I lift my coffee to my lips to hide the rueful smile playing there. Kate still notices and narrows her eyes at me. Fine, I feel slightly vindicated about the registry. I briefly consider pulling out my phone and texting Reid about her reaction, but I can’t decide if he’d laugh and send another set of crazy bedsheets with a text that says “we should’ve added these too” or if he’d reply with a “why are you texting me?”
So I brush the urge aside.
“This feels like it could’ve all been avoided by just coming with me like you said you would,” I say nonchalantly.
Kate rolls her eyes. “See, this is why Lydia is my maid of honor. She wouldn’t have put six different sets of multicolored glass cups on the registry.”
“Well, then maybe Lydia should’ve come along too.”
“Don’t bring me into this,” Lydia says under her breath, shifting uncomfortably in her seat.
Kate tucks her hair behind her ear and sits a little taller, like she’s the queen commandeering her court right now. “Don’t worry, Jane. We got it all fixed. Your silly little registry has been eliminated and the store helped me set up a new one with things on it we’ll actually like and use.”
“Thank god,” I mutter.
“Yeah, thank god for the store, not for you and Reid. How much time did the two of you waste there anyways? You registered for things I didn’t even know existed.”
My mind flits back to that morning when things took a surprising shift between us from enemies to shocking acquaintances. Somehow the memory of his smile puts me just a little bit at ease in this hot seat.
“Only a couple hours.”
Lydia’s eyebrows fly up in surprise. “You and Reid were under the same roof for a couple of hours without one of you harming the other?”
“I know, shocking,” I say. I feel Kate’s glare on me, burning me from across the table. I flick my gaze to her and find her narrowed eyes on me, her lips pursed as she leans back in her chair with crossed arms. “What?”
“What’s the deal with you two?” she finally asks.
“With who? Me and Reid?” She nods. I shake my head vigorously. “Not a thing.”
She leans forward suddenly, a new resolve sparking in her eyes. She rests her forearms on the table and leans into them like she’s preparing to interrogate me. “You seem like you’re always contemplating his murder.”
“I usually am.” The words come out surprisingly half-hearted.
Kate rests her forearms on the table and leans forward, a hardened expression like she’s our mom preparing to scold us. “Are you two going to behave this summer?” I shrug in a “we’ll see” motion. Kate draws in a deep breath. “Okay, well I need you to. Remember what I said on the phone last weekend?”
“When you bailed on me?” She ignores the jab, instead arching an eyebrow at me as she awaits my response. I sigh. “Time to start faking it.”
Kate smiles proudly. “That’s right. You don’t have to come out of this best friends, but just . . . get along. Be cordial.”
“Just be careful you don’t fall for his spell,” Lydia says, a teasing lilt in her voice.
I furrow my brow. “What spell?”
Kate laughs. “Oh come on, like you haven’t noticed how handsome he is.”
“And charming,” Lydia adds.
“And sweet.”
I scoff at the last one. “I’ve noticed that he is tall and has blue eyes and that he has an affinity for making people cry on their first day of work.”
Kate waves me off. “When you start being nicer to him, you’ll realize he’s really not so bad.”
My mind flits back to the department store, to our unspoken temporary truce as we walked around Walden’s. I caught glimpses of that sweet side of him, but I’m almost positive it was a one-off situation, so I’m not getting my hopes up.
“I’m just saying—you’re both in the wedding party. He’s Jason’s best man, for goodness’s sake. He’s obviously going to be around a lot, and it would be spectacular if you didn’t injure each other before the wedding.”
“I’ll do my best,” I say. I’m curious about what might’ve shifted between us last weekend, but I’m still not willing to make any promises to Kate about Reid’s well-being.
