“Sophie, I have the most exciting news!” She checked over her shoulder as though she didn’t want anyone else to hear. Then, she stuck out her left hand.
“Is that an engagement ring?” My brain stuttered to a halt. “Seriously?”
“We’re going to tell everyone today. He just proposed last night.” Mom was giddy. Overjoyed. And oddest of all, suddenly young in my eyes.
That was super uncomfortable, and I didn’t know why.
My mother was getting married? My mother, whose every date I’d run off in the past? Who’d seemed resigned to the life of a spinster, but totally okay with that? She was going to get married?
“That’s great,” I said, the words oddly hollow. How was I supposed to process this? Was I supposed to process it? I’d been fine with her dating Tony. Why was getting engaged suddenly a huge issue for me?
I wrote it off as parent-related weirdness. After all, I’d just had the shock of my life the night before. And this newer, smaller shock? It was okay that I was shaken, right?
Mom frowned. “It doesn’t sound great.”
“Well, you weren’t thrilled when I told you I was engaged to Neil, either,” I shot back without thinking. I quickly apologized. “Sorry. It’s not that I’m not happy for you. I am. I’m just surprised.”
“It’s going to take some getting used to,” she agreed, as Olivia whipped the wind chimes into a deafening frenzy. “You knew Tony before I did, and he works for you. That has to be a little…”
A little like my soon-to-be stepdad once drove me to my abortion appointment?
“It’s not that. Really. I might call you Lady Sybil, but that’s just a joke. I promise I’m not going all class trash on you.” There was no reason I couldn’t tell her at least a partial truth. “It’s not your engagement. I just got some…weird news. Last night. And now, my whole deal is messed up.”
“Your deal?” she asked, with the long-suffering arched brow of a woman who’d had to speak my language for nearly thirty years.
Yikes. Better to not think in terms of numbers. Not on the same weekend as my class reunion. There were only so many little breakdowns I could handle.
“My deal. You know. My whole—” I waved a hand up and down to indicate the total of my existence. “We can talk about it when we get back to New York. I don’t want to mess up your awesome day.”
We went inside. Family arrived. Food—too much of it—made it to the table. Aunt Marie came with two of my cousins, Leanne and Beth. Uncle Doug made it, but Aunt Debbie was on a floating trip with her girlfriends down in the Lower Peninsula. Neil seemed relieved that it wasn’t as big a gathering as Christmas, and that, this time, Tony was the new, exciting addition to the family, which let him off the hook.
“We have an announcement,” Mom said, once we’d all gathered in the living room with our plates of food in our laps. Olivia ate off a metal Power Rangers tray on the floor.
“You’re getting married!” my grandma said.
Mom frowned in annoyance. “Yeah. We’re getting married. Thanks for letting me announce it.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Grandma shook her head. “I never thought it would happen.” She slid her plate carefully onto the arm of her recliner and got up to hug both Mom and Tony, who was caught awkwardly holding his food to the side so it wouldn’t spill everywhere.
“So, this happened recently, then?” Marie asked. It sounded more like a condemnation than a question. In other words, Why the hell didn’t you call me? I’m your sister!
“Last night!” Mom waggled her fingers excitedly. “I took him out to the shore, to show him the lake at sunset. That’s where he proposed!”
Neil cleared his throat, and I shot him a sly look. That was exactly how he’d planned to propose to me, until I’d ruined the moment.
Misunderstanding his intent, Mom quickly added, “Olivia was already asleep, and we weren’t gone for long.”
“Oh, no, I wasn’t concerned about that,” Neil assured her, standing to shake Tony’s hand. “Congratulations to you both.”
“Thank you, sir,” Tony said, then quickly amended, “Neil.”
“You’ll have to drive them to their honeymoon,” Grandma piped up. “It’s only fair, Neil.”
Yikes, that was another thing Tony knew about us that Mom presumably didn’t. Our little sex house on the property, where Tony had dropped us off on our wedding night.
There were going to be a lot of skeletons I’d need to stuff back into closets and what not.
“Yes, well.” Neil cleared his throat, likely thinking of exactly the same thing I was.
“So, when is the wedding?” Marie asked. “Are you going to have it here?”
“We haven’t really talked about it,” Mom said, looking to Tony. “Probably in New York?”
“My ma can’t really travel, on account of her health,” he explained.
“Well, what about me?” Grandma tried to sound offended. “I’m eighty years old! I can’t travel!”
“You just got back from Reno. You can’t use that excuse.” Mom turned to me. “Would you guys mind if we got married at your house?”
“Not at all,” Neil said automatically, but I knew he’d regret it later, when he realized it would mean putting up my entire family at our house. “A seaside wedding would be lovely.”
“And we’d all get a chance to finally see this freakin’ palace you’re apparently living in,” Leanne said, looking up from her phone for the first time since they arrived.
“Oh, yeah, she looked it up on Google Earth,” Marie said with a laugh. “I thought it was an airport.”
The idea of having a party at our house brightened me up considerably. Sure, we’d had Olivia’s birthday party last month, but it had been so long since we’d had a proper grown-up, freak-out-and-let-your-hair-down kind of celebration.
I couldn’t think of a time that I’d danced since our wedding.
“We can get one of those cool tent things for the reception and put it right on the front lawn!” I almost shouted in my enthusiasm. “And floating candles in the pool!”
“Calm down, Sophie. Let your mother plan her own wedding,” Grandma admonished. “She’s certainly waited long enough to have one.
“Nice, Ma.” Mom rolled her eyes. “And what about Miss Olivia? Do you want to be a flower girl?”
Olivia looked up and stuffed a handful of scalloped potatoes into her mouth. A garbled, “No, no, no. I eating,” managed to get out around it.
Neil bent to wipe the mess off her face and hands, and I shrugged. “I think we’ll call that a maybe.”
****
Returning to New York was surprisingly disappointing. I’d kind of liked living as the old me. No housekeeper, doing my own dishes, cleaning up after myself. It had been nice.
But I was still pretty hyped to get back to having a nanny.
We’d only just pulled under the porte cochere when Neil got a text from Rudy. “Oh, bol—”
I arched a brow and pretended to cover Olivia’s ears.
“—ognese,” he self-corrected. “He has reservations at Kurumazushi tonight, and his date canceled.”
“Are you kidding?” I made a sour face. “You’re going to get to eat there before I do?”
“No, I can’t ask Tony to drive me all the way into the city. He must be as tired as I am.” But Neil still sounded slightly disappointed.
“Hey…” An idea slowly formed in my mind. Tony was about to be a part of our family. He couldn’t be our driver forever. Neil would have to stop thinking of him as an employee. “Why don’t you see if Rudy can add someone to the reservation? Then, you can take Tony out and get to know him better.”
“I know Tony!” Neil protested. “He’s worked for me for years.”
“Yeah. He’s worked for you. But he’s going to be your father-in-law soon.” Jesus, that was weird. “Why not get comfortable with him?”
“Rudy certainly wants to get comfortable with him,” Neil mu
ttered under his breath. It was true. Rudy called looking at Tony “window shopping”, because “I can look, but I can’t buy”. Neil typed in a response with his thumbs. “All right. He’ll be thrilled. But I don’t know if Tony will be.”
“It’ll be cool. I can hang out with Mom. Maybe call Holli.” Truth be told, as much as I loved my husband and as grateful as I was to still have him, getting away from him sometimes was a nice break.
When we pulled to a stop, Neil rolled down the partition. “I hate to pull you away from your fiancé, Rebecca, but I think a celebration is in order. Just…the guys.”
I covered my mouth to keep from laughing. Neil wasn’t good with colloquial American-English. It’s like his tongue rejected anything remotely normal sounding.
“What guys?” Mom asked suspiciously.
“Rudy has a reservation at an incredible restaurant,” Neil explained. “He’d like us to come along.”
Rudy might not yet know that he’d invited Tony, but apparently, it was happening, anyway.
“I’m driving,” Neil added. “Unless, of course, you’d like to try your hand with the Huayra.”
Tony looked at Mom. “Sorry, babe, I’m going out.”
I’d never thought about it before, but Tony had really never gotten a crack at any of Neil’s cars, other than the chauffeured ones. I always just assumed Tony wasn’t into cars on his off hours. I mean, I didn’t come home and work on magazines to relax. The only hobby of his I really knew about was knitting. That didn’t seem compatible with lusting over the…Panini Hoorah or whatever it was called.
“Hey, maybe you and I could hot tub,” I suggested to Mom, hoping she’d be up for it. For Christmas, we’d had a beautiful pool and hot tub put in behind the guesthouse, and I liked it more than the one at the main house.
She shrugged and sighed. “Yeah, since I’m apparently getting dumped for your husband.”
“No, you’re being dumped for a supercar.” Neil chuckled to himself and checked his phone. “We’re meeting him at nine-thirty. What time is it?”
“Five twenty-seven,” Tony replied. “So, we need to get out of here at…with traffic, I’d say six.”
“Why not just take the helicopter, then?” I asked, and they both looked at me like I’d grown antlers.
I tossed up my hands. “Fine. Drive two-hundred miles round trip just to play with your shiny toy.”
“I think we shall,” Neil said with an infuriating grin.
We unloaded our luggage ourselves and dragged it inside, and Neil promised Tony he’d be ready in fifteen minutes.
I didn’t laugh when Neil said that, but I could have. The man took at least twenty minutes to pick out his shoes in the morning. Going to a fancy restaurant—
Crap.
While Neil was changing, I quickly texted Mom, tell tony fancy place jacket required.
Then, I called up Holli.
“This is so weird,” she said in lieu of “hello”. “This is my best friend’s number, but my best friend hasn’t called or texted in like a week, so I know she’s dead…”
“Very funny.”
“Oh my god, are you her murderer?” Holli faked a gasp then laughed. “What’s up, you bitch? Why the radio silence?”
“I was back home. You knew that.” I was sure Deja had done plenty of complaining about my absence. Not that she wasn’t entitled to; I really didn’t show up to work as often as I should.
“Oh, I forgot there’s absolutely no cell reception in Michigan.”
“Listen, do you want to bitch at me, or do you want to bring your wife out here and hang with me and my mom in her amazing hot tub?” I hoped it was the latter. I missed my BFF like macaroni missed cheese.
“Deja’s having dinner with some clients. Why aren’t you?” Holli asked.
Yeah, why aren’t I? “They must have set that meeting up while I was gone. But you’re still invited!”
“Ugh. You’re all the way out there,” she complained. “And I’m not a very good driver…”
I rolled my eyes, even though she wouldn’t see it. “Can you be at the helipad in an hour?”
“I’m getting my suit and my keys, and I’m already at the door,” she promised.
I hung up with her and texted Mom, Holli’s coming. She replied with a row of heart-eyed smiley faces. Her enthusiasm was likely influenced by the prospect of showing off her ring. Then, I called our helicopter service. Being as far from the city as we were, it made sense to constantly have a crew on standby. At least, that was what Neil said. I’d gotten used to our wealth, but “necessary standby helicopter” was still something of a foreign concept to me. And our neighbors certainly did not appreciate the noise.
But it came in handy when I wanted to see my bestie on short notice.
Neil came into the kitchen, holding two pairs of nearly identical black loafers. “Which ones? The Mantellassi or the Santoni?”
“The left,” I decided after a quick perusal. They were a cool black that complemented his navy blue windowpane-print sports coat. “You’re looking very previously-on-Hannibal this evening. When did you buy that?”
“Rudy picked it out for me. Do you think I pull it off?” He frowned and tugged at the cuff. “I can’t tell if he’s taking the piss or if he really thinks it suits me.”
I went to his side and rose on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “You look very handsome. And hip.”
“I think I’m too old to be hip, but thank you for flattering me.”
“You’re fifty-four. Sting is sixty-five, and he’s still cool,” I pointed out.
Neil made a noncommittal noise. “I’m going to just pop in and give Olivia a kiss goodnight. Don’t wait up for me if you’re too tired.”
“Okay, Mr. I’m-too-old-to-exist,” I teased. “But you’re not the only one who’s going to be out partying.”
He smiled to himself as he checked his cufflinks. “Does your mother’s hot tub really count as ‘out partying’? It seems a bit more like staying in and getting drunk off your ass.”
“If it’s not my house, it’s going out,” I insisted. Besides, I never drank in our house. Not a drop of alcohol passed our threshold, anymore. Neil had been sober for over a year, but that sobriety was still tenuous. When I came back to the house tonight, I would brush my teeth and use mouthwash to get the scent off my breath.
“Be safe,” he warned, leaning down to kiss my forehead
“I’ll have parental supervision,” I reminded him, and reached up to boop his nose. “All you’ll have is Rudy.”
Neil’s face resisted his smart-ass smile. “That’s not true. My father-in-law will be there.”
****
My mom dresses for the hot tub like she’s Mariah Carey conducting a poolside interview. Hair curled, makeup touched up, giant sunglasses on top of her head, despite the fact the pool area was shaded, she came out of the house with a sixer of Mike’s in each hand, her long, sheer caftan billowing behind her as she walked.
“Are those jelly heels?” Holli gasped, reaching up for the hard lemonade Mom offered her.
I took one and pressed it to my forehead. We’d gone into the water ahead of Mom, and I’d just hit the sweating stage. Of course, I looked wilted while Holli sat there gorgeous and waif-thin in her Day-Glo pink bikini.
Meanwhile, I’d gained ten pounds since February. It was probably water weight, considering how much of it I’d been chugging lately.
Mom toed off her shoes and said, “Yes, they are. Aren’t they beautiful?”
“And you’re rocking the peacock feather thing,” Holli went on, indicating Mom’s bathing suit cover-up. Holli wasn’t kissing ass. She genuinely liked my Mom’s sense of style. Sometimes, I felt like I was in a parallel universe with Mom and Holli working at the same Chico’s together.
“So,” Holli went on as Mom pulled off her cover up and stuck her toes in the water. “You’re getting married.”
“Oh!” Mom hurried to take off her ring and placed it carefully on
one of the lounge chairs. “Thank you. Yes, I am.”
“That’s amazing. Sophie, is that not amazing?” Holli beamed at me. “You’re gonna have a dad!”
I forced a weak smile. While she knew about my daddy issues, she couldn’t have had any idea how deeply her words impacted me. But while I tried to keep a brave face, it was impossible to pull off. My voice trembled as I tried to squeak out, “Yeah. Amazing.”
“Soph?” Holli asked, sitting up. “Are you okay?”
I turned to my mom, because tears were already leaking from the corners of my eyes. “This is not about you and Tony. At all. I’m happy for you. I just…had a really confusing and bad experience at the class reunion.”
“What happened?” Mom sank into the water beside me, pulling her hair back in a sequined scrunchie so the bleached strands wouldn’t hit the chlorinated water.
“I…” If I broke the news to her, would she feel bad? Sad? It wasn’t like she’d harbored some kind of secret love for my father. They’d hooked up at a party in high school, and she’d gotten pregnant with me. It wasn’t exactly the world’s most epic love story. I didn’t want to see her reaction, so I looked down at my feet far below the churning water. “Joey Tangen is dead.”
“Holy shit,” Holli breathed. “Sophie, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay.” I waved a hand. I still didn’t want to look my mom in the eye. I’d spent so much time in my youth blaming her or threatening to run away to find him. I didn’t want her to think I was trying to take the joy out of her engagement, too. “It’s not like I knew him. It’s just…the death of possibility. I think that’s what’s bothering me more than him actually being dead.”
“Oh, honey.” Mom moved to put her arm around me, but I held up my hands.
“No, really, I’m okay. I had my big freak out. Let’s not bring on another, okay?” I pleaded.
Mom looked like she didn’t know how to do anything but hug me, and now, I’d left her at loose ends. Then, she frowned. “Wait, how did this come up at the class reunion?”
The Sister (The Boss Book 6) Page 6