When I finally, reluctantly, return to the group, my mother has brought out the rest of the champagne bottles to chill in a bucket of ice. She presses flutes into Nate and Mr. Lancolm’s hands. I manage to grab one for myself and take a few initial swigs, willing myself to calm down.
Between Cara, and the engagement, and now Nate, my lungs feel a little tight, like I’ve swallowed too much lake water.
There are screams from inside the house and the rapid pounding of feet as William runs out onto the porch. He pauses briefly to fire two Nerf darts at Nate, who, without missing a beat, crumples to the ground in mock agony. I can’t help but smile as Nate plays along. William starts to aim a third dart at Nate, but Linney’s voice calls for him. His eyes widen in alarm, and he squeezes byMr. Lancolm, jumping off the porch into a clump of hydrangeas to avoid his mother’s wrath, just as Linney appears on the porch. Her eyes flick to the spent Nerf bullets on the ground and the petals rustling below us. She seems briefly torn between reprimanding her son and appreciating that he seems to be in good hands with Nate, a semi-willing participant in his chaos. I watch her pluck a glass of champagne from the tray and take a long swig.Good choice.
Louder but slower clomping follows, and Anna Carol shuffles over to Linney’s side in sparkly plastic high heels. She has upgraded her mermaid swimsuit to a floor-length mermaid costume, my Miss Teen Georgia tiara still perched precariously on her head. She pauses in front of the group of adults, taking in the scene and holding her own glass of light gold liquid aloft.
“Linney, is that champagne?” Pete chokes out, appalled.
“It’s apple juice, Peter. Calm down.”
Cara steps over and bends down to Anna Carol’s height. “You must be Anna Carol. We didn’t really get to say hi earlier. I’m Cara. You know, our names are a lot alike.”
“No.” Anna Carol’s voice rings out high and true. A sweet chord of victory reverberates through me. I suppress a smile. I might have lost the support of everyone else in my family, but at least I still have Anna Carol.
Cara blinks once. “Oh, okay.” She begins to straighten but stops as Anna Carol’s fingers come up to the golden strawberry leaves dangling from her neck.
“I love your necklace.” Her voice is breathy and slightly awed as she reaches up to finger the jewelry.
And just like that, I’ve lost my last ally.
Cara smiles down at her. “Oh, thank you. I love your mermaid outfit.”
“More of a unicorn guy myself.” Nate has brushed the grass off his clothes and climbed the stairs to the porch. He catches my eye and winks, then crouches down and offers Anna Carol his hand in a high five. “What’s up, AC? Keeping chill?”
“That’s not my name.”
“Right. It’s your initials,” he explains. “AC. For Anna Carol.”
“No.”
Nate opens his mouth, but Linney shakes her head at him, mouthing,Not worth it.
“Okay then.”
“My initials are A. C.M.” She punctuates each letter with a nod, her apple juice sloshing onto the patio floor.
“The dark side of monogramming everything your daughter owns,” Pete says.
“It’s my culture,” Linney says simply, taking another long pull from her champagne glass and stretching out on one of the patio loungers. I take a moment to appreciate Linney’s parenting style—so much more relaxed than our mother’s ever was.
“I think this calls for some fireworks!” my dad’s voice booms out as he takes the stairs up to the porch two at a time.
“Fireworks are for the Fourth,” I say, hating the sulkiness that sneaks into my voice. The fireworks had always been the thing my dad and I did together.
“Baby”—he flashes me the same look of wry disapproval that Cooper did back in my room—“I’ve got extras.” My mom’s eyes roll heavenward, and her lips move in a silent prayer. If there’s one thing my dad always has extras of, it’s fireworks.
“Nikki can help with the fireworks after she helps me get the food out and the table set,” Mom announces, pulling me by the elbow.
I follow Mom inside as Dad takes over entertaining Mr. Lancolmand I go into hostess autopilot. Pulling out pitchers and platters, grabbing napkins and cutlery and ferrying them out to the long table on the screened-in porch, where I place everything just so. My mom’s green-and-white-striped tablecloth flutters in the evening breeze. We’re doing family style tonight, so I place the grilled corn, baked beans, freshly sliced watermelon, and a bowl teeming with tomato salad in a line down the middle of the table. In the very center, I set the platter of shredded pork my dad spent the afternoon smoking and a pile of sesame seed buns.
It’s easy to fall into the familiar rhythms of it, and right now, I’ll do anything if it means avoiding small talk with the woman who ruined my life.
Okay, fine. Maybe Willow’s right. Maybe “ruin” is too harsh a word. But she’s still deceitful, and her entire existence will always be a cruel and painful reminder of the whole Aaron debacle, down to the fact that he chose her first. And now it feels like my family is choosing her too.
And if I’m being really honest with myself, I always assumed the next wedding in our family would be my own, not my little brother’s. The idea that I’m the last single Bennet feels like a mark of failure, another sign that my life has strayed so far from the script, it would almost be unrecognizable to the Nikki of the past.
AFEW MINUTES LATER,everyone begins to take their place, and I stake a claim on a seat as far from Cara as possible. Nate takes the seat beside me. I feel myself go a little warm at his presence.
