“Oh, uh…w-well…” Dad starts to stammer.
Jackson clears his throat. “It’s Mom’s birthday. Dad always comes to have dinner with us.”
“Oh, shit.” Blair turns to look at me, eyes awash with concern.
“Bad word,” Odessa pipes up.
“I didn’t…Somehow I didn’t put two and two together when I looked at the date this morning.” Blair crosses her arms over her chest. “I’ll leave you all to your family time.”
“Stay,” Dad takes the word right out of my mouth. “Lucy would want you to stay.”
“I don’t want to intrude….”
Clearly not in the mood to argue, Dad pulls out Austin’s chair for her with a huff. And Blair cautiously takes a seat—fully aware that Austin sits in that exact spot at the table, and always has.
Looking at me from across the room, she mouths his name with a confused knitting in her brows.
I mouth back that I’ll tell her later and head to the pantry to hunt for a bottle of wine. Finally finding a white that seems like it might be fancy enough for Blair, I step back into the kitchen to find her and Dad in a lively conversation about her time in Vancouver.
Kate and Jackson seem equally as confused by Dad’s change in demeanor, but the three of us breathe a collective sigh of relief. Because this is infinitely better than any previous dinner with Dad, where conversation was stilted, and nobody mentioned Mom despite it being her birthday.
I slide a glass of wine to Blair and sink into a chair, watching her be the daughter my dad had always hoped for.
“You okay?” she quietly asks when Dad gets up to grab himself a fresh drink.
“So much better now.” I study the summer freckles starting to pepper her cheeks, craving the soft feel of her skin under my hardened fingers. “You don’t have to stay, if you don’t want to.”
“I want to stay.” She raises her glass to her lips. “If you want me to…”
“I do.”
“Where’s Aus?”
“He…uh.” I lower my voice so it’s barely audible. “He doesn’t speak to Dad, so he doesn’t come to these.”
The surprise on her face makes sense, given the fact that our dad was always closest with Austin growing up. I guess that’s why his leaving seemed to have had the biggest impact on my eldest brother.
When Dad sits back down, Kate is right behind him with food. Setting plates in front of us, heaped with smoked chicken breast, salad, and green beans straight from the garden.
Thanks to Blair, there’s dinner conversation for the first time in over a decade. There’s laughter. There’s reminiscing, and talk about rodeos, and even a very heated debate over the best current country artist.
Blair glances over at me with every break in conversation, filling my heart until I’m sure it’ll burst. And when her foot taps mine under the table, I’m sure of one thing.
Beryl is winning five dollars.
Blair Hart is going to be my girl again before this summer ends.
Blair
Cecily saunters through the screen door holding two of the largest pitchers full of sangria I’ve ever seen, then points her chin toward the river trail, and our girl gang starts toward it. Odessa’s running far ahead, insisting she get to the riverbank before we show up and “scare the frogs away.” Kate—with Rhett on her shoulders—is loaded up with sand toys, sunscreen, and beach towels. Cass has Hazel in a baby carrier on her chest, and a cooler backpack on her back. Cecily’s carrying drinks, with a sleeve of plastic cups precariously tucked under her chin. And I’m packing enough food to keep us fed for a full week, on the off chance we somehow can’t find our way back to the big house. Though those pitchers of sangria might be the trick to accidentally getting lost.
A ragtag bunch, sweating and struggling to make it to the river in the sweltering July afternoon. When we finally drop our things on the rocky shore, I’m immediately stripping down to my bathing suit and gingerly stepping across hot rocks until the cold water rushes around my legs. Then I plunge into the glacier-fed river, letting it clear my mind and rejuvenate my body like it has so many times in my life.
I emerge with a body spackled in goosebumps, watching as the best group of girlfriends I’ve ever known sits together, laughing and drinking. I didn’t get to know Kate as well as I would’ve liked to before I left Wells Canyon back in the day,and I only met Cecily a few months ago, but they’ve welcomed me in with open arms, giving me some much-needed relaxation amid the chaos in my life.
After wringing the water from my hair, I settle into a spot beside Cass. Cecily passes me a red plastic cup filled to the brim with sangria—so full, in fact, that the liquid sloshes down my arm when I move it.
“So, I’m sorry the invite is super late, but Aus and I would love it if you’d come to our wedding in three weeks.”
