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Not me, though. I don’t know if it’s dread or avoiding the conversation that is undoubtedly about wedding planning, but my footsteps are glacially paced. As I wait for everyone else to sit, it’s almost like I’m watching a movie. I decide it’s called Happy Family Eats Meal Together: Now With Awkward Additional Brother Who Does Not Believe In Their Values System At All.
Because I am last to the table, I end up sandwiched between Mark and my mother. I don’t mind. My mom is busy fawning over the newly betrothed, and Mark is, as ever, only interested in Eden.
I slip into my chair, and my youngest sister, Lucy, grins across the table at me, wiggling her eyebrows. She’s the sibling I always connected with the most. She’s also the baby so I can’t help but indulge her. Being seated across from her is actually a relief.
I smile at her. “I heard you were at college all week on some kind of studying lockdown.”
She shrugs a shoulder and toys with her place setting, moving the heavy pewter fork around and shifting the precise placement of her ornate crystal water glass. Lucy is always moving objects around, either out of boredom or some personal sense of feng shui that no one else gets. I think it’s part of being an artist. Some innate need to make things slightly more beautiful than they are handed to her.
She doesn’t meet my eyes as she says, “I needed a break. Dad sent the family private jet to pick me up since I’m just down from the city for the day.”
Lucy is acting evasive, which is kind of strange. But she has to know that I don’t care what her reasons are for doing any damn thing that she pleases. My being nonjudgmental is one of the reasons we stay close.
I give a low whistle. “Now that’s how you travel in style.”
Lucy gives me a mischievous smile. “I know. It’s totally gauche. But it’s way more luxurious than driving four and a half hours just to be here for lunch.”
The kitchen staff appears with plates of food. I snag my napkin off my plate and sit back as a spring salad is laid before me. A woman comes around offering dinner rolls, while a third server pours me a glass of white wine.
I sigh silently. This is my parents’ normal level of pomp and circumstance for any family gathering. Fine china, crystal goblets, a full coterie of maids, and servants, and butlers, and chefs.
Me? I own a huge house with nothing set up in it but my bed and a book case. My parents are maximalists. It’s how they show love.
My mother leans over to me. “The wine is a Chablis that Sam and I found in France on our little winter getaway. It’s very delicious.”
I smile and taste the wine to appease her. I have to mask my immediate response, which is to spit it out like a child might a forkful of peas. The wine is so dry that it tastes almost astringent.
“It’s nice,” I mumble. “Seems very French.”
My mom beams at me. “I’m glad you like it. Sam says that he doesn’t care for this particular Chablis. I keep telling him that he just needs to expand his palate more.”
I spear a huge forkful of salad and give her a look. “I’m sure that he loved being told that he isn’t refined enough to enjoy something.”
Mom darts a look at her husband and gives me a wink. Then she pulls out her phone. “While I’ve got you here, River, I wanted to show you a couple of girls that are single and ready to mingle, as they say. These are the daughters of my friends Elen and Christine.”
I scowl. “I don’t need you to set me up on dates, Mom.”
She waves a dismissive hand. “Oh, I know that! And I know that you aren’t interested in getting married right away. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t meet people!”
She hands her phone to me, and I can see that she’s pulled up the Instagram account of a reedy blonde girl in yoga pants. If you added a mini-bouffant, she’d look exactly like my mom. Gross.
I frown and pass the phone back to her. “She’s very nice. But I’m not interested in the daughters of your friends. I don’t need a matchmaker.”
“Oh, River.” Mom screws up her face and releases a tremendous sigh. “I just want you to be happy.”
“I’ll be happy when I figure out the financing for the resort I’m going to build near South Shore.”
And when I rescue the damsel in distress that presented me with this opportunity. I have no time for distractions. But Pearl may just be worthwhile.
Just thinking about her warm body pressed against mine while she gazes up at me, just a little breathless? I suck in a breath and cough into a hand.
Yeah, when I secure the financing for this deal, I’m definitely taking Pearl out to celebrate. Possibly the party can take place with both of us buck ass naked and Pearl moaning my name…
“River,” my mom says. “Hello, earth to River.”
My neck heats. “I’m listening, Mom.”
Sam, who until now has just been listening to our conversation, clears his throat. “That resort is a pipe dream, son. Even if you had a concrete plan in place and investors lined up, you would still have to buy the land out from Delta Jackson. And Ms. Jackson is never going to sell. That land has been in their family for over a hundred years. There is no way that she willingly lets it out of her hands.”
