“I…” I closed my mouth. “You don’t have to be like me.”
“I want to, Aunt Bridget.” She put her small hand in mine. “I want to be a star too.”
I squeezed her hand. “Then decide what you want and go for it. If you work hard?—”
“Very, very hard,” Trish said.
“To the bone,” Megan added.
“And give up everything else, including family,” Denise said.
I scowled at my sisters, then smiled at my niece. “You’ll succeed. I know it.” And I’d do everything in my power to help her.
“What are we getting Mom and Dad?” Trish asked.
“Something from the kitchen store?” Denise suggested.
“Her mixer has seen better days,” Megan said.
“What about Dad?” I asked.
“He’s been talking about getting a smoker. The Wangs have one, and he’s super jealous,” Trish said.
“Like one of those round green ones?” I asked. Stan talked about his nonstop.
“Oh, no. Those are so expensive,” Denise said.
“I’ll get it,” I said. “You three go in together for the mixer, and both gifts will be from all of us.”
Denise looked like she wanted to argue, but Megan and Trish agreed so quickly that she would’ve been outvoted. As we walked toward the kitchen store, I could tell Denise was irritated. That’s why it shouldn’t have caught me off guard when she said, “Are you bringing a date to my New Year’s party?”
“I…” I should’ve said,I’ll think about itorI don’t knowor a dozen other noncommittal things, but nothing occupied my brain but Cole’s face with his rare smile and his low voice as he read one of Ashlyn’s favorite books to his daughter. “Yes,” I said.
She stopped abruptly on the busy sidewalk. “Who?”
“No,” I said. “I meant no.” I couldn’t bring Cole to a family event. First, he’d never come to a party with silly hats and plastic sunglasses with the year on them and the cheapest sparkling wine you could buy in bulk. Second, my family would never buy that I’d bring Cole Campion, whose name was always echoed with a hiss, as a friend.
She narrowed her eyes. “You said yes.”
“It was a mistake. I got caught up in the Christmas spirit.” I waved weakly at a tinsel bell shape hanging on a nearby lamppost.
“Who are you seeing, Bridget?” She planted her hands on her hips.
“No one,” I said, glad I didn’t have to lie.
Her blue eyes searched mine.
“What’s going on?” Megan asked. She, Trish, and Ashlyn had doubled back for us. Shoppers grumbled and scowled as they squeezed past our group standing on the sidewalk like a boulder in a stream.
“Bridget has a secret.” Denise’s eyes didn’t leave mine. “It’s about someone she’s dating.”
“No, it’s not.”Too quick.I winced.
“Aha! Knew it!” Denise crowed. “Who are you secretly seeing?”
The secrets crouched on my tongue, ready to leap out of my mouth and ease the burden that weighed on my heart. But I couldn’t tell my sisters about the magical days Cole and I had spent in Costa Rica or the decision we’d—I’d—made to end it. Especiallynot with my impressionable, admiring niece as a witness. “I swear to God, Dee. No one.”
She stared at me for another few seconds like the pressure of her eyeballs could squeeze the secret out of me. “Fine. Earmuffs.”
