“Josh, Redbird, Gabe, Alex, Sanchez, Peterson—”
“You can’t invite everyone in your fraternity.”
“They’re my brothers,” he said, looking wounded.
“I thought we said we were keeping it really small.”
“So I’ll just invite a few of them, then. Okay?”
“Okay. We still have to figure out food,” I said, licking my way around the cone so it wouldn’t drip.
“We could always get Con to grill some chicken,”
Jeremiah said with a laugh.
“He’s going to be your best man. He can’t be sweating over the grill.”
“I was kidding.”
“Did you ask him yet? To be your best man?”
“Not yet. I will, though.” He leaned down and took a bite of my ice cream. He got some on his upper lip, like a milk mustache.
I bit the insides of my cheeks to keep from smiling.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing.”
When we got back to the house, Conrad was watching TV in the living room. When we sat down on the couch, he got up. “I’m gonna hit the sack,” he said, stretching his arms over his head.
“It’s, like, ten o’clock. Watch a movie with us,”
Jeremiah said.
“Nah, I’m gonna get up early tomorrow and surf.
Wanna join me?”
Jeremiah glanced at me before saying, “Yeah, sounds good.”
“I thought we were gonna work on the guest list in the morning,” I said.
“I’ll come back before you’re even awake. Don’t worry.” To Conrad, he said, “Knock on my door when you’re up.”
Conrad hesitated. “I don’t want to wake up Belly.”
I could feel myself blush. “I don’t mind,” I said.
Since Jeremiah and I had become boyfriend and girlfriend, we’d only been at the summer house together once. That time, I slept in his room with him.
We watched TV until he fell asleep, because he liked to sleep with the television on in the background. I couldn’t fall asleep like that, so I waited until he did and then I turned it off. It felt kind of strange, sleeping in his bed when mine was just down the hall.
At college we slept in the same bed all the time, and that felt normal. But here at the summer house I just wanted to sleep in my own room, in my own bed. It was familiar to me. It made me feel like a little girl still on vacation with her whole family. My paper-thin sheets with the faded yellow rosebuds, my cherry wood dresser and vanity. I used to have two white twin beds, but Susannah got rid of them and put in what she’d called a
“big girl bed.” I loved that bed.
Conrad went upstairs, and I waited until I heard his bedroom door shut before I said, “Maybe I’ll sleep in my room tonight.”
“Why?” Jeremiah asked. “I promise I’ll be quiet when I get up.”
Carefully, I asked, “Aren’t the bride and groom supposed to sleep in different beds before the wedding?”
“Yeah, but that’s the night before the wedding. Not every night before the wedding.” He looked hurt for a second, and then he said in his joking way, “Come on, you know I won’t touch you.”
Even though I knew he was only kidding, it still stung a little.
“It’s not that. Sleeping in my own room makes me feel… normal. It’s—it’s different than at school. At school, sleeping with you next to me feels normal. But here I like remembering what it used to feel like.” I searched his face to see if any of the hurt was still there. “Does that make sense at all?”
“I guess.” Jeremiah looked unconvinced, and I started to wish I’d never brought it up.
I scooted closer to him, putting my feet in his lap.
“You’ll have me next to you every night for the rest of our lives.”
“Yeah, I guess that’ll be plenty,” he said.
“Hey!” I said, kicking out my leg.
Jeremiah just smiled and put a pillow over my feet.
Then he changed the channel and we watched TV without saying anything more about it. When it was time to go to bed, he went to his room, and I went to mine.
I slept better than I had in what felt like a really long time.
144 · jenny han
Chapter Twenty-eight
Conrad
I asked Jere if he wanted to surf because I wanted to get him alone so I could find out what the hell was going on.
I hadn’t talked to him since he made his grand announce-ment at the restaurant. But now that we were alone, I didn’t know what to say.
We bobbed on our surfboards, waiting for the next wave. It had been slow out there so far.
I cleared my throat. “So how pissed is Laurel?”
“Pissed,” Jere said, grimacing. “Belly and her had a pretty big fight yesterday.”
“In front of you?”
“Yeah.”
“Shit.” I wasn’t surprised, though. There was no way Laurel was going to be like, sure, I’ll throw my teenaged daughter a wedding.
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“What does Dad say about all this?”
He gave me a funny look. “Since when do you care what Dad says?”
I looked out toward the house. I hesitated before saying, “I don’t know. If Laurel’s against it and Dad’s against it, maybe you shouldn’t do it. I mean, you guys are still in college. You don’t even have a job. When you think about it, it’s kind of ridiculous.” My voice trailed off. Jere was shooting daggers at me.
“Stay out of it, Conrad,” he said. He was practically spitting.
“All right. Sorry. I didn’t mean to … I’m sorry.”
“I never asked for your opinion. This is between me and Belly.”
I said, “You’re right. Forget it.”
Jeremiah didn’t answer. He looked over his shoulder, and then he started to paddle away. As the wave crested, he popped up and rode it to shore.
I punched my hand through the water. I wanted to kick his ass. This is between me and Belly. Smug piece of shit.
He was marrying my girl, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I just had to watch it happen, because he was my brother, because I promised. Take care of him, Connie.
I’m counting on you.
Chapter Twenty-nine
When I got up the next morning, the boys were still surfing, so I took my binder and my legal pad and a glass of milk out to the deck.
According to Taylor’s checklist, we had to get the guest list figured out before we could do anything else.