“Hey, Gracie!” she calls from the kitchen.
“Where’s May?” I ask, shrugging out of my coat and handing it over to Alec.
“She had to bail,” Lily replies. “Has a stomach bug that she described in way more detail than I needed, but insists we record the entire family chat and send it to her after so she doesn’t miss the deets. Her word.”
“Something to drink, G?” Alec asks, going to the fridge.
“Water—bubbly if you’ve got it.”
“Lemon or plain?”
“Lemon.”
“Lily?” Alec asks, not looking at his wife as he pulls out a can of sparkling water for me.
“I’ll have some of that merlot from last night, thanks.”
They don’t look at each other during the exchange, and I stifle a sigh. Maybe it’s a good thing I’m about to have a lot of time on my hands—helping these two fix their marriage could be a full-time job.
I help myself to a slice of baguette and some sort of garlicky mushroomy concoction that I recognize from girls’ night—Lily had asked Keva for the recipe.
Alec hands Lily a glass of wine and me a tall glass with sparkling water and a lemon spiral twist draped artfully over the side. “Fancy!”
“Only the best at Chez Wyndman,” he says, giving a formal butler bow before helping himself to the appetizers.
Lily’s focused on wrestling open the plastic wrapping on cocktail napkins she picked up at Bubbles when she’d stopped by on Sunday after brunch with a friend. The napkins are cute. Two girls walking arm in arm through Central Park surrounded by fall foliage. I’m glad I ordered some for the store, but the artist in me couldn’t help but think about what I would have done differently had it been my design. Added a cute scarf for one of the girls, boots for the other. Maybe a leashed puppy pouncing on a leaf…
Alec glances at his wife a moment, then lifts his crostini and nods toward the other room. “I’ll be in my office if you need me. Tell Caleb I say hey.”
Lily’s head snaps up, and she seems to see—really see—her husband for the first time since I’ve been here. “You’re not staying for the call?”
Alec’s got the crostini halfway to his mouth, but he pauses in the doorway and looks back at her. “I thought it was a family call.”
Her head snaps back just slightly. “You’re family.” Unless you don’t want to be.
“Not Cooper family,” he replies quietly. Unless you want me to be.
I chew my mushrooms and refrain from rolling my eyes. If this were a cartoon, I’d smile pleasantly and bonk their heads together just hard enough to knock some sense into their stubborn married asses.
“Get over here,” I say to Alec as I lean forward and open Lily’s laptop. “You’re a huge part of Bubbles and this family. You should be here for this discussion.”
I’m sitting in the middle of the sofa, but when I see them walking toward either side of me, I quickly scoot to my left so they have to sit next to each other. Lily narrows her eyes slightly, as though trying to figure out if I’m manipulating the situation, but I feign preoccupation with getting the call set up.
Lily sits in the middle, Alec joining her on the other side just as the video chat connects and Caleb’s smiling face appears.
“Oh, thank God,” Caleb says when he sees Alec. “Another male presence.”
“Um, I believe the thank God should be reserved for the fact that you got rid of that facial hair,” Lily says.
He rubs his bare chin. “You think? I’m sort of missing it.”
“It looked like a weed,” I say, backing up my sister. “Or pubes.”
“And they wonder why I moved out of state,” Caleb mutters before looking back at Alec. “How are you, man? It’s been a while.”
“Good, good,” Alec replies. “You?”
“Same. Got a new client who’s sort of a pain in the ass, but the pay’s good. Got a new girlfriend too.”
“What?” Lily and I say at the same time.
“How did I not know about this?” I demand. “She better be a brand-new girlfriend, because I just talked to you two days ago, and you made no mention of this development.”
He scratches his ear. “It’s been a few weeks. I didn’t mention it because you’d start doing that thing.”
“What thing?” I scowl.
“You know. The thing where you start asking if I’ve met her parents, when she’s coming to New York to meet you guys, whether she wants a small intimate ceremony or if you should start looking for availabilities at St. Patrick’s…”
Lily nods and looks my way. “You do that. Alec and I started dating when you were nine, and the second time he came over, you showed him a picture you’d colored. Of my wedding dress.”
Alec leans forward and looks at me. “Really good drawing though.” He gives me a thumbs-up.
“And my actual wedding dress did end up looking startlingly like that picture,” Lily admits. “But the point is, you tend to get a little…”
“I’d call it aggressive fairy godmother,” Caleb says.
“Okay, but was I wrong?” I say. I waggle a finger between Alec and Lily. “They did end up getting married. And,” I say to Caleb, “I wasn’t pushy when you were dating Missy, because I knew she wasn’t the one. And Lily, just before you met Alec, that weird Dan asked you out, and did I not tell you not to bother?”
“You did.”
“And did you listen?”
“Again, you were nine.”
I lift my eyebrows, and she sighs. “No. I didn’t listen.”
“And what happened?”
“He took me to a party, then spent the night making out with his ex.”
I lift my palms. “I rest my case.”
Alec glances back at the laptop screen to Caleb. “So I’m guessing that’s a no on the new girl meeting your sisters?”
“Yeeeaaah, I’m going to go ahead and not freak her out by having Lily ask her credit score and Gracie mailing her pictures of wedding cakes.”
Lily looks at me. “Our sisterly qualities are so underappreciated.”
“Totally.” I look back at Caleb. “Can I at least see a picture of her? Is she pretty? Does she make you laugh? Can I call her sis? What color does she want her Christmas stocking to be?”
“Uh-oh,” Caleb says, “I hope my Wi-Fi doesn’t cut out on me. I just hate when my nightmares play all the way through to the end…”
“But—”
“Maybe we give poor Caleb a break and let Gracie explain why she’s called the family meeting?” Alec says.
Lily and Caleb both turn their attention toward me, expectant and a little curious. I don’t blame them. One of the painful self-realizations of the past few weeks is just how little of my own life I’ve initiated. I’m the Cooper sibling who sorts through and soothes others’ announcements and choices. That’s about to change.
I take a deep breath. “I think we should close the store.”
There’s a long moment of silence, followed by Lily’s “Seriously?” and Caleb’s “Wait, what?”