’t want to disappoint them if they’d seen the movie and expected her to look like she had before.