Page 39 of The Wedding Favor

“It’s for the place cards,” she said quickly. “That’s all.”

“Abe,” I said, tugging at the form-fitting, long sleeves. “Abe Ramos.”

“Oh, good. He does have a name.” Her voice was sugar sweet. “I was starting to wonder if you were making him up.”

“He’s real,” I muttered, lifting a leg to see just how wide the bells on the bottom were. “Can I take this off now?”

“Oh, sure.”

I heaved a sigh and shuffled toward the dressing room. “This was the last one.”

“That’s fine. I don’t think we need to try anything else on,” Missy said from behind me. “I know my favorite.”

“Do I get to tell you mine?” I asked.

“This is her wedding, Iris,” one of the Ashley/eighs said, but both of them rolled their eyes. Again, in union. They needed to take this act on the road. A very long road, far away from me.

“Which one?” I asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as I could. “I need to know so I can get shoes.”

Missy waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll figure out the shoes.”

Oh, I was going to worry about it.

“I think I’ll surprise you on the wedding day,” Missy said. “Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

I really, really, really hated surprises.

FOURTEEN

“Some of the kindest people in life are often those we never know.”

—excerpt from the unpublished memoir,

Darling, I Must Say by Gloria Hayes

That evening, after surviving the wedding shopping and excruciating long lunch that followed, I headed over to my sister’s house. At least once a month, Mom and I had dinner at Mae’s house, a sprawling one-story estate complete with a nine-foot stuffed moose in the great room. The moose came with the house. In the back, a big red barn housed an elite home gym. Add in the swimming pool and several acres of land, and it was a pretty nice place to be.

In the backyard, I waltzed over to Chris, Mae’s husband, where he stood manning the barbecue at the edge of the large pergola-covered patio off the back of their house. From afar, Chris might seem intimidating, as a former NFL tight end coming in at six feet five inches and at least 240lb. But he was all golden retriever on the inside. How he ended up with my grump of a sister was still unclear.

“Hey.” He grinned. “Glad you could make it. Where’s your mom?”

“She has book club tonight. She sent a watermelon in her place.” I glanced around but Mae was nowhere in sight. “Is it just me or has Mae seemed extra… extra lately?”

He smirked. “She’s cute when she’s grumpy, isn’t she?”

“I swear you’ve been hit too many times on the head.”

“Two things can be true at once.” He grinned and I grinned back.

Chris was impossible not to like. He radiated charm. While Mae was all this-is-serious attitude, Chris liked to have fun. They evened each other out. Both were firstborns and would do anything for their families. They happened to have very different ideas of what that looked like.

“Joking aside, I think with the move and all the changes…” He frowned. “It’s getting to her.”

“Daddy!” a little voice screeched from the patio door. My niece, Lulu, short for Louisa, pumped her pudgy three-year-old legs, practically flying across the patio to her father.

Until she saw me.

“Eye-bis!” she screamed and pumped her legs even harder, her bright red hair streaking through the air. This girl did everything with her whole heart. She threw herself at me and I hefted her up on my hip.