“Whoa,” she heard him say in the other room. “What’sthis?”
He wandered back in carrying something, and she felt a jolt of discomfort as soon as she saw the thick sheet of embossed paper. Why had she shoved it in the junk drawer instead of throwing it away?
“It looks really fancy,” Gael said, his eyes wide. “It’s aweddinginvitation. You didn’t tell me we were going to a fancy wedding. I never went to a wedding before.”
“We’re not actually going,” Jenny said quickly.
“Why not?” Gael asked, his eyes going to hers. “It’s on New Year’s Eve, so there’s no school.”
He looked so betrayed that she almost couldn’t bear to explain it to him.
“We would have to get plane tickets,” she told him. “And I haven’t seen the groom in years.”
Both of those things were the truth, even if they weren’t thewholetruth.
“Erik Anderson,” Gael read out loud, then glanced back up at her. “That’s the groom, right?”
Jenny nodded, wishing that the sound of his name didn’t still cause a pang in her chest.
“We were friends in college,” she told Gael, skipping over the part where she was pretty sure she had been in love with Erik, though the timing had been all wrong.
How many times had she dreamed of marrying him herself back then?
The two of them had been part of a small group of holdovers—the kids who stayed in the dorms over the holidays for one reason or another. And they did their best to have a nice time, even though all of them were pretty homesick.
It was incredible how well you got to know someone when there was nothing but lonely time stretching out in front of you. And out of that small group, she had bonded with Erik more than with any of the other kids. She’d also had a fatal crush on him. And though he’d never given her the slightest hint it was returned, it never stopped her from fantasizing about how the two of them weremeant to be.
But of course life had taken them on different paths.
“He’s marrying somebody calledGoldilocks?” Gael asked, his eyes twinkling with suspicion.
“I think that’s just her nickname,” Jenny said, nodding.
“This sayswedding and reception,” Gael said, his eyes back on the invitation with its beautiful golden swirls. “And it saysno gifts,so we don’t have to worry about buying things. Where is Trinity Falls?”
“I think it’s on the far side of Philadelphia,” she told him. “Close to Amish country.”
“Amish country,” Gael said wonderingly. “Is that where they have horses and cows and all?”
“It is,” Jenny said. She couldn’t help smiling at the boy’s enthusiasm.
“Are you sure we can’t go?” he asked. His eyes were on the paper in his hand, but he was clearly seeing a whole lot more.
“Would you really like to?” she heard herself ask. “It will probably be pretty boring.”
“Darlene’s wedding wasn’t boring,” he said right away.
He said it with such authority that it took her a second to realize he was talking about something that happened on a TV show, not the wedding of someone he actually knew.
“Weddings on soap operas aren’t like real ones,” Jenny explained. “A real wedding probably just means a church service and reading the vows, and then a dinner after for the family and friends. No one will be objecting or kidnapping anyone.”
“Or changing their will and giving away the old peach orchard,” Gael said wisely.
“Exactly,” Jenny said. “Most kids don’t enjoy weddings.”
“I would,” Gael said right away. “I like church, and I like family and friends, and I love dinners.”
Her heart ached a little as she imagined a wedding from Gael’s perspective and realized that the little boy really would love the chance to have a meal with a great big family after a church service.
