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Doubtful, Ari turned her attention to the twins.
“What is it?” Grayson asked, annoyance in his tone.
“Have a seat first.”
“The wait staff isn’t going to take any food orders until Rita and I arrive, and I know people are hungry. Besides, I don’t want Rita going too long between meals.”
“It’ll only take a minute,” Javier said. “I swear.”
Grayson glanced at Rita, who nodded.
“Be quick.” Grayson sat.
Phhtt!
It sounded like someone loudly passed gas.
Javier and Mateo burst out laughing and high-fived each other.
Grayson rose and held up a whoopee cushion. “Nice. Real mature.”
That only made the cousins roar all the louder.
Rita took Grayson’s hand. “Let’s go.”
Ariana rose, shaking her head in disbelief at Javier and Mateo. Hopefully this would be the last of their antics this weekend. But she couldn’t help thinking it was only the beginning.
ChapterFour
Rita alternated between sipping her water and stuffing her mouth with pre-meal bread from the basket in front of her. The awkwardness with the wedding party before dinner had only been the warm-up for the actual meal. She would rather sit with Grayson’s cousins than their three sets of parents. Hers were still mad at her for divorcing Boone — who was currently serving a life sentence in prison — and Grayson’s divorced parents and stepparents were barely hiding their disdain for each other.
This would be the last meal she would sit with any of the parents. But she would have to suffer through this one in the meantime.
Grayson squeezed her hand. “Don't worry, it’ll be over soon enough.”
She returned the squeeze. “I wouldn’t make it through the next hour without you.”
“Remind me, whose idea was it to have all of our parents at one table?”
“Pretty sure it was yours.” She took another piece of bread.
Her mom leaned over. “If you keep going at the carbs like that, you won’t fit into your dress on Sunday.”
“Mom!” She glared at her.
“You’re barely able to hide the pregnancy as it is.”
“I’m nottryingto hide anything. And my dress will fit just fine. No need to worry about me.”
It wasn’t like her mother ever did, anyway. Rita only heard from her parents around the holidays. They hadn’t even bothered acknowledging her birthday since her divorce.
“Your divorce is official, isn’t it?” Mom asked, as if reading Rita’s mind.
Rita drew a deep breath. “Yes, Mom. Thanks for the reminder.”
“It just all happened so fast. How can we be expected to adjust so quickly?”
“It shouldn’t have happened at all,” Dad grumbled.
