They’d apparently been together for a while, but it was pretty obvious that Joseph was kind of a jerk. He kept flirting with the other women - not because he was really going after them, but just to make Courtney jealous. What Sharon didn’t get was why, since it only took one look at the two of them to realize that Courtney was head over heels for him for some reason.

Unfortunately, with Lorraine for a mother and Rina for an eldest sister, she was also kind of a people pleaser and a doormat. The fact that she was standing up for herself at all to Joseph, especially in public, was surprising.

When Joseph turned and stalked off, Courtney’s lower lip trembled, her big brown eyes making her look like a wounded fawn as they filled with tears. Sharon could immediately tell her young cousin was going to go after him, begging for forgiveness.

Hell no, fuck that. 

“Excuse me, I’ll be right back,” Sharon said, giving Jake and Mark a sweet smile. They both nodded to her before diving right back into their conversation. Mark had always had an interest in architecture and engineering and was having a grand time talking to Jake about the actual nitty-gritty details and mechanics of actually building.

Since Melinda was involved in a conversation with two of her friends, Sharon didn’t bother trying to catch her eye. She went straight to Courtney, linking her arm through the younger woman’s and totally surprising her.

“Hey honey, let’s step away for a minute,” Sharon said sympathetically, directing her cousin towards the privacy of the hallway instead of deeper into the room after Joseph.

Watching Sharon out of the corner of his eye, Jake couldn’t help but frown as she led her younger cousin away. At least, he assumed it was one of her cousins. He hadn’t been introduced to her yet, but she looked like just Melinda and Rina.

Speaking of Rina, she popped up next to his elbow, interrupting Mark’s next question about building materials.

“Mark, so sorry to interrupt, but mom says we’re going to start seating for dinner in a few minutes, so she’d like you and Melinda there to lead us all into the dining room.”

“Of course, thanks Rina,” Mark said, smiling affably. He shot Jake an apologetic look. “I’d love to talk more about this later.”

“Any time,” Jake said easily. He liked Mark and he liked talking about his job with someone who was so interested. Mark seemed more like he was on the design end of things than the practical, but that just made for interesting conversation as they talked about what was possible. Since Jake didn’t have a specialty yet and was more of a generalist, he had a basic grounding in everything.