Chapter Twenty-Two
“Do we think jeans are okay for a Lag Ba’Omer party?” Liana looked down at her outfit and frowned. “I feel like I’m underdressed.”
“You’re eating s’mores around a bonfire in Brielle Benovitz’s backyard while taking care of a toddler. Whatever you wear is going to end up covered in grass stains and reeking of smoke. I think jeans are a safe bet,” Ari said without looking up from the matching game she was playing on her phone.
“Brielle Benovitz’s backyard is nicer than most wedding venues,” Liana huffed as she headed back to her closet to flip through some more options. “Lo that I were marrying a neurosurgeon. I should wear a dress.”
“Fine, wear a dress.”
“Thanks for the support, Ar.”
Ari snorted. “You need support to get dressed for a party at the house of a woman you literally work right next to every day? Which I still can’t get over, by the way.
I will never not associate Brielle Benovitz with being the girl who downed an entire plastic cup of vodka on her birthday and then puked all over the seminary roof. ”
“Yeah, well, let’s just say she’s turned things around.” Liana glanced over her shoulder. “Speaking of which, maybe you should come with me tonight.”
“I’m not invited,” Ari reminded her. “I haven’t actually spoken to Brielle since seminary.”
“So? I bet she’d be happy to see you. More important, you’ve been nonstop miserable since you got that promotion, and I can only assume that means you’re working too hard. Which means you clearly need a break. So yes, you are coming with me to this party, and you are not fighting me about it.”
Ari narrowed her eyes. “You want me to crash Brielle Benovitz’s Lag Ba’Omer party? Are you out of your mind?”
“What’s the matter? It’s not like you don’t know her. And I was invited with Gideon, so obviously there’s room for me to bring a plus one.”
“The matter is that it’s a party for couples and families, to which I was not invited. I can’t just show up in her backyard and shout, ‘Surprise!’”
“You really can though,” said Liana. “And you’ll be doing me a favor, since otherwise I’d have to take the train home by myself at night, and you know how I hate doing that. Plus, Ollie. You can’t argue with Ollie time.”
“Using your extremely adorable nephew against me is cruel and unfair. You know I can’t resist the way he calls every single time period in the past ‘yestermorning.’”
“You are not meant to resist.” Liana smirked. “You are meant to come eat s’mores in a ginormous backyard in Westchester belonging to a girl you haven’t spoken to in over ten years and delight a four-year-old with your presence.”
Ari sighed deeply, knowing the battle had already been lost. “Fine, but if anyone asks, I’m your wife.”
A train and cab ride later, they’d reached Liana’s sister Aliza’s house to pick up Oliver.
With Aliza on mandated bed rest for the last couple of months of baby number two, Liana’d been spending more time there and watching Ollie more than usual.
Between that and delaying her and Gideon’s engagement party until Aliza was able to attend, Ari was pretty sure Liana qualified for Sister of the Year.
Once upon a time—before Evan—Dana probably would’ve been that sister. Just another thing in Ari’s life that’d become less than ideal.
Brielle lived only a few blocks from Aliza, so they walked over, swinging a joyful Oliver between them while shouting, “Lions and tigers and bears—oh my!” until they reached the Tudor-style home and its lush green yard, packed with food and families milling around the kindling for an enormous bonfire in the center.
“You weren’t kidding about Brielle turning things around,” Ari murmured as she took in the fenced-off pool, the tables covered in sushi platters, and the gorgeous landscaping filling the air with the scents of lilac and roses. “Jesus. How does someone have all this at twenty-nine?”
“She marries someone who’s thirty-nine,” Liana replied, scouting the yard for Brielle while Oliver begged for a cookie from the dessert table. “Not yet, Ollie. First you gotta eat something with nutritional value.”
“Oreos have lots of vitamins,” Ollie said authoritatively.
“Sorry to say, you made that up, kiddo.” Liana led them to a crudité platter and picked out some cucumber spears and sliced red peppers. “Here, eat these and then you can have a cookie.”
Ari grabbed a stick of jicama and dipped it in the ranch dressing at the center as she looked around.
This was exactly the kind of life she couldn’t imagine ever having for herself—owning a home, maintaining a yard, knowing what kinds of fancy platters to buy …
It was the kind of life Bella and Zach would have soon enough, and Liana and Gideon, and Judah and Mira, while Ari would probably end up living with Hannah until they were old and gray (or old and whatever color Hannah decided to dye her hair that week).
She crunched into the jicama as she looked down at her toes, lilac nails peeking out of strappy leather sandals beneath the hem of her maxi dress.
She might look the part, but she didn’t belong there, and she was never going to.
She’d never even wanted to (except during the Sedarim, when she had, delusionally, kind of wanted to).
“Heyyy!” Ari looked up to see Brielle walking toward them, a bright smile on her face, sunlight glinting off her glossy blond highlights.
“You made it.” She exchanged air kisses with Liana and ruffled Ollie’s hair.
“And is that Arielle Becker? Wow, I haven’t seen you in forever!
” She pulled Ari into a hug she had no choice but to reciprocate.
“That’s right! I forgot you two live together. So excited you came!”
“Sorry she made me crash,” Ari said wanly. “Your house is gorgeous. This whole yard looks amazing. I’ve never actually been to a Lag Ba’Omer party before.”
“Please, the more the merrier.” Brielle treated her to a huge smile. “And just wait for the actual best part.” She clapped her hands together, showing off multiple dazzling diamond rings. “I got Judah Klein to perform!”
The jicama lodged itself in Ari’s throat, and she considered letting herself simply choke on it.
Fuck. Me.
Arielle Becker.
She hadn’t spotted him yet. She was twirling around with Liana and a little boy, whooping in delighted laughter, her long curls glowing the color of honey as they flew in the sunshine.
She was wearing a long patchwork-print dress that floated gently around her ankles and a wrist full of those bracelets that made noise when they clinked together.
Devastatingly beautiful were the words that came to mind.
He couldn’t believe it’d been over a month since they’d laid eyes on each other, or that she still had this effect on him.
Things with Mira had been fine—perfectly nice dinner dates where they talked about work, her nieces and nephews, and lectures or exhibits they might want to attend.
He met a couple of her friends in what he suspected was a staged run-in.
She sent him memes she thought were funny and left affectionate comments on social media posts about him.
Occasionally, she asked him to play for her, and he said no as often as he could get away with, because playing for her made him think of strumming “Take Me Home, Country Roads” during a thunderstorm, his gaze on the candlelit outline of a different woman tangled up in his sheets.
And they’d kissed a few more times, but Judah always felt his stomach turn to lead.
He may not have been able to articulate why kissing Arielle had felt so right, but he did know that kissing Mira didn’t.
He’d hoped things would improve with time, that maybe he just needed Arielle to fully disappear from his brain, but it’d been five weeks and she hadn’t even begun to fade.
And now he had a brand-new image to add to his mental album, a maternal scene doing something inexplicably achy to his chest. It was overwhelming, this attraction he had to her, its force like a biblical flood.
His first thought was to disappear—to leave the party, get in his car, and head back to the city. But that was a little trickier when you were the entertainment. Which meant he was going to have to face her at some point. He might as well do it when he was in control.
With any luck, she’d be the one to leave early.
He waited until they were done spinning, took a deep breath, and walked over. “Hey,” he said, forcing a smile and pretending not to notice Ari’s double take in the background as he directed his greeting to Liana. “Who’s this guy?”
“This handsome gentleman is my nephew, Oliver. Ollie, this is my friend, Judah.”
Oliver hid behind Liana’s legs, adorably shy. Judah remembered being that kid very well. Hell, he was still that kid a whole lot of the time.
“Oliver’s parents live a few blocks away, but my sister’s on bed rest, so we took him off her hands for a bit,” Liana explained. “And I know Brielle from work—she teaches in the classroom next to mine.”
They both glanced at Ari, who was looking at some far-off point in the distance, as if she could not be more bored by this conversation.
Finally, she wrenched her gaze to his face and said, “We went to seminary together, but I’m mostly invited as Liana’s date.
I came for the s’mores and to see Ollie. ”
The little boy beamed, and Judah didn’t blame him.
“She’s also serving as my buddy for taking the train home,” Liana added, looping an arm around Ari’s and squeezing tight. “Gideon’s working late, and I hate traveling by myself at night.”
“I’m happy to give you a ride home,” he offered instinctively, wishing he could bite back the offer the second it came out of his mouth.
The last thing he needed was a reminder of the car ride with Ari the night they first kissed.
“If you don’t mind staying until the end. ” Please mind staying until the end.