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On the deck outside, I spot Austin’s mother with a tall and attractive older man. They’re talking to a dark-haired guy who is grilling food.
“Hello, Jada,” Austin’s father rises and gives me a hug. “Welcome to California.”
“Hello again. How are you, love?” Alice asks.
“Good. Thanks. How are you?”
“Wonderful,” she beams.
Lilly squeals at me.
“Hi baby girl!” I greet and tickle her feet.
“You know everyone here,” Adele says, “Come meet my husband and Mom and her beau. Wait. What to drink? Long island iced tea okay?”
“Sounds good. I met your mom briefly in New York,” I say.
“Beer please,” Austin replies.
“And how was that?” Aiden asks, coming into the conversation, smiling.
“Hi Aiden.”
“Hey,” he greets and hugs me. “Welcome to the nut house. And the family. Same diff.”
I chuckle and my eyes bounce to Austin who’s smiling wide at his brother.
Adele puts drinks in each of our hands, then pulls the screen door aside and waves me out. My eyes land on Austin.
“Right behind you, baby,” he says and follows.
63
Austin
It all happens in a blink around sunset. One minute, I’m sitting with my family, cuddling my sleeping niece against my chest while watching my mother and the girl I know I’m going to marry bond – seeing my mother laughing and looking happy, having my father and his ex best friend speaking off to the side with my brother and brother-in-law looking like they’re trying, for the sake of all of us, when things go more fucked up than any of us could’ve imagined.
***
We’re just finishing dinner and my mother has already told me she wants to speak to me privately before the night is over. She’s been rather well-behaved today so far. For Audra, that is. So I instead say, “What about breakfast tomorrow instead? Come over. Spend the morning with me and Jada.”
My mother smiled at that and seemed even more at ease.
She hasn’t even been rude to Jada once, though she refuses to look at my father or Alice.
Alice takes it all in stride and talks happily with everyone, seeming completely unaffected.
Jada tried to bring Alice into the conversation twice, once asking about her accent and then asking her about Wales, her birthplace.
My mother pulled Carly into a separate conversation at that point, trying to avoid eye contact with Alice.
Her need to ignore Alice might be why she’s being so sweet to Jada, but as it’s making my girl happy right now to be welcomed into the fold, I’ll take it.
***
We’re sitting in the backyard and I’m on a lounger with my niece asleep on my chest. Aiden has just finished telling Jada and Roger the story of Carly breaking records on the leaderboard at laser tag back when “she didn’t appreciate my management style.”
“You mean when I wanted to castrate you?” Carly corrects.
“Ouch, Peaches. That’s not nice.”
She rolls her eyes. “He was the biggest alphahole ever,” she says.
“Oh, I don’t know about ever,” Jada mutters under her breath.
“Hey!” I act affronted and then I wink at her.
“Now look at you, all… ovary destroying over there.” Jada waves. “With a baby sleeping on you like that. These Carmichael boys, I tell ya.”
“They get it honestly,” Dad chimes in.
We all laugh.
“What?” he asks, affronted. “I’ve exploded some ovaries in my day.”
My mother busts up laughing. “Uh, no. My hysterectomy did that, not you.”
Alice laughs. Roger snickers.
This is bizarre. My parents getting along. Their significant others laughing as Mom ribs Dad.
***
My siblings and I exchange glances. My father, too. His brows are up in surprise as he looks at my mother laughing, sitting with Jada and Carly, looking like she’s having fun without it being related to alcohol and without looking like she’s only smiling due to enjoying anyone else’s discomfort.
But she’s been in conversation with them both for the past half hour, discussing some author my mother reads. I think Carly brought up books knowing it’d give them common ground. Jada has explained she was attending that author’s workshops in the big apple and Mom and her talked about going to a signing next month in Los Angeles when that author is doing a book tour for her latest. Sounds like the three of them are making plans to go together. My mother doesn’t even get bitchy when Jada timidly tells her she wants to be a writer and write steamy romance. My mother says she wants to read her work. Jada laughs nervously and I shoot her a look of horror.
***
I’m stretched out on a lounger by the pool, thinking I’ll pass the baby to Adele or Dirk next time one of them heads inside when from the corner of my eye, I see a flash of auburn hair.
Sienna?
“What the fuck?” I say, and watch her bolt through the yard, having come over the fence of the yard behind Adele and Dirk’s and then she’s at the table with my mother, Carly, and Jada and she’s lunging for Jada.
