Jenna dropped her make-up brush on the floor. That was not what she had on her Bingo card. That was…she didn’t know what that was.
“What?!” Yaya shrieked.
“Yeah, well, and Phoebe, Pippa, and Paulina’s too,” Frankie added.
Liam, Frankie’s husband discovered the man who he grew up thinking was his father was not, in fact, his father. His biological father was a man named Michael Davieswho was married to a woman named Teresa and had three daughters, Phoebe, Pippa, and Paulina with.
It turned out Liam’s mom wasn’t the only woman Michael, who passed away almost ten years ago, was unfaithful with. He’d carried on a two-decade long affair with a woman named Kerri and produced a fourth daughter, Poppy. And now, it seemed Michael was a very busy boy because apparently Deacon St. Claire wasn’t a St. Claire after all, which was crazy to think about.
“How you know this?!” Yaya demanded.
“AJ found out because, well, he’s AJ.”
Frankie’s twin brothers AJ and Niko could not be more polar opposite despite looking identical. Niko was a World Series-winning major league baseball player. AJ worked in cyber intelligence for the military and also closely with the CIA, he was a literal genius. Yaya told Jenna all about her grandsons, the twins. She talked about them and Frankie as if they were her own children. Unfortunately, their father, Yaya’s oldest son, passed away when they were young, but Jenna had a feeling she saw a lot of her son in the twins.
“We had to call Michael’s parents, Bampi and Momo, the legitimate Davies sisters, Michael’s wife, Teresa, and Poppy’s mom, Kerri, all to come over and tell them the news. Thankfully, they had all met Deacon either on Halloween or Thanksgiving.”
“Why he not tell truth from beginning? Why he lie?”
“We haven’t talked to him yet. I’m guessing because he’s rich and he wanted to make sure that his brothers and sisters were actually people he wanted in his and his daughter’s life.” Frankie rested her head back on the chair and closed her eyes again.
“You call and invite to wedding!” Yaya demanded clapping her hands.
“What?" Frankie’s eyes popped open.
“Yes! Wedding. Is family day! He is family!”
“Yaya… this is not… you’re not…”
“What I’m not?!” Yaya’s arms flew up in the air, knocking Jenna’s arm, sending her blending brush flying. “Is my day! I am bride, yes?! Yes! You call! You tell him come! Family together now!”
Frankie jumped out of the chair to retrieve the brush, but Jenna beat her to it. She walked across the sunroom where it had flown and picked it up.
“Yaya, youhaveto be still while Jenna does your makeup,” Frankie explained.
“Is fine, fine, fine.” Yaya waved her hand. “She can do!”
“It’s fine,” Jenna assured Frankie.
“You call now!” Yaya insisted.
“Poppy will be here soon. Can we just make sure she’s okay with it? Don’t you think we should make sure Liam is okay with it?”
“Of course is okay! Is brother! And is my day!”
Frankie looked at Jenna, who had given up on doing Yaya’s makeup at this point and had decided to focus on her hair.
“Let me go talk to Liam.” Frankie grabbed her coffee and headed out of the room.
As Jenna gently unspooled the rollers from Yaya’s hair, she felt eyes staring at her reflection in the portable mirror she’d set up. Yaya tilted her forehead towards the mirror, her face scrunched in disgust. “You wear for wedding?”
“I can’t stay for the wedding,” Jenna reminded Yaya as she looked at her reflection.
She was wearing a loose black long-sleeved shirt, black pants, and black ankle boots. It was her typical wedding dayworklook. She wasn’t the one getting married. Her job was to blend behind the scenes.
Yaya gasped as she clasped the rosary beads around her neck. “What?! Yes, you stay! Of course you stay?! You are my Barbie girl.”
The first time Yaya met Jenna, she called her a Barbie, to this day, Jenna wasn’t sure if she meant it as a compliment that first time. But now she knew it was absolutely a term of endearment. She called hermy Barbie girl.
