Page 22 of George’s Big Day

He lifted his phone just enough so Thomasin could see her mother, her mother’s husband, her half-siblings, and the business that was happening instead of visiting.

“Let me get this straight,” Thomasin began, and I could tell she was seething as I crowded into the frame with Kurt so she could see us both. “You’re a fuckin’ afterthought?”

Kurt turned to me. “What is with the filthy language all of a sudden?”

“I dunno. She’s been swearing like a sailor since we talked earlier.”

“I raised you better than that,” he admonished.

“Did you?” She didn’t sound convinced.

I chuckled, Kurt laughed, and Thomasin was shaking her head.

“I’ll call you when we’re actually leaving,” he told her.

“I don’t suppose you two have booked a venue yet, have you?”

“We’re working on it,” he told her.

“You do want to marry him, don’t you?” she snarked at her brother.

“More than you can imagine.”

“It’s lucky he didn’t know you when you were in college.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

I put my arm around his neck and eased him close so I could kiss his cheek.

“You were so different, so arrogant, George wouldn’t have looked twice at you.”

“Pardon me?”

“Plus, you know, you’re so much older than him.”

“He’s thirty,” he told her, sounding indignant. “You do know he’s thirty?”

“Yes, but you’re thirty-five,” she said with a grimace. “When you were a senior in high school, he wasn’t even there yet. He was in middle school.”

He glared at her. “You’re a terrible person, are you aware?”

She cackled, and the sound, so deliciously evil, so animated and fun, made Helene turn to us.

“Who are you talking to?”

“Our wedding planner,” Kurt answered. “I’m loving this restaurant.”

She laughed at him. Not with him. At him. “You would need to be marrying up for that, my friend, not down like you are.”

Thomasin gasped, I nearly choked on my drink, and Kurt’s face flushed as his fingers turned white on the sides of his phone with how tight he was clutching the case.

“No, no, no, come on,” I husked, waving a quick goodbye to Thomasin, hanging up, then twisting the phone out of his hand. “Love.”

He turned to me fast. “I’m so lucky. You know I’m so lucky.”

“And I feel the same,” I whispered in his ear.

Leaning into me, he put his head on my shoulder and sat there and breathed for a moment, his mind, I knew, going a million miles an hour.