“I don’t know why they swapped out tacos,” Emma’s saying to Chandler. “I’ll go find someone and ask.”
Sabrina slides up to my sister. “I’ll go ask,” she says. “You eat. Enjoy. And then I want to know what’s in this massive present.”
Laney shoots me another look and pulls me farther from the bride and groom. “What’s in the present?” she asks.
“Why would I know?”
“Theo.”
I grin and wink. “You think I know because big’s my style.”
She pins me with a look featuring dilated pupils, that soft spot fluttering quickly in her neck, and yeah.
I need to sit down.
Not because having a woody embarrasses me.
More because I don’t want to cause a scene.
For Emma’s sake.
“Is it fun?” Laney whispers as she sinks into the chair next to me.
Takes a minute to catch up to the fact that she’s asking about the present and not the toy in my pants. “I think so.”
She smiles. But it’s accompanied by stress lines on her forehead.
I scoot my chair closer to hers. “It’s not that bad,” I tell her. “Other people will think it’s funny too.”
“No, I’m sure it’s funny. I was just thinking that if the resort didn’tmake the dinner she paid for, after telling me everything was under control, what else are they going to miss? Willthe weddingbe ready? Who’s providing the officiant? Who’s setting up the chairs? The decorations? The catering and the music and the cake for the reception?All of it?”
I open my mouth, then shut it again.
“I’m camping out at the front desk all night to talk to management if I have to,” she adds.
I don’t just want to kiss those stress lines in her forehead.
I wantallof it.
I want to feel even a fraction of the love this woman has for my sister aimed at me.
And that’s always been my fascination with Laney.
She cares. She’s invested. She might follow the rules and be a stickler, but she loves, and she lovesbig.
There’s not much she wouldn’t do for the people she loves.
She agreed to babysitme, didn’t she? And I know that’s the last thing she wanted to do when she got here.
But now?
“Oh my god, youtwo.” Addison drops into the seat next to us with a plate loaded down with tacos and tortilla chips. “I wouldnothave called this. But I should’ve. Opposites attract, right? You’re adorable. For real. Are your parents shitting total bricks over this?”
Laney doesn’t flinch or rear back or choke on air.
She simply shifts that frown to Addison. “Why would my parents be upset about choices I make as the fully-grown, competent, rational adult that they raised me to be?”
My stomach grumbles in the silence that is Addison freezing in confusion with her taco halfway to her mouth.
