“Hello,” Livvy croaked.
“Hey. How are you feeling?”
“A little better than yesterday. I’m hoping we can make it up there in a couple of days. How’s the house?”
Fantastic. I saw Gabe’s butt.“Amazing. Thanks. Um, so listen...”
“Oh no. I knew you were calling for a reason. What tragedy has befallen us now? Is the house on fire? Ugh. Is there a freak spring snowstorm?”
“What is it?” Nicholas’s voice boomed from the other end of the line and Eve winced. She did not want to talk to her brother, not at all. She had, in fact, been avoiding him at every possible turn lately.
It wasn’t that she didn’t love her brother. It was just that every conversation lately invariably turned to how she hadn’t found a new job yet. He’d been super supportive of her quitting the foundation. He wasn’t supportive of what he called Eve “finding herself.”
“It’s no big deal,” she said hurriedly. “No need to bother Nicholas.”
“Go away, I can handle this,” Livvy said.
There was a whispered argument, and then Nicholas got on the line. “Eve, I told you to call me with any problems. I want Livvy to rest.”
“I haven’t left bed in, like, a week,” Livvy squawked. “I’m resting. Go to work.”
“This is a wardrobe issue, Nicholas. I thought Livvy might have more insight than you.”
Another scuffle, and Livvy was back, Nicholas sputtering in the background now. “I said I could handle this. Go run an empire. Stop upsetting me, it’s not good for my health.”
Eve figured it was probably the last thing that had Nicholas walking away. He was as careful and protective with Livvy as he was with Eve. Maybe more so. Eve was pretty sure he still worried Livvy might disappear on him again.
“Okay, lay it on me.”
“It’s not the worst thing that could happen,” Eve hastened to reassure Livvy.
“Literally if I break a nail now my mom’s going to start on me about a curse. Is it worse than that?”
Eve looked at her dress, wincing at the garish color. “There was a mix-up in my bridesmaid dress and they dyed it indigestion-medicine pink.”
There was a moment of silence on the other end, and then Livvy gave a congested cough-laugh. “Oh my God. Okay, you’re right, that’s not the worst thing.”
Well, Livvy wasn’t the one who would have to wear this monstrosity.
“You and Sadia don’t have to match, if that’s what you were worried about.”
Her instinctive response was to say it didn’t matter, that she’d wear the damn dress and not make any waves, but she cringed at the thought of how she would look. This was selfish, maybe, but if there was some way out of this, that would be good. “It’s, um... really not attractive. I can send you a picture.”
“You don’t have to do that.” Livvy sobered. “I trust you, if you think it’s unwearable. We’ll go to plan B.”
“Was there a plan B?”
“Thanks to Sadia, there was. I never cared what anyone wore to this thing. You’re on the groom’s side. Go buy a black dress. You’ll look great.”
Eve exhaled, relieved Livvy was so chill. “I think there’s a little boutique in the village.” She used to go to the village when she was young. Their first lake house had been barely a few miles from here. Her parents had bought a second, more ostentatious one about a year before her mother had died, closer to Rockville. The car crash taking Maria’s life had occurred on the road leading up to it.
Eve hadn’t mourned when her father had sold the second house, but she’d mourned for the first. Mostly because she’d loved the little bustling village that supported the wealthy vacationers.
“Yeah. Go there. Buy whatever you want.” Livvy coughed. “How’s everything else going? You and Gabe settling in okay?”
“Fine.”I saw his butt.“Really fine. How’s your mom and Maile?”
“Doing better than me. I’m gonna go lie down before Nicholas nags me to death. Stay out of trouble until we get there.”
