That was super uncomfortable, and I didn’t know why.
My mother was getting married? My mother, whose every date I’d run off in the past? Who’d seemed resigned to the life of a spinster, but totally okay with that? She was going to get married?
“That’s great,” I said, the words oddly hollow. How was I supposed to process this? Was I supposed to process it? I’d been fine with her dating Tony. Why was getting engaged suddenly a huge issue for me?
I wrote it off as parent-related weirdness. After all, I’d just had the shock of my life the night before. And this newer, smaller shock? It was okay that I was shaken, right?
Mom frowned. “It doesn’t sound great.”
“Well, you weren’t thrilled when I told you I was engaged to Neil, either,” I shot back without thinking. I quickly apologized. “Sorry. It’s not that I’m not happy for you. I am. I’m just surprised.”
“It’s going to take some getting used to,” she agreed, as Olivia whipped the wind chimes into a deafening frenzy. “You knew Tony before I did, and he works for you. That has to be a little…”
A little like my soon-to-be stepdad once drove me to my abortion appointment?
“It’s not that. Really. I might call you Lady Sybil, but that’s just a joke. I promise I’m not going all class trash on you.” There was no reason I couldn’t tell her at least a partial truth. “It’s not your engagement. I just got some…weird news. Last night. And now, my whole deal is messed up.”
“Your deal?” she asked, with the long-suffering arched brow of a woman who’d had to speak my language for nearly thirty years.
Yikes. Better to not think in terms of numbers. Not on the same weekend as my class reunion. There were only so many little breakdowns I could handle.
“My deal. You know. My whole—” I waved a hand up and down to indicate the total of my existence. “We can talk about it when we get back to New York. I don’t want to mess up your awesome day.”
We went inside. Family arrived. Food—too much of it—made it to the table. Aunt Marie came with two of my cousins, Leanne and Beth. Uncle Doug made it, but Aunt Debbie was on a floating trip with her girlfriends down in the Lower Peninsula. Neil seemed relieved that it wasn’t as big a gathering as Christmas, and that, this time, Tony was the new, exciting addition to the family, which let him off the hook.
“We have an announcement,” Mom said, once we’d all gathered in the living room with our plates of food in our laps. Olivia ate off a metal Power Rangers tray on the floor.
“You’re getting married!” my grandma said.
Mom frowned in annoyance. “Yeah. We’re getting married. Thanks for letting me announce it.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Grandma shook her head. “I never thought it would happen.” She slid her plate carefully onto the arm of her recliner and got up to hug both Mom and Tony, who was caught awkwardly holding his food to the side so it wouldn’t spill everywhere.
“So, this happened recently, then?” Marie asked. It sounded more like a condemnation than a question. In other words, Why the hell didn’t you call me? I’m your sister!
“Last night!” Mom waggled her fingers excitedly. “I took him out to the shore, to show him the lake at sunset. That’s where he proposed!”
Neil cleared his throat, and I shot him a sly look. That was exactly how he’d planned to propose to me, until I’d ruined the moment.
Misunderstanding his intent, Mom quickly added, “Olivia was already asleep, and we weren’t gone for long.”
“Oh, no, I wasn’t concerned about that,” Neil assured her, standing to shake Tony’s hand. “Congratulations to you both.”
“Thank you, sir,” Tony said, then quickly amended, “Neil.”
“You’ll have to drive them to their honeymoon,” Grandma piped up. “It’s only fair, Neil.”
Yikes, that was another thing Tony knew about us that Mom presumably didn’t. Our little sex house on the property, where Tony had dropped us off on our wedding night.
There were going to be a lot of skeletons I’d need to stuff back into closets and what not.
“Yes, well.” Neil cleared his throat, likely thinking of exactly the same thing I was.
“So, when is the wedding?” Marie asked. “Are you going to have it here?”
“We haven’t really talked about it,” Mom said, looking to Tony. “Probably in New York?”
“My ma can’t really travel, on account of her health,” he explained.
“Well, what about me?” Grandma tried to sound offended. “I’m eighty years old! I can’t travel!”
“You just got back from Reno. You can’t use that excuse.” Mom turned to me. “Would you guys mind if we got married at your house?”
“Not at all,” Neil said automatically, but I knew he’d regret it later, when he realized it would mean putting up my entire family at our house. “A seaside wedding would be lovely.”