Diana whispered in her ear. “We’ve been doing this for two years now, and it always just turns into a gossip fest. No one bothers to read the books anymore.” She gave Hanna a wink.
“Gotcha,” Hanna said softly. Okay, gossip. She could do this. The women around her began talking about Hunter Smith’s birthday party. Hanna recognized his name. Drake had talked about him when he came home from school one afternoon. They were in the same class, and Drake had listed him as a potential new friend. It made Hanna feel warm inside to know that her son was clicking with some of the kids.
Genevieve sat down on the piano bench. “Mary Katherine is going all out for this one. Did you see the invites? How cute was that photoshoot they did of him in the pirate costume?”
Hanna looked up. The invites had already gone out? Drake hadn’t received one.…
“I heard she’s going to have a huge pirate’s ship in the backyard that the kids can play in, and an actor is dressing up as Jack Sparrow,” Maya said, fanning herself. “I really hope he looks like Johnny Depp.”
Hanna’s heart sank. She had met Mary Katherine at the PTA meeting and had seen her both mornings at drop-off this week. Why hadn’t she told her about the party? Was Drake the only kid in their class who was not invited? She knew what it was like hearing recaps of events that happened without her, and even though it hurt, she could handle it. But could he? She pictured the tears her sweet sensitive boy would shed after discovering he was left out.
Her sorrow turned to rage as Taffy went on about the lunch. “It’s being catered by the same company that did her Christmas party. I already requested the cheese straws.”
As all of the ladies cooed over the details, Hanna slouched down into the sofa. She scolded herself internally, feeling like this was all her fault. If she would have made a better impression on Mary Katherine, perhaps the mom would have made Drake front and center on the guest list. After all, every parent had some say over who their kids hung out with.
She listened as the women continued talking about the upcoming party.
“I hear they got a two-thousand-square-foot bounce house that has a dance floor and DJ booth in the middle,” Maya said. “When it’s over, we might even have to have an adults-only jumping session.” The other moms cheered with excitement.
Hanna put on a fake smile, but inside she was crushed. As much as she wanted to believe that someone overlooked Drake’s invitation by accident, she had a sinking feeling their invitation was forgotten on purpose.
CHAPTER 20 Lexi
Martin is asking what we want to do for the send-off.” Lexi stopped in her tracks in the formal section of the department store and studied the rose gold iPhone in her hand. Her mom was standing next to her, grabbing potential mother-of-the-bride gowns off the rack. Lexi had invited her to go dress shopping, but she was finding it was hard having a sweet mother-daughter afternoon when Martin was blowing up her phone every couple of minutes with a new decision she had to make. She read his latest text out loud: “Fireworks or a rose petal cannon?”
Her mom, looking for her size in a rack of navy, beaded, off-the-shoulder gowns, raised her eyebrows. “What in the world? What happened to just throwing rice?”
Lexi silently recalled suggesting birdseed to Martin a few days ago, citing the fact that it was both eco-friendly and a cute nod to Seth’s future occupation with animals. But her planner had shut it down, saying it was overdone. “The send-off’s the last thing people will see at your wedding,” he had explained to her. “You need to make a statement.”
But she wondered how many thousands of dollars that statement was going to cost her. She stood in the middle of the store and gripped her phone tightly in her hand for a second, then shoved it back in her bag without responding to him. “I’ll have to think about it,” she said quietly.
Her mom looked back at her and cleared her throat. “What do you think of this one?” She held out a black one-shoulder gown with tiered organza ruffles.
Lexi eyed it and then scrunched her nose. “It feels like a funeral with the black. Plus, it would clash with the bridesmaids’ blush dresses for the pictures.” Not to mention, she had heard Nancy talking about a wedding where the bride’s mom wore black and how it was the most atrocious thing she had ever seen. Lexi took the heavy dress out of her mom’s hands and hung it back on the rack.
Her mom sighed, and then continued eyeing a section of lilac chiffon dresses with cascading ruffles. “So, how’s Seth holding up with all the wedding planning? Is he excited?”
Lexi ran her hand across a gray silk dress. “Oh, you know Seth. He doesn’t care about the details.” She tried to sound breezy, not wanting her mom to catch even the slightest hint of worry in her tone.
But the truth was, ever since they began planning the wedding, things hadn’t been the same between her and Seth. At first, he just seemed indifferent about everything, but lately, he had become distant. Lexi remembered the conversation she had with Nancy about how guys didn’t care about wedding stuff, but it still hurt that he didn’t want to help at all. It was his day, too.
Her mom grabbed an emerald green one-shoulder gown and studied it for a second, then looked back up at Lexi. “Seth really doesn’t have any ideas of his own?” There it was. The question she had been waiting for.
Lexi crossed her arms. “I think Seth just wants to get married. I’m taking care of the rest.”
Her mom frowned and faced her, the two of them surrounded by sparkly dresses. “Just make sure you’re not losing sight of what’s most important: that you’re marrying Seth.” She paused and put her hands on her daughter’s shoulders. “Not Martin… or Nancy.”
Lexi clenched her jaw. Her mom had seen first-hand how opinionated Nancy could be. A few days ago after one of their meetings with Martin, Lynn even made a joke about Nancy’s choice for the mother-of-the-bride corsages. “If I have to hear ‘dusty pink garden roses’ one more time…” her mom had said, emphasizing the words with an exaggerated southern accent like Nancy’s.
After a small chuckle, Lexi had finally said, “Yeah, she’s passionate about her flowers.” She agreed with her mom that her future mother-in-law was a little over-the-top. But now Lexi felt like her mom was using that moment to cast doubt on the entire event.
Lexi felt like she was finally getting in Nancy’s good graces. In fact, they had gone out for lunch a couple of times, just the two of them, over the past few weeks. It was a huge deal since that had never once happened before they started planning the wedding. At the end of the day, Lexi felt like this wedding was the key to his parents’ acceptance of her. And even though Seth said he didn’t care about that, she did.
“It’s not like that, Mom,” she said as they continued walking through the aisles of dresses. “I’ve given Seth plenty of opportunities to make decisions, but he just doesn’t care.”
“I know, I know,” Lynn said calmly, continuing to browse through the store. “Anyway, I know things are a lot different these days. It seems a lot more stressful. When your dad and I got married, the only decision we had to make as a couple was what kind of cake was going to be served in the church reception hall.”