Wren was torn between laughing and crying. This was all just so Lark. “Of course, you did.”
“I’ve been trying to be better, but I forgot to plug my phone in last night and the battery died, so my alarm didn’t go off.”
“Which is why I bought you that alarm clock,” Wren pointed out. “You’re supposed to set both every night, remember?”
Lark slouched back in the seat. “I know I messed up, Wren. But I love this job. It’s the best one I’ve ever had.”
Wren nodded, since she agreed. “It’s perfect for you.”
Focus was a problem for Lark, so the fact she wore so many different hats in her current job helped. She jumped from cleaning cabins, to serving in the tasting room, to performing, sometimes all in the same day. While constantly shifting roles like that would drive Wren crazy, Lark thrived, loving the variety and actually functioning better as a result.
“I’ve been trying to get more organized. It just doesn’t come natural to me like it does to you.”
Wren studied Lark’s face and saw her sister’s sincerity. She wasn’t a bad person, and she wasn’t careless because she didn’t care. It was the opposite, really.
She cared about everything, all at once, and it left her scattered, pulled in too many directions. As a result, Lark struggled with time management and organization. But when she focused, she was incredible.
Sometimes Wren felt irrationally guilty for that, wondering if she’d somehow snapped up all those genes in the womb, considering those were two places where she flourished.
“You being in trouble doesn’t explain why you need me to pretend to be you.”
Lark grimaced. “I double-booked.”
“Jesus,” Wren muttered. Honest to God, if she never heard her sister say the words “double-booked” again, it would be too soon.
“A couple months ago, I agreed to work a wine festival in Norfolk with Maverick. It’s a big event, one that Lightning in a Bottle Winery never misses. I was thrilled when Nora picked me. Plus, with it being the whole weekend, it meant massive overtime pay.”
Wren nodded. “But…”
“But I didn’t realize it was this weekend. I didn’t write it down, didn’t put the dates together…” Lark paused, as if expecting Wren to come to some massive epiphany.
She didn’t. “What else is this weekend?”
“The concert.”
“Shit,” Wren breathed. “Taylor Swift?”
Lark nodded. “Aunt Judi got tickets for us to go together. She gave them to me for my birthday, remember?”
Wren nodded.
“I’ve been looking forward to it ever since because she got us amazing seats, right in front of the stage.”
Aunt Judi was the bomb when it came to giving gifts. Technically, she wasn’t their aunt at all, but she might as well have been. Judi and their mom had been college roommates and lifelong best friends.
The phrase “opposites attract” was probably coined for Mom and Judi, because there couldn’t be any two besties more unalike. Mom, a hippie from the word go, got married right out of college, never using her art degree and choosing to be a stay-at-home mother instead. Judi went the other direction, landing a job at PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh, eschewing marriage and kids in favor of her career.
Aunt Judi had claimed Mom’s kids as her own, serving as a doting godmother not only to her and Lark but to their younger siblings, Robin and Piper as well. Judi liked to brag that she got her children without the stretch marks.
Aunt Judi, wildly successful in her career, had more money than she could ever spend, and she didn’t mind spending it on them.
So for their birthday this year, Lark got Taylor Swift tickets and Wren got a new MacBook. Honestly, Wren had been relieved when she’d opened her gift after Lark to see the laptop, because the idea of claustrophobic crowds and noisy, screaming fans?
No thanks.
But for Lark, queen of the Swifties, this concert meant everything. It was a literal dream come true.
“I swear I’ll never ask you to do this again,” Lark said, her voice softening. “Just this one time.”
