Libby nods at Harrison. “It’s true. She barely slept last night.”
In the background, I can hear Clara holler, “Uncle Pierce is here! YAY!!!!!”
Libby winces and Harrison shuts his eyes for a second before telling Libby he’s going to take the call inside where it’s quiet.
I wait patiently for him to walk into their house and shut the sliding doors that lead to their kitchen. “Okay, now I’ll be able to hear you better. How are you?”
Devastated. “Good, yeah. Busy getting ready for my trip to Bolivia and trying to prepare for the wedding.”
“I bet. About the wedding, I’m really sorry about Rosy,” he says. “I had no idea she was going to pull that at the meeting.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. My fault entirely. She emailed me ahead of time and I didn’t get back to her.”
His smile fades. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t know you guys would be at the planning meeting. Arabella invited you, so…” Now that I’m saying this out loud, I can see how bad it is.
He blinks a couple of times, then says, “I see.”
“Oh, man, I just meant I didn’t inviteanyoneto the meeting. The thing is, I haven’t been all that involved in the whole wedding so far. I’m never here so Arabella’s had to shoulder all of it herself. But if I had been around, I definitely would have thought to include you guys.”
“Right, sure,” Harrison says with a tight smile.
I sigh. “I’m making a real mess of everything, aren’t I?”
“A little bit, yeah,” he tells me, looking disappointed, which is the worst thing he can do to me.
Disappointing a brother like Harrison, who pretty much gave up his entire youth for my sister and me, is like punching a little old lady. You can’t do it and still pretend to be a good person. “I…I’m going to call Rosy and make it up to her.”
“Yeah, you should definitely do that. I’m sure it really hurt her feelings that you couldn’t be bothered to get back to her.”
“I’m sorry. Half the time, I don’t know if I’m coming or going. Not that it’s an excuse, but…it’s just been really nuts,” I tell him. “I’ve been traveling almost constantly and now I’m also studying these manuals about royal protocol and etiquette. Today, I’m spending the entire day doing lessons—how to eat, how to bow, how to dance, unacceptable words to use in the presence of the family.”
“Yeah, we got that booklet too.”
My head snaps back. “What?”
Harrison nods. “It came in the mail yesterday. Ten copies for us to memorize and pass around.”
I let out a long puff of air. “Oh, wow. I had no idea. I’m sure Arabella didn’t either. She would have gone through the roof if she knew the advisors were going to make you guys feel uncomfortable.”
“She actually included a handwritten note to us,” Harrison says.
My chest feels tight all of a sudden. “Really? What did it say?”
“That she’s so excited to have us join her family and to be joining ours, and that the handbook might help us feel more at ease at the wedding.”
I open my mouth, then close it, not having the first clue how to respond.
“Don’t worry about it,” Harrison says. “It’s no big deal. Besides, she’s not wrong. Emma marrying Pierce was one thing, but you marrying a princess? Whole other level of terror. Having a study guide is probably not a bad thing.”
Rubbing the back of my neck, I say, “It’s not exactly a good one either. Was anyone offended?”
One of the pages walks by and I hope he isn’t listening to the conversation. God, I hate having zero privacy.
“Rosy and Darnell were a little put out, to be honest, but Libby’s on board. She got straight to work making flash cards for everyone. Pierce already knows all of it, and Emma’s had more than a few laughs at your expense.”
The sliding door opens, and Clara comes running into the kitchen. “Dad! I need a juice box!”
