“You definitely do, Cal.” I grab her by the hand and twirl her around. “You look like a beautiful princess.” She giggles as she spins on her toes.
Jessa observes us from a distance, a soft look in her eyes. “I’ll go look for your earrings, Callie.” The nanny veers around the couch and rushes off down the hallway.
As I continue to gush over my daughter, that heart-melting smile of hers goes even wider. “Nana said I could wear lipstick today! Is that all right?” She puckers her little face at me to demonstrate the pale pink glossy stuff on her mouth.
I nearly double over laughing at her expression. The girl is something else. I can just see it now. Ten years from today, she’ll be leaving piles of brokenhearted teenaged boys everywhere she goes. “It’s all right,” I tell her. “But only for today.”
She nods vigorously. “Yes. Because today is a very special day.”
“It is,” I agree.
“We’re having a big party because Nana and Papa got married a long, long, long time ago…right?” She knots up her little nose and I can tell that she doesn’t quite grasp the concept of an anniversary party but she’s willing to play along anyway.
I crack up. “Something like that.” I crouch down and gather her into a hug. She’s growing up so fast. It’s blowing my mind.
Callie clasps my freshly-shaven face in her hands. She stares lovingly at me. “You look so handsome, Daddy. Like a charming prince.”
“You like the shave?” I ask as she rubs her palms up and down my scruff-free cheeks.
She nods again. Then she glances down the hall where Jessa went off. When her eyes bounce back to mine, they’re a thousand megawatts brighter like a light bulb just went off in her little head.
She cups a hand around my ear and whispers. “And maybe you and Jessa can get married too, now that you don’t look like a big bad wolf anymore.”
33 Jessa
Boy, do the Kingstons know how to party.
I don’t think I’ve stopped chatting and laughing since this anniversary gathering started. The evening kicked off with a sentimental slideshow of Kingston family photos spanning the past thirty-eight years. Then, Lucas and Diana made a few toasts before slow dancing to an old Elton John ballad. Their hands were all over each other the whole time as they shared sweet kisses that made their sons blush red like strawberry Jell-O. Then the couple opened up the dance floor to their guests and it’s been a free for all ever since.
Diana’s father didn’t stay long. The old man’s caregiver drove him back to the nursing home around seven o’clock. Baby Di, Mayor and Luke also got carted off by the babysitters their parents hired for tonight. Now, the rest of us are really letting loose.
There’s a self-serve bar in one corner of the room and the alcohol is flowing. Next to the bar, an antique farm wagon with big rusty wheels has been set up as a buffet. The rustic-looking spread is bursting with chicken, meatballs, cheeses, pasta and fresh vegetables from Walker’s farm.
Some of the guests choose to eat immediately while others invade the dance floor. Callie and some kids her age are running around. I’m standing in the buffet line, metal tongs poised over a crispy-looking crab cake when a Pussycat Dolls throwback comes on.
Immediately, I drop my plate of lasagna, grab Lexi, Iris and Penny, and drag them to the dance floor. Diana, her sister, MaryAnn, and Penny’s aunt, Lucille, join along.
It’s the girl band reunion that no-one saw coming. And no-one asked for.
Tipsy, happy and decked out in our ill-suited dresses, me and my fellow wannabe popstars show off our risqué moves. Diana puts down some twerking maneuvers that would make Miley Cyrus weep with jealousy. The rest of us play the perfect backup singers, improvising forgotten lyrics, reinventing old dance moves and not always keeping time with the music, but having a blast nonetheless.
I see Mr. Kingston clasping his hands over Callie’s eyes more than once. His sons sit nearby, alternating between cringing and laughing and cheering us on.
My eyes meet Eli’s and our gazes hold. I forget about everybody else in the room. I’m shaking my body and putting on a show just for him. He wears a lopsided smile, looking amused and captivated both at once. And I know I probably look more silly than sexy but to me, that smile on his face is worth a little self-embarrassment.
After our impromptu burlesque performance comes to an end, Diana, MaryAnn and Miss Lucille go off in search of something to drink while my girlfriends and I collapse into random chairs positioned along the edge of the dance floor.
Iris fans her face. “I haven’t danced like that since I found Penny’s Spice Girls Live in Concert VHS tape in her room when she left for college.”
Penny slaps her cousin on the shoulder. “Oh my god. You stole my Spice Girls tape?”
Iris looks guilty. “Let’s just…let’s just focus on this happy day, shall we?”
Alexia looks at me and wiggles her brows. “I’ll tell you who looks happy right now. Eli Kingston.” She nudges me with her elbow. “Jess, that man hasn’t taken his eyes off you since this party started. Not once.”
“I know, right?” Iris chimes in. “I saw that.”
“Really?” My heart beats faster. I steal a peek over at the table where the Kingston men are sitting. Sure enough, my gaze runs straight into Eli’s. One corner of his mouth ticks up and every cell in my body flutters.
But I try not to get my hopes up. Because I’ve come to accept that what I want from him is something he will never be able to give me.
34 Eli
I can’t take my eyes off her. Trust me, I’ve tried.
And failed.
Numerous times.
Every time I avert my attention away from Jessa, I inevitably find myself staring at her again
