Let’s just say I wouldn’t mourn his death.
“What are you planning to tell Jensen?” Jordan asks.
Her voice cuts through the silence, pulling me from my thoughts. We’re in the Porsche, leaving the cemetery behind us, headed to the country club Cece belongs to for the dinner gathering.
Planning.
As if I have a plan for this whole charade.
I wasn’t lying when I told Jordan I’d given the whole marriage thing a lot of thought. I had. I’d thought about the execution: how to get married, how to get divorced, how quickly it could all be done, and what it would mean for Cole.
That’s it. That was mythinking.Myplanning.
The details?
Yeah… I seemed to have forgotten those. No fucking clue. I’m out here playing the game of life with no instructions, and somehow, I’m already losing.
“Christ. I don’t know. Do we just tell him and Alley the truth?” I steal a quick glance in her direction. “They’ll see right through it anyway.”
She shrugs. “Fine by me. Keeps things simple. They won’t tell anyone.”
“Shit. But then what about the rest of his family? If we tell Jensen, we might as well tell the others because they’ll find out anyway. You know how that goes.”
Jensen’s family is here. The whole lot of them. His parents, siblings, nieces, and nephews all flew in from New York to be here for me andfor Cole.
I think of Jensen’s family as my own. His parents were there for me growing up more than mine ever were. Still are. And his siblings and their spouses are some of my best friends, his brother Jeff and his wife Amber, and his sister Megan and her husband Kevin.
“Yeah,” Jordan says slowly. “But that’s risky, isn’t it?”
A text notification pops up on my car screen.
Speak of the devil.Megan.
Then another.Amber.
And then, of course,Jensen.
“Will you open that?” I ask. “Read them to me?”
We’ve had a sibling group text thread since I got my first phone in fourth grade.
Jordan reaches across, grabbing my phone from the stand attached to the dash, and enters my password.
“Shit,” she says softly. There’s an edge to thatshitthat makes my stomach drop.
“What is it?”
“Megan,” she reads. “Don’t think we didn’t notice the fat ring on Jordan’s finger, Matt. What’s that about?”
“Fuck.”
“Amber,” she goes on. “What? There was a ring? I didn’t notice. Who is she engaged to? I’m confused.”Jordan shoots me a look before continuing. “Jensen—What the hell you talking about, Meg? If Jordan was engaged, I’d know something about it.”
The phone keeps dinging. The texts keep coming, and Jordan keeps reading.
“Megan—I’m not blind. She had a giant rock on her ring finger. I triple-checked.Alley—I saw it too. Matt? What’s going on? Is this something we can ask about, or do we pretend we don’t notice?Megan—This doesn’t make any sense. You two were awfully chummy at the cemetery, Matt. Can’t imagine any fiancé of hers being fine with her holding Matthew Grayson’s hand. Even if it’s for a funeral.”
Jordan sets the phone down and stares at the side of my face. The messages keep coming.
