“Yeah.”
“Looks like it’s not just Hawaii,” Uncle Owen says while he, too, joins in to help.
Both men grin gleefully at me.
“Ready to see Em married off?” I ask, ignoring the questions they’re not asking about Laney.
“All she’s ever wanted.” Dad hefts a chair under each arm. “Know it’s tough on you, always wanting the best of the best for her and thinking nobody will ever live up to that, but it’ll all work out. This time next year, we’ll be fighting over who gets to hold her first baby, and nobody’s gonna care what went down at this wedding.”
“Hope it looks like Em,” Uncle Owen interjects with a cackle.
“No worries then?” I ask.
Dad shakes his head. “Your mom would be so proud of everything she’s done.”
Not helpful.
One of us has blinders on, that’s for sure.
Probably me.
And telling myself Laney’s having doubts doesn’t help. That’s my fault too.
She wouldn’t be if I wasn’t influencing her.
“Sure would,” I agree with Dad.
“You and Laney keep looking at each other the way you have been, and we’ll be doing this again in another fourteen years,” Uncle Owen says.
I don’t laugh at the implication that Laney and I will be the next Chandler and Emma who date forever without getting married. Nothing about that is funny today.
Dad doesn’t laugh either.
Just keeps setting up chairs.
Need to check on the catering staff in the bistro kitchen after a while. Won’t have as many flowers as Emma wanted, but she has an arched trellis.
Don’t know where Chandler is.
Glad he’s not here. He’d probably tell me I’m setting up the chairs wrong.
“Funny, being at weddings,” Uncle Owen says. “Wasn’t it a wedding where Charles Kingston had an affair with Sherry Sullivan about the right number of months before the triplets were born?”
I choke on air.
“Funeral,” Dad corrects.
I look at both of them.
Neither looks at me.
“Oh, that’s right, that’s right,” Uncle Owen says.
“I’m not listening to any of this,” I tell them both. “I don’t want to know any of this.”
“Probably should,” Dad says.
“Gonna need your own ammunition if anyone tries to tell you you’re not good enough for their daughter,” Uncle Owen chimes in.
