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“They’renotrequired,” Cara said, glaring at their middle sister.
“No one told me to bring my boyfriend,” Tam said, also shooting a look in Stacy’s direction. Everything was about her, all the time. Tam honestly didn’t know how she survived on a day-to-day basis. She was always playing the victim. Someone had always done something wrong by her.
How she and Rupert got along, Tam would never understand. It didn’t matter if she understood a relationship she wasn’t part of, just like it didn’t matter if Alex didn’t think she and Blaine were a real couple.
At the same time, Tam was starting to have serious doubts about Blaine. Maybe it did matter what other people thought. If they couldn’t even put on a convincing performance of their mad love for each other, what was the point?
You’ve never had to convince anyone, she told herself.The relationship is real.
“Come sit down, girls,” Momma said as Daddy piled all the gifts at her spot on the table. Tam turned away from Stacy’s sharp eyes and went over to the table. She’d always sat to her mother’s left, and she went to take that seat.
She’d just settled down and taken a sip of the sweet tea there when Stacy said, “Tam, Rupert’s sitting there.”
She looked up. “What?”
“I’m sitting here,” she said, indicating the chair next to Tam. “That means Rupert is going to sit there.”
“I always sit here,” Tam said.
“Big deal,” Stacy said, her voice cold. “Go sit on the other side.”
Why she thought she could just boss Tam around, Tam wasn’t sure. She found herself standing and vacating the seat Stacy wanted for Rupert, and she went behind her mother to the other side of the table. Cara and Chris had taken spots on this side, and one lonely spot remained next to her father.
There was no place setting for Blaine, and she wondered if her mother even realized that. She didn’t seem to, and Tam faded into the background as her parents opened their gifts. Her mother let out a long sigh when she opened Tam’s gift—a pair of wine bottle charms she’d ordered months ago.
“The stones are the birthstones for the month you got married, and then each of our birthdays.” She smiled at her mother, who looked up from the delicate charms with tears in her eyes.
“That’s wonderful,” she said. “Thank you.” Tam nodded, glad she’d brought a smile to her mother’s face.
Cara had gotten them an espresso machine, and both Momma and Daddy exclaimed over that for a good minute. Daddy wanted to make the coffee right now so they could have it after dinner, but Momma managed to keep them on track.
“We need to eat while it’s hot,” she said, settling at her place.
“You need to open my gifts,” Daddy said.
“They’re not going to be anything gross, are they?” Stacy asked.
“Stacy,” Tam said. “Come on.”
“What? You don’t know what married couples do, because you’ve never been married.”
“Neither have you,” Tam shot back.
“Girls,” Momma said, and Tam felt bad for engaging with her sister.
“Sorry,” Tam said. She looked at Stacy. “Sorry, Stacy.”
Her sister did not return the apology. She held her head high, her chin slightly elevated too. She watched silently as Momma opened a new cookbook, exclaiming over it, and then a beautiful bottle of red wine.
“Thank you, Kenneth.”
“That is for later,” he said, his grin very much saying there was something secret between the two of them.
They kissed, and Stacy groaned. “Gross,” she said.
“It’s not gross,” Cara and Tam said at the same time.
“How old are you?” Cara asked. “I swear, Stacy, sometimes you act like a child.”
