Austin is watching his wife, and Emily keeps her eyes glued to the baby monitor in her hand. She’s doing her best to have a good time but after every song that plays in the living room, she sits on the couch, biting her nails and checking on her baby.
“She still feels so tethered to Anjali,” Austin says, sitting across from me at the dining table as we watch Emily check the monitor for the umpteenth time.
“Well, she was pregnant with her for longer than she’s been on this side of the womb.” I shrug and set my glass on the table. My gaze lands on Audrey and JP, slow dancing in the living room. He spins her twice, and she falls into his arms, and he dips her. She even makes drunk look graceful. Alyson toddles off my lap and approaches them, clapping offbeat.
Austin smiles at Emily as he hears my words. “She’s the best mom.”
I smile at my brother-in-law with his bow tie unraveled and the sleeves of his button-up rolled up. He’s rugged in a very put-together way, wreaking confidence while still seeming approachable. A gentle giant that loves my teeny, tiny sister.
“Did you and JP really have something going on besides going out to dinner that one time?” he asks, voice hushed.
My eyes dart around the room. Surely someone else heard. But Emily has started dancing with Alyson, and Audrey is giggling and dancing with JP while Bruno Mars blares through the speakers.
“He mentioned it,” Austin adds, and I nearly swallow my tongue.
“Oh—I mean—It was just—” I stammer, then finish with, “Don’t tell my sister. It didn’t mean anything.”
He leans over the table. “It didn’t?”
His words seem like a basic question, but his expression makes me want to read into exactly what JP told him. Because it was short-lived—a beautiful moment and not the long haul.
I lick my lips and press my champagne to my mouth, pretending JP isn’t the man I think about when I’m alone in my bed at night. I sip and swallow.
“It didn’t,” I try to confirm, but my voice wavers. Tears cloud my vision, but I keep a stiff upper lip. I cannot make a scene.
He nods at my confirmation just as Emily realizes, “Anjali’s awake!”
I exhale and watch her rush upstairs. JP turns down the volume on the music, while Alyson finds a random toy in the corner of the room to play with.
“Aw, I still want to dance!” Audrey shouts, and the edges of each word let me know she has drunk the majority of the five empty bottles of champagne.
“Then keep dancing,” JP encourages her, grabbing her waist and pulling her close. He whispers something in her ear that makes her throw her head back and laugh.
The sound of her laugh and the smile he gives her sends a stabbing pain in my chest.
He loves her. He lets her be free—not embarrassing her for being tipsy on champagne before nine. And the way she looks at him tells me he loves her well.
“They are kind of cute together,” I admit.
He raises a brow. “Well, you know JP.”
“What? Just a charmer?” I laugh and sip my champagne.
Austin belly-laughs. “JP is that way. Always making friends in the most random places.” He pauses to pull Alyson, who just walked over rubbing her eyes, into his lap. She immediately rests her head on her dad’s shoulder. “This one time, our families were at a water park together, and JP came out of the water with two girls and announced they’d be spending the rest of the day with our family.”
A smile graces my lips.
He laughs again. “Or this one time, we were camping in Lake Tahoe and I came back from the corner market with my dad, and there was an entire group of kids at the fire, waiting to roast s’mores with us. Dad had to go back to the market for more chocolate.”
I smile and study JP. He’s in earshot and clearly aware we’re speaking about him, but he isn’t even remotely embarrassed. He’s just smiling his perfect smile, eyes glistening in the lamplight making his skin glow. “Sounds like JP has always been quite the charmer,” I say, realizing exactly who he is and was to me, and somehow still feeling okay with it.
I was the target. The girl he charmed on an airplane—just the next story to tell. My gaze lands on Audrey, dancing in the living room with him. Her smile is perfect, and her bright red hairbounces on her shoulders. He’s smiling too and mouthing the song at the top of his lungs. Silent scream-singing at its finest.
He charmed me once, maybe. But Audrey is the one he loves.
He catches me looking, and I hold the stare for a half second. His smile disappears. His eyes droop and pain flashes across his expression. I blink away, not wanting to read into it.
“How close is it to nine?” Austin asks, interrupting my stare. He holds up a hand to stifle his yawn. Parenthood changed him overnight too.
