Page 43 of The Wedding Favor

“I am?”

Ali nodded. “You always follow through with your promises, you show up when you say you will, and you work hard.”

“Whatever,” I said, not making eye contact with anyone, lest they see how much her words meant to me. Having a father who broke every promise, never showed up, and avoided work like he was allergic to it had taught me something: I did not want to be like him. Still, there was a part of me that always worried people would see me as flaky or unreliable because I was his daughter, so I tried twice as hard to not be.

“I know about all that time you spend at Shady Cove,” Ali said.

“Everyone knows that,” Mae said.

I slumped in my seat. “Do I have any secrets in this town?”

“Nope.” Ali grinned.

“Oh, Iris,” Mae said. “We found the cutest little house in Austin. It’s in a great location and it was remodeled last year. The bathroom has a clawfoot tub.”

Not this. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“What’s this?” Ali asked.

“Yeah, about the house—” I started. Under the table, my leg bounced double time.

“Chris and I were thinking of buying a house in Austin as investment property and then Iris can live in it while she’s there for school. As a caretaker,” Mae explained.

“You’re buying your sister a house?” Ali glared at Abe. “You’ve never bought me a house before.”

“I’ll get right on that,” Abe said.

“No one is buying me a house,” I said, a little too loudly. I shot Mae a pleading look. “Please.”

I really, really, really needed to tell her I wasn’t going to Austin. Why was I being such a wuss about this? Me! One time, a guy came to the café and started hitting on Ellie. Despite the very clear “I am not interested” signals she was giving him and in addition to the wedding ring and, oh, telling him to his face, “I am not interested,” he would not take the hint. I’d had no problem confronting the jerk, got right in his face and told him he was no longer welcome. When that didn’t work, I literally grabbed him by his ear and all but pulled him to the front door. Hadn’t even broken a sweat.

But telling my sister about Austin seemed insurmountable.

I stood up abruptly with my half-empty plate. “I’m going to do the dishes.”

Chris frowned. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I don’t mind,” I said, blindly snatching up plates and bowls. I was such a chicken. A spineless, weak chicken.

Once in the kitchen. I pulled up a playlist and began filling the sink with warm water.

“You need any help?”

I jumped at the sound of Abe’s voice. “You scared me.”

“Sorry. I wanted to check on you.” He set a stack of dirty dishes on the counter next to the sink and leaned on the large granite kitchen island. “You seemed upset.”

“I’m fine.” I turned back to the sink and snatched up a plate to pre-wash. “Everything is fine.”

“Liar,” he whispered, but he sidled up next to me and held out a hand. I studied him while he waited patiently. Finally, I handed over a plate, and he loaded it in the dishwasher. We worked in comfortable silence.

“What’s Shady Cove?” he finally asked.

I side-eyed him. “It’s a nursing home.”

“You spend a lot of time there?”

“Yeah. I had to do community service in high school. After that, I just kept going back.”