The breeze was blowing strands of hair against my sticky-glossy lips. I had to keep reaching up and pulling them away with my free hand. I wished I’d put my hair up. Or not worn lip gloss.
Jacob’s hand was sweaty in mine as Luke made a toast to Mom. I glanced down at my little brother, who was wearing a soft dark-green top over white pants. His thick, wavy hair was neatly brushed for once—it was on the long side because he hated having it cut and would scream when anyone tried, but at least it looked cute that way. He also didn’t like having it brushed, but I’d won that battle this morning by bribing him: an M&M for each pass of the brush and he got to watch TV the whole time.
He was pretty adorable all dressed up. Kid-model cute. He held my hand tightly and stared up at the slowly rotating fake-palm-leaf fan above us.
We were in a room with floor-to-ceiling glass doors facing the ocean, all of them open for the party. We could hear the waves and feel the breeze, but we had a wooden floor under our feet and three walls to keep the event private. For added security, George had also asked the hotel not to use Luke’s real name, so the event schedule down in the lobby read “Anniversary of John and Jane Smith.” I took a photo and texted it to Heather with a jaunty Maybe we’re related.
“I am so brilliant,” I crowed to Jonathan after the toast was done, and waiters had started passing around drinks and hors d’oeuvres. “Don’t you think this was a brilliant idea? Don’t Luke and Mom look happy?” Mom’s face had lit up when Luke said that the last five years had been the happiest of his life, and their kiss at the end of his toast had looked pretty passionate from where I was standing.
“It’s great,” Jonathan said, and squeezed my shoulders.
“It’s really pretty here,” his fiancée added. Izzy had straight dark eyebrows and straight dark hair. She always seemed very serious and intense to me, but it’s possible I was reading too much into the eyebrows.
They moved on to talk to Luke’s business manager. I helped myself to a glass of champagne and raised it to Luke, who had caught my eye from across the room. He blew me a kiss. I had definitely lucked out in the stepfather department. And not because Luke had become so rich and famous. Because he was Luke.
My grandmother beckoned to me. She’d had her hair blown out by a professional that morning, and it looked sleek and shiny, instead of frizzy and bumpy like it usually did. Between that and the neatly tailored blue silk dress Mom had bought for her, she looked great. “Are you sure you should—” she began, but then she saw something that distracted her. “Is that a piece of cheese? Why would she give that to him? He eats way too much dairy.” She ran toward Mom and Jacob.
George came up to me. “Hey,” he said.
“Hey. Were you waiting until my grandmother left to come talk to me?”
“She’s a lovely woman. I respect her enormously.”
“Try waking up with her in your room.”
“Words cannot express to what extent I’d rather not.”
“You get drunk enough, anything could happen.”
“I’m fairly certain not that.”
“That’s the same suit jacket you were wearing last night,” I pointed out, looking him up and down. “It looks better with the matching pants. And a shirt that doesn’t clash.” The funny thing was, he looked younger in the suit than he did in his usual jeans and oxford shirts, like a teenager borrowing his dad’s clothes for a prom. I forgot sometimes that he was only a couple of years older than I was; he felt a lot older because he was done with college already, and because he was so Georgeish.
“There’s sand in the pockets from last night,” he said. “I can’t figure out how it got there.”
“Lax immigration laws? You haven’t said anything about how I look.” I spun around so the ballerina skirt on my dusty-pink dress rose up slightly and then settled back down into place. “Nice, right?”
“You know what your problem is?” he said. “Low self-esteem.”
“A compliment wouldn’t kill you.”
“I could never flatter you as well as you flatter yourself.”
I folded my arms over my chest with a humph. “I take back all the nice things I said about your suit.”
“What nice things? All you said was it didn’t look as bad today as it did last night. Not that I remember asking for your opinion.”
“Does anyone help you pick out your clothing? Do you have a girlfriend?”
“Not at the moment. I’m sure that shocks you. What about you?”
“I have lots of girlfriends.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Oh, you mean like a girlfriend with a penis?” It’s possible the champagne was getting to me. “Nope. Never had one.”
“Seriously?” His surprise seemed genuine. “I would have assumed you went through a dozen a year. Aren’t you Miss Popularity?”
I wrinkled my nose. “I would never date in high school. It would be way too embarrassing to look back on.”
“Don’t you think that depends on who you went out with?”
“There isn’t a guy in my grade who I haven’t seen asleep in class with his mouth open and drooling. Ugh.”
“I hate to break it to you, but guys fall asleep in college, too. A lot.”
“I’ll skip all my morning classes so I won’t have to see them.”
Before he could respond, Jonathan and Izzy appeared at my elbow. Jonathan said, “Georgie, the manager thought I was you and wanted to know when they should serve dinner. Can you go talk to her?”
“Georgie?” I repeated with delight.
George moaned. “I can’t believe you just gave her more ammunition to use against me.”
“I would never!” I said. “I’m not like that. Georgiekins.”
“I’m going to go talk to the manager,” he said, stepping back. “And then I’m throwing myself in the ocean. Tell Mom and Dad I loved them, Jonny.”
“Jonny’s not embarrassing,” I called after him as he walked away. “Not like Georgie.”
“Poor Georgie,” Izzy said seriously. “He’s so sensitive.”