Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 89553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 448(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 448(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
I narrow my eyes, suddenly suspicious. Why is Katherine so invested in getting the two of us to meet up? Doesn’t she trust me to put together a great bachelorette party? Katherine has always been the one in my corner, sticking up for me. Telling Mom not to be so hard on me, telling me I’m just as pretty as she is. But maybe she never really believed it. Maybe she thinks I’m not capable of doing this for her.
Well, she’ll find out soon enough that she’s mistaken. Just like everyone else who ever knew me growing up and still doubts me to this day. I’m going to prove everyone wrong.
Katherine and Ed head into the garden, leaving Hunter and me alone. I stick out my hand to shake his. “I’m Katherine’s sister, Lucy.” I give him my best Massachusetts grin. It’s full of clapboard houses, ocean breezes, and a sprinkling of Kennedy confidence.
But my smile isn’t returned. Hunter’s mother clearly wasn’t an Austen fanatic when she was pregnant. She probably saw the glint in her son’s eyes when he was born and decided on his name. He’s looking at me like he wants to kill me.
“Lucy,” he says, scowling and shaking my hand.
“Have you got any ideas about the joint party?” I ask as we follow Katherine and Ed out into the garden. The light is dazzling, and I pull my sunglasses from my pocket. “We have to make it absolutely incredible. They’re such a great couple, aren’t they?”
“What?” Hunter snaps. His tone sends a jolt of shame through me. Did I say something wrong?
“The party,” I say, a little more tentatively. “I wondered if you had any ideas. I think Katherine and Ed want it to be in Massachusetts, on the beach, but other than that, we have free rein.”
He groans in response but doesn’t say anything else.
I turn to see if he’s heard me, but it’s like I’m not even there. Like I’m invisible.
He clearly has no interest in listening to me or organizing the party.
Asshole.
Well, he’s not going to destroy my opportunity to publicly reinvent myself. Everyone’s going to see that I’m Katherine Jones’s perfect sister, and Hunter over here isn’t going to sully my brand-new reputation.
“Lucy!” my mother calls from across the lawn. I ditch Hunter and head over to where she’s looking fraught. “Lucy! Where is that girl?”
“Right here, Mom. You look lovely.” She’s wearing a powder-blue pantsuit.
She turns and takes in my outfit. “Oh, you went for the lemon in the end.”
I fan out my skirt with my thumb and fingers, waiting for a compliment that never arrives. “It’s pretty, right?”
She sighs. “It’s fine. I want you to move this stack of trays over to the table with the champagne on it.”
I glance down. “But I might get a stain on my dress.” Mom and Dad were desperate to host the engagement party in their very pretty garden. Ed and Katherine have had to wait five months since they got engaged for this official celebration, thanks to the weather, but at least Mom’s happy. It also means the wedding is only two months away. Massachusetts and I are going to get reacquainted. Despite being relatively close, I don’t get back much. Katherine often comes down to New York with Ed when he has business in the city, so I get to see her without coming back home. My school friends and I aren’t really in touch. There’s nothing much to pull me back.
“Wear an apron. Come on. Guests are going to be arriving any minute.”
Maybe I should go and change quickly into something more suitable for lugging around catering equipment. All Katherine’s friends from school will be here soon, along with Mom and Dad’s friends, who have known me since I was born. I don’t want to greet them looking like a disheveled mess. It’s exactly the opposite impression I’m trying to portray. I’m not the kid sister who used to go everywhere on a skateboard, wearing bashed-up sneakers and an oversize Nirvana tee. I’m a serious, sophisticated New Yorker. Okay, I’m not a banker. But I’m a paralegal. That’s a serious job.
“Lucy!” my mother scolds. “Come on. Get those trays moved.”
My shoulders drop as I realize I don’t have time to change.
Just as I’m about to pick up the huge stack of silver trays, Ed interrupts. “We’ll do that,” he says.
I turn and come face-to-face with Hunter. He still looks murderous and he doesn’t say anything, but at least he takes the stack of trays and ferries it over to the other side of the garden.
I turn and find my mother rolling her eyes at me. “I told you to be quick,” she says. “Now poor Ed has to do the donkey work.”
“Rather than me, the actual donkey, right?” I don’t wait for Mom’s response, which is sure to be an eye roll anyway. I’ve had enough. I need a couple of minutes to regroup before the guests arrive. I head to the bathroom and try to find my Massachusetts smile.