I floated up the stairs and went into my room, heading for the bathroom. My eyes were bright in the mirror, my hair an absolute mess. Lips kiss swollen. I smiled to myself before I grabbed a makeup wipe to take off my mascara.
The dazed feeling lasted through the next day.
“Someone had a nice night,” Julia said at breakfast.
“I did. The chocolate mousse was to die for. I’m going to have to thank Sasha for recommending it,” I said.
“She and Jax are coming over today to hang out, so you can tell her yourself,” Hollis said.
“We’re making candles,” Julia said.
“Oh, fun.”
“You want to join us?” she asked. Figuring I didn’t have much else to do besides work, why not?
“Sure.”
“Great!” That made Julia happy, and I liked pleasing my sister. She was always so busy pleasing everyone else.
I was ravenous for some reason, and I asked for more bread to go with my shakshuka. The dish of eggs poached in a spicy tomato-based sauce was my new favorite go-to breakfast.
I went upstairs to take a quick shower before the candle-making party and they’d already gotten underway when I came back down and walked over to the barn.
Amanda was cat-sitting Lucky so the kitty didn’t get into any of the candle stuff and make a mess or hurt herself.
When I left, Amanda was carrying Lucky around like a baby and talking to her in a soft voice as Lucky purred.
Hollis had set up a folding table in the living room and moved a bunch of furniture around so we had space to work.
Wax was boiling in pots on the stove, and Julia was taking the tops off all the scent options.
“Remember that lady who made a candle that smells like her junk?” Hollis said.
Everyone cringed.
“I’d like to forget, thanks,” Julia said.
Sasha whispered something to Jax, and she laughed. I pretended to be fascinated by a little bottle of orange essential oil.
“Okay everyone, pick your scents and your colors,” Julia said.
I selected a few floral scents to go together while Julia set up the containers she had and hung the wicks so we could pour the wax around them.
Julia helped us pour the wax, add the color and scent and mix it together before moving it to the final container.
“Now if we really want to do it like they did in the olden times, we can do dip candles,” Julia said, demonstrating how you could dip a long wick string into a pot of wax. The wax would dry, and then you’re repeat the layer until you had enough built up to make a candle.
“That seems like a lot of work,” Hollis said.
“It is, but it’s satisfying,” Julia said.
Hollis put on a record and joined Julia to make a dip candle. Sasha and Jax decided to make some more pour candles for gifts for their families and I got distracted by smelling the scents. I mixed a few to make a nice combination and then poured a second candle, this time I hoped it would have a light green color when it dried. You had to guess, because the color was completely different before it hardened.
“Oh, I completely forgot that I have glitter,” Julia said.
“How dare you. I could have made glitter candles?” Sasha said, pretending to be mad.
“My love, you don’t need glitter,” Jax said, taking the glitter away from Sasha. “I’ll do the glitter.”
“But now you’ll be covered in glitter,” Sasha said.
“It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make,” Jax said.
Sasha was adding a ton of color to her wax.
“This one needs glitter,” she said, and Jax carefully added the glitter, as if she was mixing a dangerous substance.
“Is that enough?”
“More,” Sasha said. “More glitter always.”
Jax added more until Sasha was satisfied with the amount of sparkle in the dark candle.
“It’s for my niece. She’s a little bit goth and a little bit glitter,” Sasha said.
“She sounds awesome,” I said.
“She is.”
I finished my second candle and we all decided it was time for food, so Hollis and Julia got cooking in the kitchen and Sasha and Jax pulled out the pasta salad they’d made.
“Why don’t we eat outside?” Hollis suggested, so we took our food to the garden, and Hollis laid out a couple of blankets. It was a romantic afternoon, but I didn’t feel weird around all the couples. I was used to that, being with my siblings who were almost all married.
“MK went on a date last night,” Hollis said to Sasha and Jax.
“Ohh, with who?” Sasha said, her eyes lighting up at the idea of new gossip.
“Myself,” I said. “I went to that restaurant you told me about.”
“Did you request a song from the piano man?” Sasha asked.
“No, but I will next time.”
“You should. I got him to play a super inappropriate song once and it was awesome.”
Jax rolled her eyes.
“What was the song?”
She told me and I choked on my food.
“Did anyone recognize it?” I asked.
“A few people gave him looks, but the majority didn’t seem to notice a classical version,” Sasha said, snickering. “It was still one of my favorite dates.”
“It was not mine,” Jax said, and everyone laughed.
“I like the idea of going on solo dates,” Sasha said. “I might have to start doing that. Especially in the middle of the day. Play hooky from work and treat myself.”
“I’m a big fan,” I said. The lie sat in my stomach, but I was protecting Piper. She wasn’t ready for anyone to know what we were doing, and I was going to respect that.
Talk shifted to Linley’s baby shower, and what everyone was getting from the registry.
I sat back and let them talk around me and my mind drifted back to Piper. I’d have to ask her what the best gift to get for Linley might be. She had a ton of items on her registry, and I wanted to get something she’d really use.
My phone buzzed with a message and it turned out to be from Piper.
Preston has now asked if he can have a friend over for a tickle party. I may have made a mistake.
I snorted and replied.
Tell him that you can only have a tickle party when you like someone very much I sent.
I hoped that made her laugh.
Very funny. He has already asked me where babies come from and I distracted him with a lollipop. Don’t think that’s going to work in this case she sent.
Yikes. Kids and their questions. I’ve had my niblings ask that stuff before and I was happy to hand them off to their parents for that particular conversation I replied.
We fired messages back and forth, and I sent her the link for Linley’s registry and asked what I should get.
Crib sheets and mattress covers. Hands down she responded.
Thanks for that. I wanted to ask someone who would know I sent.
She sent me a video of Preston running around in the yard after bubbles. It made me wish I was there with both of them. I didn’t tell her that. I just sent her a picture of the picnic.
That’s such a fun idea. Maybe I’ll do lunch out here. I’ve been just lazing in the sun she said, adding a picture of herself wearing a loose dress and a large sun hat. Her makeup was minimal, or nonexistent.