About that time, Mother came out of the backroom, still in her massage scrubs.
“What’s happened?”
“I’ve taken care of the nail problem,” I said.
Mother nodded. “Oh, good.” She sighed. “Winter, what would we do without you?”
You’d be bankrupt in a week, I thought to myself. Because it was true.
They couldn’t live without me.
2
Friday Night
“We don’t need you anymore, Winter,” Summer Bettes said.
“Yes, it’s time for you to go,” Autumn added.
I blinked, staring at my sisters who looked like they had just lost their minds. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Uh, yes you are,” Autumn said. “We don’t need you and your grumpy pants in the middle of our happy party.”
“I’m not grumpy!” I snapped.
Probably a bit too forcefully.
“You shouldn’t party too hard. We all have to work tomorrow.” I glanced at Mom, who was in the corner, smirking as she poured herself another glass of wine. “Even you, Mom.”
“I can drink a glass of wine on a Friday night if I wish, Winter. I am a grown-up, I can do that,” Celestial Springs--our once hippie (and that’s really her name, but a lot of people call her Celeste), now massage-therapist and herbalist mother said. While she technically owned the salon, I was the manager, and it was my job to make sure it all ran perfectly smooth.
And that was a job, let me tell you.
Summer looked far too wise as she stared back at me, attempting the Mommy stare.
Not that I would let one of my baby sisters stare me down. I invented that look. I had to. Twins.
I crossed my arms. “Just because I’m not in the mood to get married does not mean I don’t have valuable contributions to your wedding plans, Summer.”
Autumn laughed. “Your last suggestion was that Summer needed to make sure Louie was Matt’s designated driver for the bachelor party.”
I raised my eyebrow. “And that is bad because, why exactly?” Louie was a police officer--he would be the most qualified designated driver for Summer’s fiancé Matthew during the bachelor party.
The groom-to-be needed someone to make sure nothing bad happened. And with Louie there, no one was going to get too crazy.
Not that Matthew was a wild and crazy guy, but still. Anything was possible. They were boys, after all.
“It’s like you just expect bad things to happen,” Summer added.
“Because they do.” And I knew from experience--my former husband was in jail the morning of my wedding.
I almost didn’t get married.
Should have listened to that sign… But what was that old rule? Hindsight and all that is always perfect.
“There, that right there is why you can just go on and get out of here, Winter,” Autumn said, pointing toward the front door of Mom’s house. My sister’s usual crazy hair was much less crazy, ever since she came back from her stint on the cruise ship.
Maybe she was finally getting a bit of the wild out of her. Maybe it was just her reconnection with her high school sweetie, Louie.
