“Oh, definitely. Your mom is stunning.”
“She’s happily married, Reid. Leave her alone.”
He shakes his head. “I’m not brave enough to take on your dad. I’ll just take this crush to my grave.”
A laugh bubbles out of me. “You’re ridiculous.” I can feel him staring at me, so I look at him as we walk. “What?”
“I think that was the first time I made you laugh.”
I snap my lips shut. “Yeah, and probably the last.”
He smirks. “It is now my mission to make you laugh again.”
“And why is that?”
“Because I like your laugh.”
My steps falter, but I keep walking, totally pretending it never happened, pretending the compliment didn’t shock me so thoroughly that I lost my footing.
“Well, don’t hold your breath. Now that I know it’s your goal, I’m going to make sure it never happens again.”
We walk up the steps to the restaurant and Reid leans in, gripping the door but pausing. He turns his head to look at me and I realize he’s only a few inches away. “Challenge accepted,” he says, a determination in his voice that has my breath halting in my throat.
Reid pulls on the handle and steps aside, holding the door wider. It takes me a good five seconds to realize he’s holding the door open for me. Like a gentleman. Why did that make me feel some type of way?
“Oh,” I mutter. “Thank you.” His only reply is a nod, like this is the most casual act. And to him maybe it is, but seeing the side of him that’s kind and polite even if we aren’t friends is different. Intriguing.
I brush off the weird fluttering in my stomach as Reid walks with me to the massive corner booth where both my sisters and brother, all of their significant others, and Jessica and Ricky are all already sitting with notebooks and pens and printed papers.
“Oh wow, everyone came today,” I say by way of greeting as I slide into my seat.
Jessica rolls her eyes. “Some of us have lives, Jane.”
“I’d have a life too if I weren’t spending all my spare time planning a wedding that’s not even my own. I’m not even the maid of honor.” I pin Lydia with a stare. She barely reacts to it. “This should all be your responsibility.”
It’s a half-hearted statement and we all know it. The words don’t even come out with any of the irritation I felt last week.
Lydia shrugs. “I have other responsibilities.”
“Such as?”
“Getting our nails done,” Kate says, wiggling her shiny pink fingertips at me.
A pang shoots through my chest. Loneliness. Jealousy. Sadness. “Wait, that sounds amazing. Why couldn’t I come?” The twins exchange glances, then look back to me with identical shrugs.
I sigh, doing my best to get my feelings in check. I don’t need to get mad about this. I don’t need to cry over it either. This is just who my sisters are. Selfish, clueless, naive women. Girls even.
And honestly, this is my own fault. I never learned how to say no to them.
Maybe some day.
A warm hand encapsulates my knee and pulls me back to the present like a tether to time. I glance at Reid. He’s staring at me with a curious expression so subtle I don’t l think anyone else would notice it, but I know him well enough now to see the question in his blue eyes:are you okay?
I nod slightly. The corner of his lips barely turn up in a small, comforting smile.
And before I can think too long about it, I lace my fingers with his. A silent and simplethanks for checking in on me.His fingers freeze on mine briefly, but after a second he squeezes my hand under the table. Just like that, all the stress melts away.
“I took the liberty of printing out itineraries,” Kate begins, gesturing to Jason who starts passing out stapled sheets of paper. Reid loosens his grip on my fingers to grab his paper from Jason and with his hand gone, I have a whole new reason to curse my sister’s fiancé.
