Page 18 of Wedding or Not

“Except it’s real life.”

“Stop being such a downer. This is working for us, so it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t exemplify prime social health.”

He laughs breathily at that as he passes the phone back.

I watch the reel again. It’s really well done. The way the small gestures are included in repetition makes it feel romantic. Intimate. Even Wes’s face looks kind of swoony as he straightened my sweater back at the flea market.

I’ve never in my life considered Wes to be in any way swoony, so it’s a startling and uncomfortable sentiment. I’m flushed as I put my phone away.

Wes has been watching me watch the reel. “It’s make-believe,” he says softly.

“I know.”

“So don’t start getting all weird and embarrassed with me again.”

That snaps me right out of my self-consciousness. I give him a cool glare. “I’m not weird and embarrassed.”

“Good.” His mouth twitches slightly.

Ridiculously, the expression makes me want to smile too.

CHAPTER 6

I was sixteen when the twins, Iris and Parker, were born.

No one was expecting my parents to have more children after so many years. Not even them. My mother never actually said so, but I suspect they were using the rhythm method for birth control, and the twins were the predictable result.

But my parents were still young and healthy enough for the surprise new additions to our family to be celebrated. And so was Tessa when she was born two years later.

My parents never asked or required me to do a lot of caretaking of the younger children, but being me, I took it on myself anyway. I parentified myself if such a thing is possible.

I looked after them a lot in their early years, and ever since our parents died, I’ve done even more.

I love all five of my sisters—none more than the others. But my relationship with Audrey and Natalie is different than with the younger three. I feel maternal toward them as much as sisterly.

Maybe when they’re older that will change, but Tessa is still only eleven and the twins are thirteen.

They’re at entirely different stages of life than me.

Shortly after she became the legal guardian of the youngest four (since Natalie was still underage then), Aunt Grace instituted Sunday evenings as family time, a tradition we’ve continued all these years.

At thirteen, the twins have gotten a little eye-roll-y about it sometimes, but they’ve never asked to sit out.

The next day, we’re all there—the six of us plus Aunt Grace—at five to make homemade individual pizzas and play board games. Tonight the game choice is Risk, which was my father’s favorite and one we play regularly in honor of him.

We divide into four teams since we’re too many to play as individuals. I immediately volunteer to be a team on my own because I know no one else will want to do it.

No one objects.

I’m not a good enough player for the more competitive among us to care, and Audrey, the best, gets nabbed immediately by Tessa, who treats all games like life-and-death.

Two hours into the game, being a purely defensive player, I’m focused only on holding on to Australia. I let the rest of the teams battle for the larger continents and enjoy the good spirits.

Parker is in that mood where she can’t stop laughing, and Tessa is screaming outlandish, old-fashioned insults she learned from watching too many pirate movies whenever another team makes a successful advance. Iris has always been the shyest and quietest of us all, but even she is flushed and giggling as she and Aunt Grace conference briefly before making their move.

“How could you attack us like that, you scurvy knaves!” Tessa was barely perched on her stool as she watched the play, and she jumps up with her loud exclamation, making wild gesticulations as she fences with an invisible sword.

Parker almost falls out of her stool laughing. The twins are identical with chestnut-brown hair and green eyes, but Parker keeps hers in a bob while Iris’s has grown all the way down her back, so it’s easy for anyone to tell them apart.