Kate states at us all with a wide smile, completely unaware of the bomb she just dropped. “Well, more specifically, the Amalfi Coast. Positano.” She looks at Jason dreamily. “The city of love.”
“That’s Paris,” I say automatically, but my mind is spinning elsewhere already. “And Kate, I’m not sure I can afford a trip to Italy right now.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” she cries, flinging her left hand across the table to grip mine with surprising strength. “I can’t have this wedding without you, Jane! I’m sure you can find a little extra cash to come to your favorite sister’s big day. You can always make back your money. You can’t make back your baby sister’s wedding.”
She’s looking at me with puppy dog eyes and I just know that saying no to something as massive as her wedding would crush her, which would effectively crush me too. I wiggle my hand against her vice grip and she finally lets me go, her ring sparkling with the movement.
I sigh, rubbing my hand as I lean back in my seat. “I guess I'll see what I can do.”
I could sell a kidney, right? Or my shoe collection. No, I’ll look into the kidney first. I can’t part with my shoes.
“Great! And mom’s already started planning the engagement party for this weekend,” Kate chirps, magically happy again. Kate claps her hands together and turns to her fiancé. “Jason, did you bring in the boxes?”
“Of course, my love.” He lifts her hand to his lips and presses a kiss to it. Jason grabs Kate’s massive tote bag from the chair of my nonexistent plus one and Kate passes tiny boxes to all of us.
“I have one more special thing to tell everyone.” She drags out the word like she’s a game show announcer amping the crowd up for the special prize. She looks to Jason expectantly and he eagerly bangs his hands on the table like a loud, grating drumroll. “You’re all standing up!”
She gestures for us to open the small boxes she just passed out. We all oblige. Inside the tiny box is a pair of pearl earrings with a label saying bridesmaid.
Lydia squeals beside me. “I get to be your maid of honor?”
And apparently one that says maid of honor.
“Of course!” Kate gushes. She reaches a hand across the table to grip Lydia’s hands. “You’re my twin! Who else would I ask?”
Me?I want to say, but I swallow back the retort. Lydia is her twin, it only makes sense to ask her.
Kate turns to me now, bright eyed and beaming. “And Jane, I’m going to need all your help planing.”
“Why me?”
“Because you’re so good at all this stuff. I have no idea where to start.”
“Last I checked, I haven’t been married yet, so I’m not sure where to start either.”
She laughs and waves a hand. “Yeah but we used to play wedding all the time as kids. And you had all those dream wedding boards.”
“Yeah for my dream wedding, not for some game.”
“But even that was so organized. So you know how to do this!”
I gesture to my sister-in-law still smiling beside us. “Elise is literally married.”
“I know, but you’re my sister. It would be so much if you could help. Plus, you know me so well! Come on, please? For me?” She puts on her best puppy dog face, the one she knows everyone is incapable of saying no to.
I sigh, knowing this is a losing battle. “I’ll do my best.”
She squeals. “Thank you! This is going to be the best wedding ever.”
I look at the maid of honor box in Lydia’s hands, then back down to the bridesmaid one in mine. I can say right now with the utmost certainty that I know I will be taking on pretty much every maid of honor duty other than standing beside her on her wedding day. That’s what I do, after all. Reliable Jane, taking on all the work that nobody else wants to.
Anything for my baby sister, right?
With a sigh, I sit back in my chair and down my mimosa, mentally calculating how much plasma I’ll have to donate to afford this wedding on a journalist’s salary.
Chapter4
“You definitely can’t wear that to an engagement party,” Lola says from where she sits in the middle of her bed.
