15. Chapter 15
Chapter 15
J ane and Haley were up way too late, and woken up way too early by Haley’s phone buzzing on the nightstand in between them. Jane opened a single eye, the one closest to the pillow still squeezed shut. “Who is it,” she croaked.
Haley unearthed her arm from under the blankets. She picked up the phone and looked at the display, then put it back down with a clatter and buried her face back in her pillow. “Who do you think?”
It seemed like your fiancé would be the right answer for someone a day—mere hours, really—away from getting married, but Jane figured that would be way too easy. “Guessing not Blake.”
“Blake is definitely not awake right now.” She rolled over on her side and rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands. She picked up the phone and unlocked it this time, opening the text. It was from her mom.
R U up?
“What is this?” she said, thrusting the phone at Jane. “Is she a frat boy? Why is she sending me this?”
Jane reluctantly heaved herself to a seated position and looked at the phone, where texts continued to pop in, one after the other. “There’s more,” she said, passing it back to Haley.
Youre dad talked to Tommy.
*Your
Last night.
I made him.
I wanted to make sure.
There was a raised hands emoji, followed by the words: for Jane too.
Jane, who had been leaning forward with her chin in her hand, sat upright, sending her sleep bun toppling to one side. “What does that mean?” she said, looking at Haley. “The emoji with that? Do you know what that means?”
“Of course I don’t know,” Haley said. “But is she for real?”
Jane gave her a look, equal parts wary and amused. “She’s probably for real.”
Haley typed back in a few furious clicks: Mom. Stop.
The reply was instantaneous: Already stopped! Everything will be fine!
Haley groaned. “I know it will be fine,” she said. “It was fine before she started freaking out.” She looked down at her phone one last time and then tossed it into the blankets. “I’m not responding.” She flopped back on the bed. “Jaaaaaaaane. I can’t with this. It’s too early. I need a meditation or something. Can you pull up a meditation on your phone?”
“You got it,” Jane said. Surely “emergency opening of the meditation app” fell under maid of honor duties. “What category are we looking at? Calming anxiety? Acceptance? Focus and breathing? Creativity? Visualizing positive outcomes?”
Haley exhaled loudly. “Is there one for not committing a crime the day before your wedding?”
Jane kept a straight face as she thumbed through options. “Um, let’s see … managing challenging feelings? Is that close enough?” As she was scrolling, the texts started coming in on her phone.
Did Haley tell you
Everything’s OK with Tommy
Don’t need to worry about anything. Focus on looking nice for Luke.
He’s so cut
*Cute
Jane bit her lip to keep from busting up and held the screen out for Haley to read.
“She’s unhinged,” Haley said, her eyes widening. “Absolutely unhinged.”
“Happy day before the wedding,” Jane laughed.
***
The plan for the day was a nail appointment for the girls, and nine holes of golf for the guys, followed by the rehearsal and dinner, and then fireworks on the beach. Jane and Haley stayed in bed a little longer and scrolled on their phones, passing them back and forth to show each other texts and things on social media and pictures from the night before, before they started getting ready. If it could be called that. They were just doing the basics for now, casual clothes and quick hairdos, before they got ready for the rehearsal later.
Haley had been sitting on the bed, texting Blake, before joining Jane in front of the mirror. “What’d he say?” Jane asked, motioning at the phone.
Haley shook out her hair and picked up her brush. “They’re leaving in a few minutes. Luke’s already with him.”
Jane, Haley and Blake’s dads were going golfing with Blake, Tommy, Ian, Cody and Luke. Jane wasn’t sure at first if Luke should go, but according to guy math—or at least golf math—it worked out perfectly to have him go along. As Blake put it, this would ensure they didn’t have a “random” getting folded into one of their groups of four. Apparently that was how it worked in golf. Jane didn’t really know.
“I reminded him about the sunscreen, obviously.”
“Obviously.”
“Also, I was like, did you know my dad talked to Tommy?”
“I’m sure he did,” Jane said.
“Right,” she said. “Of course. So he said yes, and I was like, how bad was it, scale of one to ten. He said maybe like a five or six.”
“A five or six,” Jane repeated. “Is that good or bad? It feels not great.”
Haley shrugged. “He said it was a little awkward but you know, whatever.”
Jane grimaced as she reached for her mascara. “Define a little awkward.”
“I’ll ask him for more details later,” Haley said. “But I mean, I’m not gonna lie, I don’t mind Tommy feeling a little awkward. He’s making so many other people feel awkward.”
Jane felt a pang of guilt. “Do you feel awkward?” she said, pausing what she was doing to look at Haley for real. “With us both here?”
Haley shook her head. “No,” she said. “I refuse.” Jane laughed. She believed that, and it immediately made her feel better. “But, you know, other people.”
Like me ? Jane thought. “True,” she said out loud. “I guess it could be worse, though.”
Haley tilted her head. “Because of Luke?”
“Well … yeah,” she said. “Partly because of Luke.”
“Good old Luke,” Haley said. “So. Remember how I asked you last night how things were going with him?”
Jane returned her attention to the mirror and swiped a quick coat of mascara on her lashes. “Uh-huh.”
“When you said things were good”—here, Haley used air quotes—“did you want to elaborate there? I’m not sure I gave you a chance to elaborate.”
“Nothing to elaborate,” she said, moving to the other eye. “It’s good.”
Haley studied Jane’s reflection. “Seems to be really good.”
“It’s good. I’m …” Jane trailed off as she capped her mascara, thinking of how to word it. “I’m making the best of a situation.”
“You left out a word.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Not the best of a bad situation?”
“Not … necessarily,” Jane said. “Just a situation.”
“Hmm,” she said. “Interesting.”
Jane turned and slipped on her sandals. “I don’t think it’s that interesting.”
“Oh,” Haley said, “I think it is.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready to put a label on it quite yet.”
“ Yet ,” Haley said, seizing on the word. “That’s all right, you don’t have to. I’ll do it for you.” She pushed her feet into her flip-flops. “Very interesting. If you ask me.”
“I wasn’t,” Jane said as she walked past her.
“ Very ,” Haley said, shutting the door behind them.
***
The other girls were waiting for them down in the lobby so they could head out to the nail salon together. Jane, Haley and Blake’s moms were joining them in a little bit. Maddie and Bree were sitting side by side, chatting and looking at their phones. Ashley had sunglasses on, her hair in a tight bun on her head.
“I got two hours of sleep,” she said by way of greeting.
Jane and Haley exchanged glances. “Why?”
“Cody and I wanted to watch the sunrise together on the beach,” she said. “So we just stayed up.”
“All night?” Haley said.
“I mean, yeah,” she said, her tone tacking on the unspoken obviously .
“Well,” Haley said, “how was the sunrise?” As if that was the natural follow-up.
“Amazing,” Ashley said, drawing out the word. “It was really nice outside so we stayed up talking, and then we figured we’d already stayed up half the night, we might as well watch the sunrise, and he made me breakfast while we waited.”
Jane preferred a sunset, but she wasn’t going to be the dark cloud over Ashley’s sunrise parade. “Where’d he make you breakfast?”
“At the house,” she said. “We didn’t want to wake anyone up so we stayed outside.” She adjusted her sunglasses. “He made me chocolate chip pancakes on the grill.”
“They had chocolate chips at the house?” Haley said. “Huh.”
Ashley gave her a look like she was clearly missing the point. “He put them in the shape of a heart on top.”
“Wow,” Jane said, throwing another look at Haley.
“Yeah. So. It was very romantic and totally worth it,” Ashley said. “But I did go to bed at like seven and get up at nine.”
“Can confirm,” Maddie said, stifling a yawn.
“So just letting you know.”
Jane opened her mouth and shut it. She wanted to be like, why. Why are you letting us know. From the look on Haley’s face, she wanted to know too, but neither one wanted the answer enough to ask.
“Guess love’s in the air,” Jane said instead, her tone chipper.
“Definitely,” Ashley said, resting the back of her head against the wall.
Maddie piped in then. “Luke seems really nice,” she said.
Jane didn’t know if she was saying that to change the subject, or if she felt like saying so was definitely on subject, if she thought she needed to make Jane feel better. “He is really nice,” she said, which was true and also probably the safest answer.
“You and Ian looked so cute together last night,” Bree said, nudging Maddie.
“They always look cute,” Haley said. “Literally, the cutest.”
Bree eyed Maddie’s left hand, primed and ready for a rock to be sitting on it. “You guys are definitely next, huh?”
Maddie shrugged, but she smiled, too. “We’ll see.”
“You and Ian are so good together,” Jane said.
“You really are,” Haley said. “You’re so calm and steady. You’re like the mom and dad of the whole group.”
Maddie laughed at that. “Let’s not get carried away.”
“Just saying.” Haley paused. “You guys have definitely talked about it, though, right?”
“What?” Maddie said, stalling.
“Getting married!”
“I mean …”
“That’s definitely a yes,” Bree said, and the others laughed.
“Well … yeah,” she said, getting a bit flustered. “Don’t say anything to him, but I mean, yeah, of course, we’ve been talking about it for a while.”
They let out some little squeals for her, even though it came as a surprise to exactly none of them. “When do you think he’ll propose?” Bree asked. “Do you think the end of the year? Christmas or New Year’s?”
“No, sooner,” Haley said. “I think sooner. When’s your anniversary again?”
“Um, we count it as the end of August,” Maddie said.
Bree lit up. “Oh, so like, end of summer? You think it’ll be that soon?”
“I don’t know,” Maddie demurred.
“Yes, you do know,” they cried.
“I don’t,” she insisted, then glanced down at her own hand, as if to make sure—of what, Jane wasn’t totally sure. Maybe just picturing something there. “But yeah, maybe soon.”