Luke begins to ease away from the table when Carolina stops him. “It’s not a done deal. I’m up for the promotion to the Tampa field office. The interview is just the first step. And I think I’m going to head straight back to D.C. afterward.”
I don’t know why this news causes more panic to rise in my chest. It doesn’t help when Dick suggests letting the air out of her rental car tires. As I saw her arrive with her parents, I remind him that she likely doesn’t have a rental car, and Dick needs to stay out of this.
I’d stay out of it if you’d get into it!Dick insists.
I mentally roll my eyes at him.
And by intoit, I mean into her vagina,Dick snickers.
I blame Dick for what comes next.
“What about your reunion?” I blurt out.
Carolina’s mouth hangs open. Not because I interrupted her conversation, but because I was now standing beside the table, gripping my chair hard.
“I don’t want to go.”
“Why not?”
She looks down at the table and whispers. “I don’t want to go alone.”
It stabs me right in the heart. Alone? Who left this woman alone?
“What about your… your…. boyfriend?” I spit out.
Her eyes snap up toward mine. “He’s no longer in the picture.”
Get it, man! Let’s get her! Make her ours! Get in her picture! CLAIM HER!Dick shouts from my pants.
I’m still standing beside the table like an absolute idiot. As I’m already in for a penny, I decide to be in for a pound and push all the proverbial chips to the middle of the pot. “If you want someone to go with you to the reunion, I’ll go.”
“I knew it!” Wysdom hisses toward Celia.
“Kestrel,” Luke warns.
“What a lovely offer. Isn’t it,Mija?” Carmen claps her hands together.
“What’s a reunion?” Ruston asks.
“A reunion is where friends from high school get together ten, twenty, thirty, even fifty years later,” Faith offers with a smile.
Dixon snorts. “It’s where people get together and measure the size of their…”
“Dixon!” Kate swats his arm. He grins.
“The size of their what, Uncle Dix?” Ruston’s eyes are wide.
“Their bank accounts,” Sol snickers.
“We had fun at my reunion, didn’t we?” Denise winks at Deuce.
Flint grunts. “My homecoming reunion was anything but fun, right,lalelei?”
Celia shakes her head but leans in and kisses him.
“It’s not that simple,” Carolina stares at me. “I RSVP’d for my boyfriend and me. One room.”
For the second time in less than an hour, the entire Ward-Saber clan goes deathly silent.
