31
Jack wanted to have the family over to celebrate their engagement. And he meant the whole family.
“I’m not inviting Elodie,” Celeste said, twisting the ring on her finger. It had only been a few days since he proposed, and she couldn’t quite get used to having it there. She never wore jewelry, and somehow wearing a diamond for the first time in her life made her feel like she was in costume.
“Why not?” Jack said. “She’s your sister, she’s in town, we’re having a family celebration. If Bianca were in town, I’d invite her.”
Bianca was Jack’s cantankerous—okay, hostile—cousin who moved to Florida. She knew he honestly would include her, and it was hard to make the case that Elodie was anywhere near as bad as Bianca.
“It’s not just about my own comfort level. Elodie and Gemma don’t get along, and Gemma’s our houseguest. So, for tonight, no.”
She won that battle. But the war was ahead of her. Now that the initial thrill of the proposal—romantic, unexpected, and typical Jack in its sweetness—was wearing off, fear was setting in.
When she moved to Provincetown in the mid-nineties, she’d done so with the intention of living her life differently from her parents in every way. Where she worked, where she lived, and how she lived. After the Electric Rose fiasco, she never wanted to hear the word “engagement” again. And after Paulina’s death, she found it difficult to believe in happy endings. If she hadn’t already been with Jack, she might never have found her way to a loving relationship.
It was around this time that she turned to astrology in a serious way. She felt so unmoored, so adrift and cynical, she could only look to the stars to make sense of it all. It was comforting to find a system that told her that while life could be random and cruel, she could at least have a greater understanding of herself and the people around her and make decisions with some guidance. As long as she understood the moon and the stars, she wasn’t alone. She wasn’t lost.
“Who’s the extra place setting for?” Jack said, mopping up water that she’d spilled setting out mason jars stuffed with wildflowers.
“Maud’s able to join us after all.” Maud usually didn’t have time for socializing at dinnertime once the season kicked into full gear, but she told Celeste she wouldn’t miss the celebration for anything.
“The more, the merrier,” Jack said, kissing her on the cheek. “A preview for our wedding.”
“Did I hear the word ‘wedding’?” Lidia said, traipsing through the grass holding a bottle of champagne. Celeste swallowed hard. Lidia rushed over and hugged her. “This is so exciting! Oh, and Manny should be here any minute. He had a late seal tour.”
“Can you believe it?” Jack said, beaming. “She’s finally letting me make an honest woman out of her.”
“So have you set a date?” Lidia said.
“I’m thinking my birthday,” Jack said.
Celeste looked at him. “On your actual birthday? But that’s . . . the first week in August.”
He smiled at her, either not noticing or choosing to ignore the alarm in her voice.
“Perfect, right?”
Gemma called Sanjay to tell him about the New York Times interview, and that she might need a tiny little favor: help getting her equipment and jewelry out to the Cape in time for the interview. “I’ll totally mention your photography,” she promised. “It will be good for both of us.” She said if he could bring her stuff to Provincetown, she’d find him a place to crash for a day or two.
After the phone call from the reporter, the interview was all she could think about. Alvie said they had five bedrooms at Maud’s and that Sanjay could absolutely stay for a night.
“I’m not sure that’s going to work, Gemma,” he’d said. “I have to look at my schedule.”
“Okay—no worries,” she said, thinking the exact opposite. “Just let me know.”
Before dinner, she took a walk to the edge of the bay and snapped a photo of her outstretched hand with two of her Rock Candy rings stacked on her forefinger. The water complemented the large, emerald-cut blue glass stones set in silver. She saved it to post to Instagram later.
Now, surrounded by Jack’s family at the dinner table, she tried to be in the moment.
Everyone seemed to be talking all at once—at one another, over one another. The only person not talking a mile a minute was the woman sitting next to her, Alvie’s girlfriend, Maud.
Maud was tall—close to six feet. Her silver hair was cut into a shag; she had deep-set blue eyes and smoker’s creases around her mouth. Her voice was husky, and her laugh was big. Gemma immediately understood her appeal to Alvie, no matter the age difference.
Celeste’s picnic table had a white and blue striped runner down the center and flickered with candles. At first, it seemed too large with only Gemma, Alvie, and Maud seated, but then the Barros clan arrived.
Lidia, wife of Jack’s cousin Manny, was attractive in a careless way, with thick silver-threaded hair and a cleft in her chin. She gave Gemma a hug in greeting, then introduced her husband. He was pleasant looking, with a broad nose and kind dark eyes.
“And this is my brother, Tito,” Manny said.
Tito was broad-shouldered, with the same dark eyes as the rest of them but with a thick head of white hair. Next to Tito was a young, gorgeous man with bedroom eyes and thick dark hair curling around his ears. She learned this was Lidia and Manny’s son, Marco. The pretty blonde next to him was introduced as his wife, Olivia.
Corks popped, wineglasses were filled, and Celeste and Jack served plates of takeout from Liz’s Café.
“So you’re here for the summer?” Olivia asked.
“I’m not sure for how long,” Gemma said. “I’ll be heading back to the city at some point.”
“Yeah, that’s what I said when I first got here. Now my husband and I work together on the oyster farm.”
“Amazing,” Gemma said.
“It’s a lot of hard work. But it’s his passion, so now it’s mine, too. You can’t separate the Barros men from the water.”
Everyone at the table was talking about summer work, going on about how “the season” was the time when everyone had to hunker down and wring as much revenue as possible out of everything. Gemma, meanwhile, just kept eating like it was her last meal. In addition to the Italian food from Liz’s Café, Lidia had brought over codfish cakes, baked oysters, and grilled shrimp with garlic and cilantro.
“Is it too early to put in menu requests for Fourth of July?” said Jack’s cousin Tito. “I think we were light on the dessert last year.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Lidia.
“We won’t miss it this year,” Celeste said. “Promise!”
Watching the banter, Gemma felt an unfamiliar sensation, something like belonging or contentment. It was the feeling that there was nowhere else to be, no one better to be with. It felt like family.
After dinner, Celeste stood to clear the dishes. Marco stood to help but she insisted she had it covered.
“Oh, let him help,” Olivia said. “Maybe he’ll enjoy it so much he’ll try it out at home.”
“Very funny,” Marco said.
Tito launched into a story about tourists he took out for a seal-watching tour who wanted their money back when the seals didn’t swim close enough to the boat.
“It’s going to be a long summer,” Tito said.
“I thought you’d be excited for summer, Uncle Tito,” said Marco. “You could take Iris McGinty out for a sail, a little dinner on the beach . . .”
“We broke up,” Tito said.
“What? Since when?” everyone at the table seemed to ask at once. Gemma basked in the warm glow of all the affection volleying back and forth. She felt herself smiling.
“Months ago. She said her children don’t approve. She’s so recently widowed.”
“Sean died eight years ago,” said Jack.
Gemma’s phone beeped with a text. It was Sanjay.
Okay I’ll do it.
She breathed a sigh of relief. She knew she owed him one, for this, and for so much else.
Your the best, she typed back, purposefully writing “your” instead of “you’re” because he told her once he broke up with someone because she didn’t know the difference and they’d laughed about it so hard it became a private joke between them. She waited for his response, watched three dots form, and then disappear.
Okay, well, at least he was coming. That was the important thing. And as for where all of her stuff would go, she had an idea for that, too: Across from her bedroom on the third floor, there was an empty room with a skylight. It would be a perfect studio—or at least a staged studio for the purpose of taking photographs. She’d just have to ask her aunt if she could use it.
Lidia offered to help her with the dishes. Celeste would typically tell her to sit and relax, but it was the only way she could get her alone to talk. Halfway through dinner, the engagement ring burning on her finger, she realized the one person who could possibly help her with the dilemma was someone who had also joined the Barros family from the outside: Lidia.
In the kitchen, the light fading outside as the nocturnal insects began to peep—not nearly as loud as they would be by late summer but enough to make the outdoors feel alive—Lidia rinsed the dishes while Celeste dried. The music and laughter from the yard drifted in the open window.
“Lidia, can I talk to you about something?” Celeste said.
“Of course. Anything.” She smiled at her and adjusted her yellow rubber glove.
Celeste took a deep breath. “It’s just . . . I’m not sure about this engagement.”
Lidia immediately turned off the faucet and looked at her, concerned.
“Don’t get me wrong—I love Jack. I want to be with him always,” she said, suddenly feeling foolish. “We’re so happy together. I don’t want to change anything by getting married.”
“Okay. But now, don’t you think things will change if you don’t get married?” Lidia said.
“Well, yes. I feel damned if I do, damned if I don’t. If I go through with it, I’ll resent Jack. If I don’t, he’ll resent me. I don’t know what to do.”
Lidia gestured for her to sit down with her at the kitchen table.
“What’s the real problem here, Celeste?”
She hesitated, knowing that what she was going to say would sound questionable at best. But she needed to get it off her chest, and if she couldn’t talk to Lidia, she couldn’t talk to anyone. “Bad luck comes to the women who get engaged in my family.”
Lidia frowned. “What do you mean, ‘bad luck’?”
“I mean . . . tragedy.”
“Oh, come on. You really believe that? I know you’re into astrology but—”
The kitchen screen door opened again, and Gemma walked in carrying plates.
“Oh, Gemma, you don’t have to do that. We’ve got it,” Celeste said.
“I don’t mind,” Gemma said. She set the plates on the counter and lingered.
Lidia, understanding they couldn’t continue the conversation in front of her, said, “Dear, go on outside and enjoy yourself. We’ve got the cleanup under control.”
“Actually, I wanted to ask you something, Aunt Celeste,” Gemma said. “Can I use the spare room across the hall from my bedroom just for a little? I need my jewelry-making equipment.”
She looked nervous, as though she were requesting something huge. Celeste told her yes, of course she could use it for as long as she needed. Really, she was thankful for the interruption.
It was clear from even their brief chat that Lidia wouldn’t see her perspective on the engagement issue. Now she wished she hadn’t brought it up.
She needed to consult with Maud.