I get Winnie and I both into our rehearsal dresses and meet everyone over at the cabin.
“There you guys are!” Lauren waves us over as we duck inside and out of the humid August air.
“Sorry. It was her last day at camp.” I grimace and Lauren wraps Winnie in a giant hug.
I see Tanner across the way, already staring. It feels wrong to not be under his arm or at his side. He sits at the kitchen table with his sister and I stay by Gwen and a couple of Lauren’s friends from the city, Cal and Elyse.
They’re talking about taking some time away from the city and figuring out what their next adventure might be. Specifically, out of Chicago and to a beach. Then Gwen adds how she fell in love with a boy named Andy at Lac Dunes Beach when she was younger. She thinks the dunes could probably use a bookstore.
We run through the ceremony a few times and I try to keep my eyes off of Tanner. I avoid him almost as good as he’s avoiding me. Once Lauren feels good about everything, we all head toward the diner for the rehearsal dinner. It has been transformed with flowers and white table clothes and candles.
Winnie and I stand near the photo table Mayben and Gwen have set up when Tanner approaches. He looks devastating in his black slacks and button up.
“How are my sheep?” Winnie asks him, almost looking shy.
“Great. No baby yet.”
Winnie sighs. “When will the baby come?”
“This fall I think.”
Winnie looks up at me. “Can we come back when the baby sheep is born?”
Tanner gives me a soft questioning smile.
“Sure,” I tell her. “As long as Tanner doesn’t mind.”
“I’m the grandma,” she says. “He isn’t allowed to mind.”
“You can even name the baby,” Tanner tells her.
“I already know a name,” she says and doesn’t go into any other details.
Tanner opens his mouth to say something, but then Myranda, Lauren’s agent, claps her hands to gather us for dinner.
By the time we finish, the high school aged staff comes in and starts clearing the dishes.
“Oh, you’re Hannah,” one kid says and runs a hand through his mullet. “I’m Bailey. I help take care of the cow named after you.”
“Another Hamilton brother,” I confirm. “Nice to meet you.”
“Tanner was right.” He clears my empty glass.
“Right about what?”
He shrugs. “That you’re hot.”
“I did not sayhot.” Tanner swoops in and gives the teenage boy a decent swat upside the head.
“Oh right. What did you say? The love of your life? The one that got away?” Bailey shrugs and walks away like a baby giraffe unable to move his legs in a cohesive line. The smirk on his pimpled face as he glances over his shoulder tells me he knew exactly what he was doing.
“Tanner—" I stand, but he’s already walking away.
“Hannah and Winnie, you’re staying with me at the cabin tonight, right?” Lauren catches up to me. I hadn’t even realized I had followed Tanner a few steps.
“Laur,” Rhett cuts in. “We already live together, what difference makes it if we see each other the morning of the wedding?”
“We are about to spend two weeks in a beach house. I think we will make up for lost time. You can stay at Tanner’s tonight.”
