“Thank you!” She beams at me when I set the drink in front of her. “This purple cocktail is delicious!”
“Good.” I smile, glad that I made her happy.
The song changes to an oldie: Frank Sinatra.
“Oh, I love this song,” Nonna says. “Nuncio and I used to dance to it.”
“Gia, would you do the honor of dancing with me?” Carson holds out his hand.
She blushes! “I’d love to.”
He helps her stand and slows his pace to lead her to the dance floor. She uses a walker most of the time, but with Carson to hold onto, she’s fine. I watch them dance, my heart pumping in big, throbbing beats. This is so sweet of him.
Throughout the evening, when we’re not together, I watch Carson. He holds baby Marco so Ashley and Blake can dance, and he seems fine with it. He dances with little Polly, so cute. He fetches drinks for my aunties. He’s charming everyone—laughing, dancing, being the life of the party.
This isn’t an act. This is him.
My Aunt Melissa comes up to me, seeing me watch him. “You are so lucky. He’s such a catch.”
I want to cry again. “Yes. He is.”
I “caught” him. But I lost him.
I need a moment, so I head to the ladies’ room to freshen up.
Rachel’s there.
“Hey,” she says. “This is going great.”
“This? As in the party?”
“Yes. What… Hey, are you okay?” She faces me, a notch between her eyebrows.
“I’m not sure.” I sigh. I haven’t told her about the sexy bedroom shenanigans Carson and I have been up to. She suggested this crazy idea, but she’s obviously not in favor of me and Carson being together again for real. “I’m just feeling… stuff.”
“About Carson.”
“Yeah.” I touch a finger to the corner of one eye to erase a tiny mascara smudge.
“You’re totally pulling it off.”
“I guess so.” I make a face. “Emilio told us he heard we got divorced.”
“Emilio? What? He didn’t hear it from me.”
“I don’t know who he heard it from, but it was weird.” I shrug. “Anyway. Just a few more hours to get through! Everyone’s leaving in the morning.”
“You can do it.”
I’m not so sure but I stick a pleasant expression on my face and we go back out to the party.
It’s time for the cake and the slide show. I’m excited about the video I made. I think everyone is going to love it.
I move to where my laptop is set up to get it ready while resort staff roll the cake out from the kitchen on a trolley. Two of them lift the huge cake from the trolley to carry it to the tablewhere Nonna is seated. I hear the yelling before I turn to see Harvey (my cousin Clark’s son), Tripp, and Knox come racing through in some type of game.
I watch in horror as Tripp crashes into the cake, knocking it out of the waitstaff’s hands, sending it to the floor where Tripp lands on top of it.
The room goes silent. The music stops.
