by K. M. Scott
“Try to keep it to the minor misdeeds, okay? I don’t want to be served with divorce papers on my damn honeymoon,” Ethan said with a chuckle.
“Got it. I’ll stick to the misdemeanors and stay away from the behaviors that could have gotten you put away.” Raising my right hand, I smiled. “She’ll never know the worst of you, I swear.”
He shook his head. “She’s lived with me for two years, Cole. Trust me. She knows the worst of me already.”
“But she doesn’t know about high school Ethan, I bet. That guy has probably stayed hidden, hasn’t he?” I teased.
“That guy doesn’t exist anymore, man. I grew up. My youthful indiscretions don’t matter now.”
I’d wanted to ask about Diana all night, so now seemed as good a time as any to segue our conversation to the topic of her. “Speaking of our youth, I have to say what you told me about your sister stunned me. I had no idea. She was always a sweet girl, so I just figured she’d settled down long ago with some nice banker your parents loved.”
Ethan shook his head and frowned. “No. Diana has spent the last few years dealing with the mistake I made.”
Damn. I hadn’t brought up Diana to make Ethan feel like shit.
“You were a kid. You made one mistake. I’m sure she doesn’t blame you for that. She’s not that kind of person.”
He sighed, blowing the air out of his lungs. “I know, but it doesn’t make things any easier for her. I have to say, though, that where the rest of us Stones have failed miserably, Summer has really helped her. Since she’s been around, Diana has started to go out more. It’s still not great, but I think she’s trying.”
“So she’s just been living in the Richmont in Midtown these past few years? I can’t imagine what that must be like,” I said, even as my brain tried to do just that.
Diana had been so full of life back when we were in high school. Always there with a smile for everyone, she brightened up any group lucky enough to have her in it.
“It’s bad, but I don’t want you to think she’s a basket case. She’s just got some issues because of the accident.”
Taking a drink of beer, I tried to lighten up the conversation. “Who doesn’t? I mean, I wasn’t even in an accident and look at me. I only chase after women I shouldn’t want because I have some asinine mommy issues. I bet Diana’s going to be okay. She just needs some time.”
Ethan rolled his eyes. “You chase after women you shouldn’t want because you’re a dog. It’s not exactly the same thing.”
I shrugged. “Maybe not, but everybody’s got their problems. The key is to find someone who doesn’t think your issues are so fucking scary that they can’t handle them. At least that’s what I’m telling myself because the alternative is worse. How’s that for some psychological thinking?”
“Sounds like bullshit to me, but I’ll take anything that sounds like my sister might someday have the kind of life I wish she’d have,” he said before tossing his empty beer bottle in the garbage.
It did sound like bullshit. What the fuck did I know about the things Diana had been going through since the accident?
I wanted to know, though. Seeing her at Tressa’s engagement party brought back memories I hadn’t thought of in ages but once they came flooding back, I remembered how happy I was when she and I were spending time together. Maybe it was simpleminded to think that time meant anything to her now after all she’d been dealing with, but it did to me.
Even though I risked raising Ethan’s suspicions if I asked about her any more, I couldn’t stop myself, so as casually as I could, I asked, “So is she at least enjoying the penthouse at the Richmont?”
That sounded about as smooth as forty grit sandpaper.
My friend didn’t answer right off but just stared at me like he didn’t understand the question. Finally, Ethan said, “No. She’s just in an ordinary room. My father gave her one on the first floor.”
“Why not the penthouse?” I pushed further, knowing at any minute Ethan would probably ask me why the hell I was even interested in any of this.
But oddly enough, that question seemed to make him want to open up about it, and he answered, “Well, Tress was living there until a few months ago when she moved in with Killian, so it wasn’t available. I’m not sure I can see Diana living in the penthouse anyway. She’s not that kind of person.”
“The kind of person who wants to be left alone and away from people? I’d love a penthouse. It sounds like the perfect place to stay if I have to be in a hotel.”
He smiled and shook his head. “And that’s why you’re exactly the opposite of Diana. In all honesty, I don’t remember why my father gave her the room she has. That time is pretty much a blur now. It’s hard to think of.”
The sadness in his voice told me I couldn’t push any more on the subject of Diana, so I reverted back to my joker self to lighten the mood again.
Spreading my arms wide, I grinned. “I’m the opposite of everyone, man. It’s part of my charm. Let’s say I come by it naturally. My grandmother used to like to say if you have to be different, you better be charming. She claimed that’s what made my father so successful. Of course, he went to prison for embezzlement, so maybe I shouldn’t base my style on him, huh?”
“How is Anthony Knight these days?” Ethan asked as he stood near the refrigerator and opened a new bottle of beer.
“He’s still doing ten to fifteen in a federal prison in the Keystone state, so I think we can safely say he’s not doing great.”
Ethan sat down across from me again and nodded. “Sorry. I thought there was a chance he might get out for good behavior or something like that.”
“It’s only been ten years as of last fall, so maybe. I don’t know. I leave that stuff up to my brothers. They go to see him. I’m not much for the pilgrimage to the incarcerated, thanks.”
And with that, I had a stark and the best reminder why my best friend since grade school never wanted me within ten feet of his favorite sister.
Chapter Five
Diana
The familiar chime from my TV told me someone was calling, so I quickly straightened up the area where I sat on the couch filled with magazines and my journal and waited to see who would appear in front of me. Seconds later, I saw Ethan’s face and knew by the happiness in his expression that he’d popped the question and gotten the answer he wanted.
Before I could even say hello, he blurted out, “She said yes! She said yes, Diana!”
I forced a smile as tears welled in my eyes. My brother was getting married.
“I’m so happy for you, Ethan! Tell me everything, and don’t leave out a single detail,” I said as I settled into my spot on the couch to listen to his story.
“Well, after I talked to you, I figured I better come up with something other than just a nice dinner and the ring. I couldn’t think of what to do, though. Summer isn’t a five-star restaurant kind of girl, so I didn’t really know where to go. I thought about taking her back to where we first met in Australia, but that didn’t feel right either.”
So typical of my brother. More than a minute into our conversation, and already he’d buried the lead.
Eager to hear the juicy details of the story and not his deliberations, I leaned forward toward the screen and said, “Get to the good part. I’m dying to know what happened. Did you take her somewhere exotic? I’m sure Daddy had no problem with you taking the plane, right?”
“I thought about that too, but I went a different way. I thought you wanted me to get to the good part?”
Impatient to hear it all, I nodded. “I did, but then I had the idea that maybe you took her somewhere I hadn’t thought of. Go ahead. I won’t say another word.”
His smile spread across his face as he proudly explained what he finally decided. “We’ve been thinking about buying a house, and Summer’s been looking at a place just outside the city. She pointed it out to me a few times last month. It reminds me of Mom and Dad’s house, except it’s abou
t one-fifth the size. It’s got a yard Trooper can run around in, and it’s in a nice neighborhood. Again, it’s nothing huge like our house growing up, but she likes it and has mentioned it a few times as she’s searching for houses.”
Ethan Stone, my brother and horrible storyteller. I loved him dearly, but my God, was he bad at this.
“So you got cheeseburgers and drove by the house while you two ate them? What happened?”
“I bought the house two days ago and took her up there to surprise her. I’d had dinner brought in from Farini’s and it was waiting for us when we got there. I actually have Tressa to thank for that because she handled the restaurant delivering the dinner since I was busy driving Summer out there. I surprised her with the house first, and then after we finished dessert, I took out the ring and popped the big question. She said yes and cried so much if I didn’t know her I’d think she didn’t like it all, but since I do know her, I knew the crying was because she was happy.”
As I listened to Ethan’s story, I could barely believe what I was hearing. Of all the ideas I’d had for his big moment, I’d never imagined anything so thoughtful and sweet.
“I’m so happy for you. I knew she’d say yes, but after what you did, what girl would want to say no? A gorgeous, three-carat diamond engagement ring and a house all in one night? What did Mommy and Daddy say when you told them?”
A sheepish look came across his face. “I haven’t yet, so like I asked Tressa, I’m asking you. Don’t tell them. I want to surprise them. Summer and I are going out to the house to have dinner tomorrow night, so we’re going to tell them then.”
“They’re going to be so happy, Ethan. I know they love Summer, and Daddy’s going to be beaming at the news that you’re getting married. He won’t be able to stop smiling for a week, I bet.”
As I said those words, my heart hurt at the reality that I might never be the reason my father experienced such happiness. The blissfully happy look on his face the whole time he walked around the party last weekend told the world he was so proud of his daughter, and now he’d have that same expression after hearing Ethan’s news. I wanted to think I would be responsible for making that same smile happen after all the hours of worry he and my mother had devoted to me, but at the moment, I seemed like a lost cause.
“I’m worried he might fall over when we tell him. Me, Ethan, his misfit son who took screwing up from a pastime to practically an art form, getting married and settling down in the suburbs. First a girlfriend, then a dog, and now a wife and a house. I’m not sure Dad is going to be able to handle it all,” my brother said with a chuckle.
“You were never a screw up. You were just more of a wild child than Tressa and me. I always knew one day you’d find your brand of happiness. I’m so happy for you, Ethan.”
“That means a lot to me. Summer’s on her way over to tell you what happened, so I better let you go. I love you, Diana. Oh, and you better be ready for when she asks you to be a bridesmaid because she’s already got her list written down, and you’re on it, naturally.”
“I’m ready. Call me after you and Summer go to see Mommy and Daddy, okay? I want to hear how it went and what Daddy said.”
“You got it! Talk to you then.”
The screen went dark, leaving me alone in my little hotel room as I thought about the phrase always a bridesmaid and never a bride. I couldn’t even say that about myself. I’d never been a bridesmaid. How could I? Until just a couple years ago, I spent nearly every waking moment in this room. My friends from high school and college had fallen away long ago, first after the accident and then when I couldn’t be anything more than a face on their screens. I didn’t blame them for forgetting me. In some ways, I’d forgotten me too.
Now, though, with Tressa and Ethan both starting their new lives, I wanted to see if I could too. Mine didn’t include anyone in love with me like theirs, but that didn’t mean I had to be alone forever, did it?
Summer finished telling me all the wonderful details Ethan hadn’t bothered to include about his surprise proposal, like he had the house furnished by a stager the realtor knew so they didn’t have to sit on the floor while they ate their veal piccata before he asked her to marry him and they were planning a June wedding the next year. My brother, like most men, only gave the high points of the story. For the rest, I had to rely on my future sister-in-law.
Leaning back on the couch, she sighed. “I have to give it to him. Ethan can be very romantic when it counts,” Summer said with a smile that showed how happy and content he’d made her.
“Even though the rest of my family doubted it, I always knew he had it in him. It just took the right woman to bring it out.”
I reached out to take her hand in mine to look at the engagement ring again. When Ethan showed it to me the other day, it looked beautiful, but up close, it was nothing less than stunning. “I can’t get over how gorgeous this ring is!”
Blushing, she beamed a smile that lit up her face. “He really did knock it out of the park, didn’t he? Just when I think he couldn’t be any more perfect, he goes and does something like this and the house. Can you believe it? I feel like the luckiest woman in the world, Diana.”
“I’m so happy for both of you.”
Summer thanked me and then fell quiet for a moment, her face growing darker than it had been a moment before. “You’ve become one of my best friends, Diana. Tell me you’ll find a way to be one of my bridesmaids. I know it’s a lot to ask because even though Ethan and I want a small wedding, I have a feeling once all our parents get involved, the guest list is going to mushroom exponentially and there will be a lot of people around. I wouldn’t ask if it didn’t mean so much to both of us to have you right there with us on our big day.”
The way she practically begged me made saying no impossible. But I never wanted to not be involved in the most important moments of my loved ones’ lives. I just struggled with being around crowds of people.
That didn’t matter. Ethan and Summer meant too much to me to even think about bowing out of their big day. I did have just over a year before that, so maybe I would be okay.
I squeezed her hand, partly because the mere idea of how being around all those people would terrify me, and shook my head. “I wouldn’t think of missing it for the world.”
My answer made Summer’s face light up, and she squealed in delight. “Oh, that’s great! Let’s go out and celebrate. We can do whatever you want. Eat, shop, or just walk around. It’s a gorgeous day out there, perfect for window shopping. What do you say?”
She had no idea how much I craved leaving that room that every day became more and more like a prison. I didn’t need convincing to go out like she wanted. As strange as it seemed, living in a city with millions of people in it felt oddly comforting since nearly all of them never noticed me. The situations that were hard were the ones where everyone’s eyes focused on me, or at least I felt like they did.
“I say let’s do it!” Jumping up in excitement at the thought of getting out, I grabbed my purse off the nearby table. “We can look for bridesmaids’ dresses, if you want, while we’re shopping.”
Summer stood and began heading toward the door. “I promise I won’t dress you guys in those ugly dresses bridesmaids always have to wear.”
Suddenly, she stopped and turned back to look at me. “That sounded awful. I didn’t mean that the gowns Tressa’s having us wear are ugly. They aren’t. That woman couldn’t pick out ugly in a lineup.”
“Oh, I didn’t take it that way. Tressa has the best taste of all of us Stones. Well, maybe equal to my father’s. Her bridesmaids’ gowns are classic, just like her. You can’t go wrong with sleeveless, black silk, floor length dresses, especially when you’re having eight women lined up in a row in a church.”
Quickly changing the subject, I added, “How many bridesmaids are you having?”
“Two. You and my sister, Dawn. Three, if you count Tressa, but she’s technically going to be matron of honor since she
and Killian will already be married. She’s already warned me that if I ever use that term around her, she’s going to make my life miserable,” Summer said with a nervous giggle.
“Trust me. I know my sister. She will. So no using the word matron ever again,” I said with a smile as I guided her out of my room. “You know, just in case because I’d hate to see you slip one day in front of her.”
Terror settled into Summer’s eyes. “Don’t even think it.”
We walked through the hotel lobby and said hi to everyone there who knew Summer well after two years of coming by to see me. On our way out, the doorman Albert tipped his hat to us and wished us a good day like he always did when he saw us. My father’s employees treated us like old friends, and I appreciated their gestures. I’d miss them when I left the hotel.
“Do you want to go to that shop on Thirty-Seventh Street? I’ve heard good things about it,” Summer said. “I don’t think I want to go to the boutique Tressa’s going through up in Chelsea.”
“Why not? It’s not like money is an issue, so I’m sure you could find something there for your gown and our bridesmaids’ gowns,” I said as we walked along the sidewalk.
“Oh, I know. It’s just that we have different styles. Tressa is high fashion. I’m more what you might call low fashion,” she joked. “Plus, I don’t want her feeling like I’m intruding on her plans, you know?”
I knew by the worry in her expression that Summer was genuinely concerned that her and Ethan’s news might eclipse my sister and Killian’s. It was understandable, but my parents had room in their lives for two big celebrations a few months apart. Anyway, Tressa and Killian’s wedding day was this August, and Summer and Ethan’s wouldn’t be for ten months after, so it wasn’t like they were one right after the other.
Hoping to put her mind at ease, I nodded my understanding. “Don’t worry. My sister is marrying a famous athlete. Just that fact will make it huge news for the gossip pages. You don’t have to be concerned that your wedding a year later will affect that.”