Emory appears at the door. Yes, in case you haven’t guessed, all of us girls are named alphabetically, in order to how we were born. There’s Addison, me, Chelsea, Dallas, Finn, Emory, and Georgia. Whew. It’s a mouthful.
Emory’s dirty blonde hair hangs in barrel curls that cascade down her back. “You’re here. Oh, do you love that dress? I had a feeling you would,” she adds with a wink.
Emory is empathic, so of course she had a feeling about how I would react to the dress.
“Well, everybody’s here except Georgia,” I say. “What’d y’all do with our youngest?”
Finn thumbs the doorway. “We made her go on a scavenger hunt for her dress.”
My hand flies to my mouth and I laugh. There’s no one like my sisters to put me a in a good mood. They know exactly how to melt me.
As if on cue, Georgia appears, gently pushing Emory out of the way so she can see. “Do you love your dress? I wanted to wear it so badly that I almost stole it.”
I chuckle. “No one’s stealing this. Come on, y’all. Help me get dressed.”
It’s notuntil my sisters have finished fussing with my hair and the dress that they let me get a good look at myself in the mirror.
I can hardly breathe at the sight. The dress hugs my curves perfectly, and the silvery color complements my olive skin. Finn took her time curling my hair, and she pushed a mother-of-pearl comb into one side, sweeping it up.
“You look so beautiful,” Georgia says. “I bet Storm Grayson proposes tonight.”
My eyes narrow. “You knew about Storm.”
My sisters, all four of them, stare at their feet.That’s it.Everyone knew but me. Ovie kept this from me. On purpose. What else is she keeping from me? Is the Prince of Neverland going to show up? If such a person exists, I want to know about it beforehand. I don’t need Cathy and her minions having the upper hand.
“I’m going to find Ovie,” I tell them. “Thanks for making me look beautiful.” And I mean it. I really do. “I’ll see y’all downstairs.”
The ballroom is in the back of the house. Actually it’s the parlor, and with magic, my family turned it into a big, beautiful room filled with marble floors, tall windows, grand chandeliers, mirrors, and a cozy fireplace—you know, just in case all the dancing makes someone cold, you can light a fire and warm up (insert eye roll here).
The musicians are setting up when I enter, and I know my aunt has to be here somewhere, making sure that all the preparations are ready to go.
I scan the room and see her. She’s standing in the corner talking to a woman whose back is to me.
“Ovie, why in the world didn’t you tell me that Storm Grayson is coming?”
Her gaze flicks up to me and my aunt, who is like a miniature Kristin Chenoweth on steroids, grimaces. “Well, Blair, if you’d like to know why, it’s because I didn’t invite him.”
“Then who did? Mama? Dad?”
“I did,” comes a commanding voice. The woman standing beside Ovie turns around and my knees buckle. “I invited Storm Grayson, and what are you going to do about it, kid?”
Standing in front of me, wearing a brocade dress and high heels, with her silver hair twirled into a tight bun, is my nana.
Mydeadnana.
I scream, and Ovie grabs me before I faint on the floor. I right myself and exhale a deep breath. “Nana?” My gaze flicks to Ovie. “What is going on?”
My grandmother clasps both hands in front of her. “My dear, what’s going on is that you and the rest of your sisters have to marry, and I’ve come back to make sure that it happens. I’d like to say something along the lines of ‘over my dead body,’ but it looks like I’m already dead.”
Then she throws her head back and cackles, while my stomach churns like I’m about to vomit. Somehow this night has gone from bad to worse.
And guess what? The evening’s just getting started.
4
This is bad. This is extremely bad. Nana coming back from the dead isn’t just unexpected. It’s unprecedented.
When I screamed earlier, it brought Mama to the ballroom. She took one look at Nana and said to me, “I thought you knew about Nana. That’s why you wanted to talk to Ovie.”
