AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes. No. I don’t know. Lindsay openly suspected me, and Mom acted like it wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities with as much ‘stress’ as I’ve been under. The word ‘stress’ has been tossed around a lot lately in reference to me.”
She leaned away from the doorjamb. “Yes, stress drives people to kidnap wedding dresses all the time. Do they think it’s because you’re jealous that Lindsay’s getting married?”
I apply my lipstick and press my lips together. “Yes, they all assume I’m jealous of Lindsay.”
“Because you are.”
“I am not! I’m happy for her. Troy is great.”
“But—”
I sighed. “Yeah.ButI’m the older sister. I was supposed to get married first.”
“To Josh.”
I narrowed my eyes and shot her a dirty look. “No. In general.”
She swiped my lipstick and applied it to her lips. It looked better on her. “Yeah. Because you’ve done everything else first in your life and now Lindsay’s finally getting ahead at something.”
I swept my face with a light powder and put it back in my makeup case.
“That’s not true at all. Lindsay does everything first and better—college, her first boyfriend, her period.”
“Yeah, because that’s the one thing you really wish you’d been first at. Come on.”
I conceded that point. “It doesn’t matter. Lindsay isalwayscoming in first.”
“And you want to be the winner instead.”
“It sounds so immature when you put it like that. I’m happy for Lindsay. I really am. I just wish I was happier for me.”
“And that you’d married Josh.”
“No!” I cleaned up the sink and turned out the bathroom light. “Come on. Let’s go. The Statue of Liberty isn’t going to see itself.”
I had to practically push her out the door.
“You never want to talk about him, but it all goes back to—”
“Josh!” I said as the man himself stopped short to keep from colliding with us. “Are you stalking me?”
His cheeks grew the faintest tint pinker. “I’d love to stalk you, thanks for the offer, but I haven’t got the time. I’m out to perform a groomsman duty and get one of Troy’s cufflinks repaired.” He pulled the cufflink from his pocket and held it out for my inspection.
“The end is broken off.”
Josh nodded. “Groomsman Dave used it as a corkscrew last night before realizing the wine bottle he was trying to open was a screw top. I’m taking it to the jewelers to have it repaired. Apparently it’s life or death—these are the sacred cufflinks Lindsay bought Troy on the occasion of their first joint trip to the mall.”
“Don’t let us keep you.” I pushed Isla toward the elevators. She dug her heels into the plush carpeting.
“Hold on!” she said. “How’re you doing, Josh? It’s been years, man.”
She hugged him, and he hugged her back with a sweet smile on his face. There was a time when all three of us were friends. Josh lost Isla when he lost me, though it seemed she wasn’t harboring the hard feelings for him that I was. And why would she? He’d broken my heart, not hers.
“So you’re living here now? Doing the artist thing?” he asked her when they stepped apart.
“In Jersey, technically, yeah, but doing the artist thing.” She rubbed her nose. “Trying to, anyway.”
“You’re knocking it out of the park. I saw that piece you did—the pigs in space one?—in the paper. Incredible.”
