Isla looked my direction. “What say you, makeup expert?”

Suddenly, my throat tightened and tears pricked my eyes. “Oh, Isla, you look magical. Nonna would be in tears. She always said you were her little princess, and she was so right.”

Isla started waving her hand frantically in front of her face. “Oh, no, here we go again. Tears. No tears.”

Aria glowered my direction for starting it and fanned Isla’s face, too.

Isla finally pushed Aria’s hand away. “Enough, I don’t care. I need a Lovely sister hug right now, but be careful of the dress.”

Ella pushed aside her laptop, and the four of us circled Isla but only gave her a light hug. “I just want you girls to know,” Isla said, “this changes nothing. We are still the fabulous five, and I have something for everyone.”

We dropped our arms, and Isla walked over to a silver box that was sitting on the makeup table. She opened it up and pulled out five silk and lace garters. “I had them made out of Mom’s wedding dress and Nonna’s lace shawl.” She handed each of us a garter. “I wanted to make sure they were both with us in spirit.” Now we were all fanning our faces frantically.

“Why do tears have to cause such a catastrophe when you’ve put on fresh makeup?” Ava asked.

Aria held up her hand, like a teacher taking charge of her class. “All right, we look ridiculous, and I don’t think the fanning does anything except make us perspire, and yes, we’re dressed in silk, so there’ll be no sweating, only perspiring, and please, keep that at a minimum. Deep breath, everyone.” She was using the big sister tone she’d perfected growing up when we were all acting like squirrelly brats and getting on her nerves.

And we still reacted immediately to the tone. We all took several deep breaths.

“Better,” Aria said. “Let’s put on the garters before the tears start again.”

A thin pink satin ribbon had been woven into the lace that circled the garter. I pulled the delicate circle up to my thigh. “I still remember Nonna sitting in her shawl in the big chair, a fire roaring in the hearth and her delicious shortbread baking in the oven,” I said. I looked at my sisters. We were all unique in our own ways, and that never got in the way of our love for each other. The opposite in fact. We loved each other more for what we brought to the group, to the fabulous five. “Nonna and mom would have been so happy with this marriage, Isla.”

“I think Nonna would have been happy with the way all of our stories are turning out,” Ella said. “In fact, the way her own stories matched us and how they followed us into our adult lives almost seems too coincidental to believe.”

Aria put out her arms signaling another group hug. “That’s because as we all know too well our grandmother was nothing short of magical.”