4. Noah
4
NOAH
T he mood downstairs was about as cheerful as a funeral. I couldn’t shake the sense of walking on eggshells as Sienna and I wandered hand in hand into the kitchen, where the aroma of coffee promised the pick-me-up we all desperately needed.
Rose sat in the breakfast nook overlooking the back porch and the beach beyond it. Tomorrow, a team would descend onto the area to prepare it for the wedding. It was clear from the scowl she wore that she wasn’t interested in the scenery, typing furiously on her phone. She didn’t bother saying good morning, settling for a soft grunt in response to my greeting. Her eyes never left the screen.
Colton was at the counter, fixing two plates from the breakfast buffet that had been laid out. When I looked his way, he gave his head a slight shake. A lifetime of knowing each other was enough to explain what he meant. Don’t bother. Not right now . He then set a plate of fruit and a yogurt parfait in front of Rose, who only grunted again.
“Spencer just came in from his run on the beach,” Colton explained. “He’ll be down soon. The others?”
That was something I hadn’t thought about until now. Spencer could get up at the crack of dawn for a run. He didn’t have a worried partner to sit up with last night.
The parents were out on the porch, drinking their coffee, deep in conversation. Dad noticed me watching and waved me outside. I took my coffee with me and stepped out into a cool, breezy morning. Seagulls sailed over the sparkling water, and gentle waves lapped at the shore. It was idyllic except for the worried looks worn by Mom and aunts.
“I have an entire truck full of sample dresses on the way up to the house,” Dad told me. “I thought I could have a lunch set up for everyone by the time you boys come back from your fishing trip. Ideally, the girls will be able to greet you happily when you arrive.” His fingers were crossed when he raised them.
“That’s a good idea,” I agreed, glimpsing at Rose through the window. Her head was bent, her shoulders almost touching her ears while she continued typing. “Anything to pick up the mood.”
“That’s what I was going for,” he agreed. His reflection in the glass told me he was watching her too. “She’s doing everything she can to mitigate the fallout from this. There were a handful of customers with pieces waiting to be picked up from the store. We’ll need to issue a press release, too, letting people know the East Hampton location will be out of commission for the foreseeable future.”
People would probably find out about it through word of mouth just as easily, but I settled for agreeing, “Sure. Can I help somehow?”
He offered a sincere smile that faded as he shook his head. “Unless you can find a way to help your sister through this. It shook her badly.”
“Sienna will do her best to pick things up,” I predicted, watching her slide into a chair next to Rose. It was obvious she was trying to cheer her up, to at least take her mind off things for a minute. And it was apparent she wasn’t successful.
I couldn’t hear them, but body language spoke volumes. Rose tried to be polite but was too distracted to play along. It was enough to make me consider announcing our engagement, if only to pick up everybody’s spirits for a little while. I decided to leave the idea in my back pocket, just in case.
Mom joined us and touched a hand to my shoulder. “Somebody has to start smiling around here,” she murmured, standing on tiptoe to kiss my cheek. “It will be good for you to get out there on the water. You’ll have something else to think about.”
“We’ll be fine,” I promised. “And I know that building had to be insured to the hilt, right?”
“Of course,” Dad assured me, almost waving the idea off like it wasn’t worth thinking about. “All of that is taken care of. We can rebuild.”
As I watched, Miles entered the kitchen, leading Aria by the hand. Either she hadn’t bothered putting on makeup to cover the circles under her eyes, or she had tried, and this was the best she’d managed. Sienna shot a worried look my way, and I murmured, “I’ll head back in, see what I can do.”
The problem was, I couldn’t imagine what. Aria did everything she could to keep a brave face, but her chin trembled enough to tell me she was still wrecked after last night. As I walked back into the house, Sienna gathered her in a tight hug. “We’ve got you, girl,” she vowed, meeting my gaze over Aria’s shoulder. “Your wedding is still going to be amazing.”
Aria’s soft laugh was a little shaky. “I know. At least, I need to believe it.” She offered me a brief, weak grin, asking, “The dress is just one aspect of the day, right?”
“There you go. That’s the spirit.” Evelyn was behind them, telling me she had probably given Aria a pep talk before they came down from the guest room. There was strain around her eyes, which looked a little puffy like it wasn’t only the girls who cried last night. Weddings tended to do that to people. Months of dreaming meant it hurt unfathomably worse when something like this happened.
“You get to spend the day trying on more pretty gowns,” Sienna pointed out. “It’ll be fun. Like a big game of dress-up. You know there’s going to be a zillion beautiful, gorgeous gowns to choose from.”
“I know. It’ll be fine.” Aria’s jaw tightened like she was trying to convince herself.
Miles surprised me by looking just as haunted as his bride. “You all right?” I asked and gripped his shoulder once Aria gave in and let Evelyn fix her a plate of food. Sienna followed them, leaving us with Colton on the other side of the spacious room.
When we were more or less out of earshot of the girls, he blew out a deep breath. “A bit zonked,” he confessed, running a hand over the back of his neck and sighing. There were still times after two years spent exclusively in the States when he’d come out with British slang. “We had a long night. But I have no right to complain compared to the way she must feel. I can’t tell you how many times she said she couldn’t wait for me to see her dress.”
“Everything will turn out fine,” I predicted, watching as Aria attempted to be cheerful. Then I looked around, counting heads. “Who are we missing?”
“Not us.” Evan sounded overly bright as he entered the room as if he was trying a little too hard. I gave him a sympathetic grimace before Valentina appeared behind him. She looked a lot like her sister this morning, though the circles under her eyes weren’t quite as dark.
“So it’s Spencer and Lucian we’re waiting for?” Colton checked the time, heading out to the foyer. A few seconds later, his voice rang out loud enough to make us all wince. “We’re going to be late for the yacht! What’s the holdup?”
Valentina went straight to Aria and gave her a bear hug, letting out a soft, determined grunt. “Okay, so our gowns went up in smoke,” she announced, sounding like the same bossy, type-A girl she had always been. “Big deal. Everything’s going to be perfect otherwise, right?”
“Right,” Aria agreed with a bright, strained smile. It was almost like they were trying to convince themselves, and I had to give them credit for trying their hardest.
Sienna clapped her hands briskly, then placed them on her hips. “No more feeling sorry for ourselves. Anybody.” I noticed the anxious way she eyed Rose when she added, “We have a lot to do this weekend, and now this is just one more thing to get out of the way. Let’s not drag our feet.”
“Listen to you.” Colton shook his head slowly as he rejoined us, grinning at his sister. “I didn’t know you decided to play drill sergeant this weekend.”
She tossed her hair back from her shoulders, shrugging. “Somebody’s got to keep everybody in line, right? It shouldn’t have to be the bride’s responsibility, so I took the job.”
A loud sniffle drew everybody’s attention, and we turned to find Rose running a hand under her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled, shaking her head. “It’s just that I don’t know if I can forgive myself if this was somehow my fault. What if I left something plugged in that shouldn’t have been? Or I might have overloaded an outlet without realizing it.”
I was standing closest so I went to her and crouched by her side. “Hey. Don’t do this to yourself, sis. The fire chief will have a report, right? I’m sure it was a random accident, that’s all. You are the most conscientious person I know.”
All that got me was a bitter laugh. “Apparently not this time.” She was damn determined to heap all the blame on her shoulders, stubborn as always. I looked at Colton, silently wondering what I could say that might help.
It was Sienna who came up with something on the fly. “We’re engaged,” she announced in a loud, clear voice.
So much for keeping it to ourselves.
The room went deadly silent for a heartbeat before Rose let out a dramatic gasp and swiveled in her chair, her blue eyes wide when they landed on me. “Is that true? You got engaged?” she asked, taking me by the shoulders. “And you didn’t tell anybody?”
“When the hell did it happen?” Colton asked. “Holy shit!”
Miles barked out a laugh. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“When were you going to tell us?” Valentina demanded while Aria squealed, bounced on the balls of her feet, and threw her arms around Sienna.
“I’m absolutely chuffed,” Aria told her, then burst out laughing. “Listen to me. I sound like Miles now,” she added, mimicking his British accent.
“When were you going to tell your parents?” Evelyn almost shrieked as she threw her hands into the air. “And don’t tell me either of your mothers could keep something like that a secret.”
I exchanged looks with my fiancée, who shrugged. The fact that we both had the same thought shouldn’t have come as a surprise. It was almost unnerving how in sync we were sometimes. “We didn’t want to steal the focus this weekend,” I explained as Rose threw her arms around me.
“I’m so happy for you! Oh my God!” Just as suddenly, she let go long enough to slap my shoulder. “And you can’t tell your own sister? You’re saying even Mom and Dad don’t know?”
“Nobody knows,” Sienna explained. Her eyes sparkled, and she bit down on her lip before she said, “Hold on! Let me go up and get my ring! I’ve been dying to show you!”
“I want to see it right away!” Rose took off behind her, followed by the twins. Their excited chatter was music to my ears. If there was one thing Sienna understood, it was people, what they needed to hear, when they needed to hear it. That quality made her perfect for PR, but just then, I couldn’t help but reflect on how it made her perfect for me.
“I’m calling everybody inside!” Evelyn hurried to the door, beaming. “We’ll have to open some champagne to celebrate!”
“I don’t think we have time for that,” I said, but she didn’t hear me or didn’t feel like listening.
Colton was the first to shake my hand. “Don’t worry about the schedule. This deserves a toast.”
“Man, congratulations.” Evan’s head swung back and forth between Colton and me. “It wasn’t enough for one of you to marry the other one’s sister? You both have to do it?”
“Honestly,” Miles admitted. “We were wondering how long it would take you to sack up and pop the question.”
“Who is we?” I asked with a laugh, looking around at the group. “You have nothing better to do than lay odds on how long it’ll take a guy to propose to his girlfriend?”
“You did what?” Mom barely paused in the doorway leading to the porch. She raised her sunglasses and gaped at me for a second before she flew toward me with her arms outstretched. “I don’t know whether I want to hug you or strangle you for not telling us!”
She went with the hug as everybody else poured into the kitchen, and soon, we went through another round of handshakes just as Sienna came in from the foyer with her left hand held high. “Surprise!” she shouted.
This was what I had looked forward to—watching her soak in the love from the people who mattered to her the most. They gathered around to admire the ring, hug her, and basically give her the same sort of shit they gave me for keeping things quiet.
“I only proposed last week,” I explained while nudging my way through the crowd. “It’s not like we’ve been planning the wedding for months without mentioning it.”
“I’m breaking out the champagne,” Mom announced as she wiped her eyes. “You kids. I’ll be crying my eyes out all weekend at this rate.”
“How did you propose?” Rose asked, sliding an arm around Colton’s waist and resting her head against his chest. For the first time since we hung out on the beach last night, she looked like her usual, happy self.
“The way a person usually does,” I replied, playing dumb. “One knee, ring in a box.”
She groaned the way only a little sister could. “I can see why you said yes,” she told Sienna, who giggled.
“No, really.” The ring sparkled when Sienna placed her hand on my chest. Was she wiggling her finger a little to make the diamond catch the light? Possibly. She had waited an entire week for this and was going to soak up every second. “It was amazing. Noah made up a story about wanting me to look at a property he was looking to purchase in Chicago and flew us out on his company jet. It was all a big charade. He took me to the most gorgeous restaurant for dinner. Then, we took a moonlight boat ride on Lake Michigan. That was when he popped the question.”
“You did a great job with the ring, for sure.” Mom nudged Sienna, beaming. “I raised him right.”
“No arguments here,” Sienna agreed. “I think I’ll keep him.”
“Wait a second.” Evelyn paused in the middle of handing out the champagne. “Where are Lucian and Ivy? We can’t make a toast without them.”
“Oh, no.” Sienna covered her face with one hand while she laughed. “We have to go through all of this again! I should’ve waited until they got down here to blurt it out.”
Leaning down, I whispered, “It was perfect. Like you.”