I needed to not screw this up. We would be together all weekend, even sharing a cabin. It would be torture to start crushing on him and a disaster if I made everything totally awkward and ruined any chance of rekindling my friendship with him and River.
The ride home with a guy who had just rejected me would be hell. I wasn’t sure I’d make it back to Pittsburgh without dying of mortification.
So even though I really, really wanted to crush out on Kai, I fought it off. I told myself I was being creepy, transferring my childhood crush from River onto his twin, and that it was inappropriate for me to distract from the wedding in any way.
We pulled up into the dirt parking lot and found a shady spot away from all the other cars. People were gathered underneath a pavilion, which was framed between a couple large cabins and a sort of hall. The old trees towered above everything, and I was delighted to see a number of blue-and-white forget-me-nots still blooming near the creek that passed along the site.
Kai and I took turns changing in the car while the other person held watch. I hurriedly slipped out of my shorts, horrified someone was going to appear in the window, and pulled on a pair of light blue trousers, which I paired with a white button-up. When I climbed out, I saw that Kai had finished dressing himself. He wore a casual gray suit that fit him remarkably well, with a pale pink shirt and a sharp purple tie.
“Wow,” I said, blinking. “You look great.” As soon as the words came out, my cheeks heated. “I mean, that’s a great suit. Should I have a tie on, too?”
“You’re perfect,” Kai said with a smile. “I’m the double best man, so I feel like I have to, but they made it extra clear on the invitation that guests should wear whatever they feel comfortable in.”
I nodded as I smoothed down my shirt. “Got it. Do you need to run off and take care of wedding business right away?”
“No, come on,” he encouraged. “I want to introduce you to a few people.”
We approached the crowd as I cast my eyes around. River and Leo had a small group around them, in the shade off by one of the cabins. They were each wearing a similar blue suit, although with very different cuts. Not far off, gathered around a picnic table, I saw what I assumed was the other couple, one tattooed guy with long hair and a shorter guy with glasses, smiling together and entertaining.
“Oh my goodness, it’s Izzy.”
“It reallyisIzzy!”
I stopped and turned. Walking side by side and looking very much like I remembered them were Kai and River’s moms. May wore a pale yellow suit that ended in a pair of shorts, and her gray hair was buzzed tight, almost the exact same haircut as Kai’s. Beside her, Chris beamed in a flowing blue dress, with curls tumbling past her shoulders and a couple of colorful necklaces bobbing as they walked.
“Wow, it’s you!” I said, a wide smile filling my face as junior high memories flooded my brain.
“Are you working in the sciences?” May asked immediately, poking me lightly in the chest. “You better tell me you’re doing what you love.”
“That doesn’t have to be the sciences, sweetheart,” Chris laughed.
“But he has a mind for it!”
“I’m a botanist!” I jumped in, laughing. “I work for a local conservation project. Thank you for remembering.”
“Of course, dear,” Chris said as she took me in for a hug. “How could we forget?”
The way she said it, so sincere, pulled me back into the familiar warmth of their family.
No wonder I was so obsessed with River when I was a kid. I doubted that my father remembered what my job was, considering he hadn’t asked about it in years, but Chris and May remembered me and my interests fifteen years after we last talked.
“We just got back from a research study in Antarctica,” May said as we all started walking toward the party. “Not much botany down there, of course. We were working with solar winds and magnetic fields, and—”
“Okay,” Kai laughed. “Can I get a proper hello from my moms before the science talk starts?”
I grinned as his moms buried him in a hug from each side. They’d been in Pittsburgh for the last week, I knew, and from what I understood with their research schedule, it wasn’t as common for them all to be together as they might have liked.
We made our way into the party slowly. It seemed like everyone wanted to say hi to Kai. He was confident and kind, always asking questions and holding eye contact. And although he was polite and kept introducing me, I fell quiet by his side.
It didn’t really bother me. My favorite kind of crowd was one where I could sit back and listen without being put on the spot.
But for about an hour, it seemed like the only words I said were,Izzy, nice to meet you, andOh no, we’re just friends.
That last one got particularly hard to force out. Twice, my voice almost cracked by the end of the sentence.
He was just so handsome, and it was so, so nice to pretend that this was an actual date.
Kai glanced at me out of the corner of his eye while a few work friends walked away. “Sorry, I hope the introductions will be over soon.”
