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I smiled, unsure of what to say. I wasn’t used to Nina greeting me with this kind of enthusiasm. Clearly, they were both excited about something.
“Where you been, sis?” Matthew wondered.
I looked down at my dress, then back to them. “Oh, uh, Xavier’s family had an event tonight. I, um, wasn’t feeling well, so I came back to the house early.”
“Bummer,” Matthew said.
I waited for him to pry the way only my family could. The way he normally would, back when he wasn’t so taken up by another woman in his life. Or maybe just when he wasn’t this happy.
Mentally, I chided myself for wanting otherwise.
“Well, we wanted you to be the first to know,” he said.
I tipped my head. “First to know what?”
“We’re getting married,” Matthew said. “Me and duchess—I mean, Nina, here.”
“Well, I knew that, you goon,” I told him. “Unless you forgot that big bomb you dropped on everyone last spring. You about gave Lea a heart attack when she saw Nonna’s ring on Nina’s finger. It still looks nice, by the way.”
Beside him, Nina chuckled. “Who could forget that?”
She gazed at my brother with such unadorned adoration, that jealous twinge in my stomach turned into an outright stab. For all our doubts about the woman, she really did care for him. And what’s more, she didn’t bother to hide it. There was no doubt on her face, no closed expression. Nothing but pure, unadulterated love.
After brushing a light kiss over her forehead, Matthew turned to me. “I just meant we’ve set a date. October.”
My mouth dropped. “What? That’s in less than two months. Why so soon?”
“Nina’s divorce was finalized last week, thanks to a few smart judges. I know it’s fast, but we don’t want to wait. We have been for too long. So we’re going to have a ceremony in Italy, actually. This church we found when we were there in January. You’ll love it, Frankie, for real. I can’t wait to show you. Olivia’s going to be Nina’s bridesmaid, so obviously we’ll need Sof to be the flower girl. What do you say?”
I swallowed. Matthew was babbling, and my brother didn’t really babble. It was because he wasn’t just sharing news.
We’d never really talked about it, but Matthew knew as well as I did that his getting married would be more than just a party for Sofia and me. It would affect every part of our lives.
Immediately, questions bubbled up in my mind, and not the “what does her dress look like?” sort. Where were the two of them planning to live? I wasn’t under any illusion that a Park Avenue princess like that would want to relocate to a shabby row house in Brooklyn, nor would she want to share a thousand square feet with her new husband’s sister and her four-year-old. But what did that mean for Sofia and me? Would Matthew want to sell the house? Did we have to move out? Find a roommate? Or, God above, move back in with Nonna?
“There’s more.” Matthew pulled me out of my spiral.
I inhaled deeply. More? What else was about to happen?
“The wedding’s not until October, like I said,” he was saying with a cheeky grin at Nina. “It’s the first date we could get at the church. But, before then…well, next month, actually…we’re moving.”
“Uptown?” I guessed. That answered one question, I supposed.
“In a way. Boston.”
I nearly dropped my phone.
“Nina wants to go back to school, and she only has a few more semesters to complete at Wellesley. That’s where she originally started a degree in art history, but she had to drop out when she had Olivia. You know how it goes.”
Something in my chest cracked. I did know. I hated that I knew. Matthew’s lady friend—shit, his fiancée—and I had next to nothing in common except the fact that we both understood how having a child could singularly and totally change your entire life plans.
Except in her case, she could go back to school whenever she liked. She could pick out a new apartment or house or freaking mansion like she was choosing nail polish, pop her kid into the best school in the country, marry the man of her dreams, and not worry a thing about food, electricity, utilities, or rent.
That was the difference millions of dollars made, right?
I kind of hated her for it.
Or maybe it was just that I hated myself for having none of that at all without depending on someone else. For a while, Matthew had provided me with a safety net. And now it was being ripped out from under me.
