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“Nothing as magical as our Mackinac Island,” Cindy said. She lifted a hand and unclipped her hair, allowing the tresses to fall beautifully along her neckline. “Even Elise comes from Los Angeles and she’s extended her trip, day-by-day, until.... Who the heck knows when she’ll leave?”
For the first time, Cindy gave Elise a friendly smile, one that welcomed her, if only slightly, into her family home.
She was still an outsider, but here she was: surrounded by her sisters. What a strange thing.
Tracey, Cindy, Michael, Wayne, and Elise sat together at the long dining table, which was stationed beneath a large painting that Cindy reported she had purchased in France several years before. The painting was rather ugly, nothing to write home about. Elise had always found that funny about expensive things: as long as they had a story, people no longer saw their quality or lack thereof.
“Los Angeles,” Michael said as he plopped several spoonfuls of salad into his salad bowl. “What part?”
“Calabasas,” Elise replied. She lifted her glass of wine as recognition played itself out over his face.
“I know it,” he said. “Although I spent much more time in Silver Lake.”
“Oh! My ex-husband lives there with his new, much younger girlfriend,” Elise said with a funny laugh.
“In Silver Lake? Wow. That doesn’t seem like the kind of place to start over,” Michael said. “I bet he feels really uncomfortable.”
“I think he does,” Elise said. “It’s almost enough to make me feel bad for him. Almost.”
Michael laughed good-naturedly. With every mannerism, every laugh, every flip of his head, Elise found herself falling more and more for this rambunctious man.
A nephew? Is this what it feels like to have a nephew?
“So. Let’s see here,” Tracey said, lifting a hand and counting out on her fingers. “You made references to Little Italy and Los Angeles so far. Both coasts. You must have spent time in the middle, as well.”
Michael gave a half-shrug. “The place is covered in mountains. I couldn’t miss out on those.”
“But darling, what were you doing out there?” Cindy asked. Her eyes reflected both fear and intrigue.
“That’s the thing about having kids, isn’t it?” Elise heard herself say.
Cindy and Tracey both gave her confused yet curious glances—as though they had forgotten she was the type of person they could relate to.
“What do you mean?” Cindy asked.
“They grow up and discover so much more of the world than you knew about,” Elise said. “My daughter Penny goes to school at Berkley, and she calls me every few days with brand-new information about, say, whales or the political climate in India or...” Elise shrugged. “She makes me remember how big the world is.”
“It’s both big and so, so small,” Michael said.
“As proven by you both being here, I guess,” Wayne said, eyeing both Elise and Michael.
“Something like that,” Elise said hurriedly.
She didn’t want to force her lovely potential sisters into wanting her in their life.
It wasn’t that simple. Nothing could be.
That moment, the front door opened. A voice hollered a “hello!” as a golden retriever hustled down the hallway and entered the dining room. The golden retriever’s face stretched into a beautiful smile as he hustled up toward Wayne and placed his nose on Wayne’s thigh.
“Hey, Buddy,” Wayne muttered as he stroked behind the dog’s ears.
“Is anyone here?” the man called from the foyer.
Elise’s heart stopped its reckless beating.
Why had she been invited there that night?
Why was she there—and Alex wasn’t?
