a small, bespectacled tornado of black. She was dressed in a simple black jumpsuit fitting for the hot weather, but between her red cat-eyed glasses, the teal and purple streaks in the back of her hair, and the studded leather bracelets around one wrist, she looked a far cry from the wife of one of New York’s wealthiest businessmen.
As it did whenever I saw her, envy struck into my stomach. Not at her clothes, per se, but at her unabashed sense of self. Jane was never anything but exactly who she wanted to be.
“Hey, kiddo!” She leaned down and kissed Olivia on the top of the head before moving to kiss my cheek as well. Real kisses, not the ones that only touched the air. “I’m sorry, but did you grow since Saturday?”
Olivia giggled shyly. “You’re silly, Auntie Jane.”
“You can ask her to stop calling you that if you like,” I said. “If it’s too familiar, I mean.”
“Are you kidding?” Jane grinned at Olivia. “I have a million aunties back in Chicago. I’m psyched I finally get to be one too.” She shrugged. “I was tailor-made for the weirdo aunt role anyway. I will own the auntie business.”
Again, Olivia giggled. Even I couldn’t manage to hide my smile. Jane wasn’t exactly wrong about her eccentricities.
“Is this your car?” Jane asked, turning to face the sensible car parked in front of us on the curb.
All three of us turned to face the sage green Volvo I’d purchased earlier this week. Calvin had ridiculed me endlessly for choosing what he called the most boring car on the planet. But I quite liked the little coupe. It was small and practical and safe, with the added benefit of not drawing every eye within a hundred feet the way the rest of my family’s vehicles always did. No gleaming chrome mascot leaping off the nose or ridiculously tinted windows that made everyone stare when you passed anyway. And best of all, no driver.
“Don’t you like it?” I asked, suddenly uncertain. “I thought it was sweet. Not too flashy.”
Jane just blinked back at me with something resembling pride, I thought. “I think you might be the real black sheep in your family, Nina.”
I snorted before I could help myself. “I think you have me confused with your husband, Jane. I’m not the one who ran off for ten years.”
“Before coming right back to the fold and accepting his wads of cash? Please. Eric’s about as rebellious now as a minivan, in his custom suits and board meetings.” She shook her head. “He was a square in law school, and he’s a square now. It’s just that your family’s square happens to be a couture one.”
“Is he a square everywhere?”
I wasn’t trying to be suggestive, but it just came out. I didn’t miss the way Jane and Eric looked at each other when they thought no one was watching. And I had a feeling it took a bit more than our family’s money to keep someone like Jane happy.
“Well. maybe not everywhere.” She shrugged happily, like she was recounting some secret to herself. “He may or may not join us next week if he can get out of some meetings. What can I say? The man is obsessed with me.”
Jane’s eyes danced mischievously as she reached one hand behind her ear to flip her glasses suggestively off her nose several times, making Olivia giggle again.
“As I was saying,” she continued. “I may be relatively new in town, but in the de Vries family, I’d wager a Volvo definitely qualifies as a solid rebellion. You’re the only one of those goobers, my dear husband included, who doesn’t want a bit of flash in their lives. And I freaking love it.”
“Hurray!” Olivia cheered. “Mama’s a rebel!”
“Well, whatever I am, it’s settled now.”
My cheeks pink as I unlocked the trunk of the car to reveal the small bags for Olivia and me while we stayed the few days with Jane’s friends before school began. The rest of Olivia’s things were being sent directly to her school. But I found I wasn’t attached enough to mine to bring anything beyond the few necessities I had packed. What use would I have for yards of couture when I was sitting in a crowded classroom?
“Just put your bag in the back here, and we’ll be on our—”
“Hey, Jane! Nina! Elefantessa!”
The three of us turned to see the last figure I expected to see striding down Fifty-Eighth Street: Matthew looked as fine as