It was all fun and games until somebody pointed out Steph’s headpiece was anchored with rolled up paper towels and not toilet paper. The accusations of cheating got heated, somebody wearing a toilet paper gown got too close to the campfire, andwhoosh, they segued straight into a game of Stop, Drop and Roll.
Brian was pretty sure the flash fire was fully out by the time his uncle Joe tossed the contents of the water dispenser from the picnic table onto them, but he didn’tbegrudge anybody a good time. If he could have gotten to the hose in time, he might have joined in the fun.
In the aftermath, when their stomachs ached from laughing and the brides were a slightly charred sodden mess, it was Danny who asked the question. “So who won?”
More debate and laughter ensued, while everybody voted. Somehow it came down to a tie between Danny and Amber and, once again, it fell to Siobhan to vote.
“Nope,” she said, holding up her hands. “I was one of the emcees, so I don’t get a vote. I think it’s just a tie.”
“A tie?” several people echoed at the same time, and Brian chuckled at Siobhan’s expression. His family did win and lose, but not so much with draw.
“I think I should get an extra point for not setting myself on fire,” Amber pointed out.
Danny snorted. “I should get the point because I was more entertaining.”
“Therewasa lot of screaming, which your family seems to enjoy,” Siobhan said. “And you whipped that T-shirt off so fast, you were practically a stripper, which was one thing this bachelorette partydidn’thave.”
They all laughed again, and Brian knew Danny being the stripper at Steph’s bachelorette party was already part of the Kowalski family lore. Then Siobhan turned to face him and his breath caught. She was so beautiful when she was laughing, her eyes sparkling with mischievous amusement.
How could he ever have thought this woman was cold?
The win finally went to Team Bride after a tiebreaking round of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and then Johnny somehow convinced Nora and Oliver that a race to pick up toiletpaper would be the most fun game ever. They rushed over from the playground and started gathering it up.
“We could have reused some of that,” Leo grumbled.
Mary rolled her eyes. “He saw some show years ago, and the husband had the wife buy two-ply toilet paper, unroll it, peel the layers apart, and then reroll that into two rolls. He looked over at me and opened his mouth, and I’m not sure what my expression was doing, but he snapped his mouth shut and changed the channel pretty quick.”
“Then that guy probably used twice as much of the one-ply rolls, making the entire thing a waste of his wife’s time with no money saved,” Lisa said, and then everybody started talking about the financial aspects of toilet paper.
Brian moved closer to Siobhan, who was hovering to make sure Oliver didn’t get too close to the fire. “It was a fun game. I’m sorry it went sideways like that.”
“Oh, it went about like I suspected it would.” She chuckled. “Maybe not the fire, I guess. That was an unexpected twist.”
Once the toilet paper was cleaned up, the two parties blended into one. There was the usual storytelling and laughter. Conversational groups changing as people got up to refill their mimosa glasses, grab another beer or get a snack. At one point, Brian and Steph made eye contact, and the smile she gave him made all the headaches from the planning and group texts worth it. She was beaming, and as long as tomorrow went off without a hitch, he and his brothers would have pulled off the wedding of her dreams.
When he spotted Ellie ushering Nora and Oliver into the tots’ tent with water bottles and coloring books, he looked over at Siobhan. She looked uncertain for a moment, as if she thought she might take Oliver inside, butthen Steph said something and she laughed, relaxing into her seat.
From that moment on, Brian’s body felt as if it was on high alert. Most likely, Oliver was going to fall asleep in that tent and Siobhan was going to need help carrying him to her camper again. The boy would be sound asleep. Brian had a few beers in him. She’d had a few mimosas.
They’d be alone.
It was going to be very, very hard not to kiss her.Veryhard.
Two hours later, when Nora stumbled sleepily out of the tent looking for her mom, Siobhan stood and he knew it was time. He pushed out of his chair, and she smiled at him as they approached the little tent.
“I tried to balance mimosas with food and water,” she whispered. “But at some point we started running low on juice and the ratio was adjusted.”
He chuckled. “Funny how the Kowalski women can calculate the exact amount of peanut butter the entire family needs to get through a week at camp, but they can never bring enough mixer for the alcohol.”
She giggled and then slapped her hand over her mouth. “Shh.”
He pushed aside the netting and smiled at Oliver, who was sound asleep with a blue crayon in his hand. It took some maneuvering, but Brian got the crayons into the cup and closed the coloring book before lifting Oliver out of the tent.
He was able to concentrate on not tripping over rocks in the dirt road, but the click of Siobhan closing the door behind them clanged like alarm bells in his mind.
There was no way he could kiss her again, he reminded himself as he laid Oliver down. He’d told her it wouldn’thappen again. Right now, Oliver waking up and demanding Siobhan’s attention would be the best case scenario.
But of course he didn’t. The kid was out like a light.
