she’d fallen from a tree and broken her arm. I was the one who stayed after Emily ran away.
But Emily was her hero. Emily was the exotic, worldly sister who’d run off at nineteen to get married and blown back into our lives last summer. It was wrong of me to be jealous of them. So wrong. But the two of them were more alike. I was the other. The bossy, rule-setting sister. I’d never had any adventures of my own to compare to theirs. I was the one who’d come back to the island right after college, and now Lilly was a world-traveling jet-setter in her own right, which widened the gap between us, both physically and emotionally. It wasn’t really fair or productive for me to feel this way, but that didn’t make it untrue.
But then Lilly turned to me and held out her hand. “Come sit with us, Brooke. I’ve missed you so much,” and the world started to right itself again.
The potatoes were finished, although I’m not sure who did them. We all pitched in to make stuffing and green-bean casserole. The house warmed up and the noise increased exponentially as people arrived. Dmitri, wearing a knit beanie today instead of his beekeeping hat. Lovebirds Xavier and Brenden bearing a platter of cheese and olives and crackers and dips.
“That’s a tapenade,” Xavier said, pointing to one of the spreads. “I hate olives, but I love saying the word tapenade.”
Ryan arrived with six bottles of wine, two of which he offered to share, and finally, Leo.
“Should I have brought something?” he whispered to me as I took his coat.
“We’ll have enough food and drinks for about seventy people, so no. You’re good.”
Most everyone had already met him, so introductions were more of a hey, everybody knows Leo, right? And I breathed a sigh of relief as the chief shook his hand.
“Don’t let Gigi talk you into making her a martini,” I told Leo a moment later. “She knows you’re a bartender so she’s sure to ask, but Chloe is martini monitor today.”
“Martini monitor?”
“Yes, we try to keep track of how many she’s had because if we leave it up to her, she’ll have a dozen, and then the turkey will never get finished and she’ll start singing show tunes. That happened one year. She put the turkey in the oven and never turned the oven on. So each year we designate a martini monitor to keep count. Chloe drew the short straw, which is good because she’s only thirteen and won’t end up drunk herself.”
“Come sit on the porch with me. I need some fresh air,” Lilly said, tugging on my sleeve.
Dinner was in the oven, and the only thing left to do was set the table, which Chloe and Brenden were doing right now. I glanced over at Leo, who seemed to be deep in conversation with Dmitri and Ryan. The chief was watching football, and there’d been no dark looks or snarky comments from him, so it was probably safe to leave them alone for a few minutes. I grabbed a blanket off the back of the couch to wrap around us outside. It was rainy and windy today. Not hospitable, but sitting outside in rough weather was something we’d always loved to do as kids: a habit we’d learned from our mother. She’d take us outside for rain and thunderstorms and blizzards. We’d have blankets and hot chocolate, and all snuggle together on a long outdoor sofa. I couldn’t ever hear thunder without thinking of my mom.
“Leo seems nice,” Lilly said as we sat down on the wicker sofa, which resembled the one from our childhood. She scooched closer and tucked the blanket edges in around us.
“He is.”
She laughed at my brief response. “Sometimes talking to you is just as bad as talking to Dad. How about a few details? Where’s he from? Where’s he going? What’s his story?”
“What are you doing out here?” Emily interrupted, stepping out onto the porch and rubbing her arms for warmth. She had on a pink-and-gray plaid flannel shirt with a pink tank top underneath.
“Just chatting,” I said.
“The smell of that turkey was starting to get to me,” Lilly answered. “I needed some fresh air.”
Emily looked at her quizzically. “The smell of the turkey?”
Lilly nodded. “Yeah, Gigi uses so many spices, it just smells a little strong.”
Emily continued staring at Lilly, until Lilly finally said, “What?”