“You get to do the guest book?” Lana asked. “Lucky.”
I really didn’t care what job I got. But by the look on her face, she did.
“Lana, you’re on programs,” Liz continued. She looked at her pad, then back at the table. “And there’s the refreshments for the rehearsal. Anne wants waters and iced tea. So we’ll need cups and pitchers.”
“At the Egg,” Kasey said from the kitchen, where she had lined up several buckets of flowers. “I’m about to run the truck over to get them.”
“Trav, you’re going to the Tides to check on the golf carts, yes?” Liz asked.
Her husband, who was stout with a boyish face and Anne’s fair coloring, nodded. I had not yet heard him speak. Then again, maybe she did enough talking for both of them.
“I can’t believe you got the guest book,” Lana grumbled to me. “That’s the best job.”
I just looked at her. “Are you serious?”
“It’s a written record,” she replied. “Something that is kept. Not like programs, just given away.”
I sighed. “You can do the guest book.”
“No, no. I’m fine.”
There was the sound of gravel crunching as the truck pulled up. When I went out onto the porch, I saw Clark was behind the wheel, looking annoyed. Ben was in the passenger seat.
“What is this about Liz needing chairs or something from Bly Supply?” Clark called out. “We were halfway there, had to turn around.”
As he went inside, Ben climbed out of the truck. He was holding a bag from the phone store.
I eyed it. “So. It’s finally happening.”
He glanced down. “Oh. Yeah.”
I was acutely aware of the rare awkward silence that followed. “Look,” I said. Might as well just spit it out. “Colin showed up.”
“I heard. Next it will be you two getting married.” Immediately, his face flushed. “I don’t know why I just said that. It doesn’t even make sense.”
Only a sentence. But it felt like we were closer to where we’d been, if only the tiniest increment. “A lot of this doesn’t make sense,” I replied.
Clark stuck his head out the door. “You’re doing Bly Supply solo,” he told Ben. “I gotta stay back with Kasey and help bring stuff over from the Egg.”
I saw a figure behind Clark, coming down the hallwaytoward the other side of the doorway. “We going to Bly Supply? We can take my car too.”
It was Colin. Of course it was Colin. And he already had a plan.
“Who are you?” Clark asked him.
“Colin Frisbee.” He stuck out a hand, the motion as natural as seeing him breathe. “Finley’s friend from Lakeview.”
“Clark.” They shook. “This is Ben.”
Colin turned, again stretching out his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Ben took it, giving him a curt nod. There was no world in which I’d ever pictured this happening. “So you two are—”
“Going to Bly Supply,” Colin finished for him. “Liz gave me a list.”
“Ben’s going too.” Clark tossed him the truck keys. “Now it’s a party.”
Yikes. I looked at Ben, who seemed about as enthusiastic as I felt. Well, at least we still shared something.
