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CHAPTER FOUR

BY THE TIME Cat and Liam’s wedding rolled around in October, Donna had started her third year of college, having transferred to the University of California: Irvine, as a drama major. She chose the generalist track that broadly covered all aspects of stage production, rather than focusing deeply on just musical theater, or acting, or design, or directing. For the university’s fall production of Into the Woods , she joined the costuming team, which she found nearly as fun and fulfilling as being on stage.

She’d struck up a flirtation with a talented set designer, Danno Tanaka, which didn’t fall under her prohibition of dating a fellow actor during a production’s run. If things went south, there was no risk of affecting the audience’s experience of the play. She wasn’t sure she was a good enough actor to hide a broken heart or injured pride live on stage, but she knew she was capable of masking such feelings behind the scenes.

Danno, in fact, would be her date to Cat and Liam’s wedding, to be held—to everyone and no one’s surprise—at the happiest place in the world, WonderLand. Even with the substantial discount they received because of Liam’s lifetime season ticket holder status, bestowed as a result of the flying monkeys incident, the cost almost rivaled Audrey and Ty’s destination wedding to Florence. But Liam had a wealthy and guilt-ridden absentee father who was grateful to pay for the whole thing, as long as he’d be allowed to attend, and include some of his most important political connections on the guest list. Probably to create the impression that he was a dutiful and involved father. But whatever his motivations, he was even willing to remain firmly on the sidelines, not even expecting to be included in any wedding party pictures. After much cajoling from Cat about mending fences and moving forward without regret, Liam relented.

Donna expected explosions of color and at least a little bit of theme-park tackiness to leak into the event, so she was surprised at the elegance of the venue. Cat and Liam would exchange vows in front of a white gazebo nestled in the foliage a few steps up from a sunken, circular, stone courtyard, surrounded by lush gardens and towering trees. Rows of white Chiavari chairs were arranged on either side of an aisle carpeted with pink rose petals, leading to a pink-and-white floral garland arch adorning the front of the gazebo. The adjacent WonderLand Resort Hotel offered privacy, blocking the sights, smells, and sounds of the perpetually crowded amusement park on the other side.

Cat invited all of her sisters to join her in the bride’s room to get ready together. Cat wore her red locks half up, with pearls woven into the back, the rest curling loosely down her back. With her hair and makeup done early, she was bending over Grace to help her with her eye makeup—which she’d just started experimenting with, and which Ginger still refused. It was such a precious scene that Donna pulled out her phone to snap a pic. Only Cat would be helping other people get ready on her own wedding day.

“Why aren’t you nervous?” Donna demanded. “You seem totally calm.”

“Oh, I’ve got some butterflies,” Cat said, her deep brown eyes shining. “But mostly, I’m just ready.”

“You’ve been ready since you were 8. But at least your wedding dress isn’t made out of toilet paper.”

They shared a private laugh about the elaborate weddings Cat used to stage with her Barbies, making dresses out of tissues and scotch tape. Donna was always forced to play the groom—a Western Ken doll with painted brown hair and black, faux-leather pants that were a nightmare to pull on over his flat feet. Donna was amused to realize that Cat’s real-life groom didn’t look entirely unlike that old Ken doll (but hopefully wouldn’t be wearing a neckerchief).

Chuckling to herself, Donna turned to the mirror to adjust her barely pink, tea-length dress with its sweetheart neckline, ruched bodice, and flutter sleeves. Her sisters all wore versions of the same dress, but without the mid-thigh slit for the tweens. Donna took a moment to celebrate this rare, magical design that actually looked better on Donna and Elizabeth than it did on the straighter-figured sisters. Not that Elizabeth would notice, as she was curled in a corner, reading Pride perhaps the crowd intimidated him.

Donna followed on the arm of the groom’s model-esque brother, wondering if this elevated her status in her date’s eyes, or if she suffered by comparison. As cute as Donna knew she was, Nolan McBride was literally prettier, in a way that didn’t detract from his masculinity. Beautiful men were never Donna’s type, but she could see why Lavinia had once found him irresistible.

Donna took her place next to Elizabeth, scanning down the grandparents’ row to where Danno sat so she could give him a wink. He smiled adorably back. Once Audrey and Ty and Betty and Gavin were in position, on either side of Reverend Roberts, the harpist reached the most sweeping and dramatic portion of the piece. Right on cue, two white horses clip-clopped down the narrow, cobblestone lane leading from the resort, pulling an open coach beneath a canopy of trees, stopping at the edge of the courtyard. As the guests rose to their feet, a liveried footman assisted Cat from the carriage and handed her off to her father with a formal bow.

Cat practically glowed from head to toe as she glided through the scattered rose petals toward her groom, and Donna glanced back at Liam’s face. His eyes welled up, and he didn’t bother wiping the tears away, seemingly oblivious to anything but the vision in white before him. Cat walked with gentle serenity, beaming broadly and unselfconsciously at her waiting groom.

They exchanged vows. Liam’s voice was firm and resolute, despite his years of hesitation about the point of marriage and his more recent cold feet. Cat had won him over, fully and completely. As Liam dipped Cat to seal their union with a kiss, and the guests applauded, Donna caught Lavinia’s eye in the audience. They shared a satisfied smile, like the two matchmakers they were, pushing the couple together from opposite sides of the country.

Dinner and toasts in the resort ballroom were followed by a reception back in the courtyard, which had been cleared of chairs and set up for dancing. A temporary dance floor covered the cobblestones, with appetizer buffet spreads and cocktail tables set up around the edges of the space like two parentheses. Cat and Liam greeted well-wishers in the gazebo, near an exquisite, multi-tiered cake Cat had baked and decorated herself.

Donna had long since kicked off her shoes, taking to the dance floor with Danno as often as he was willing, but he wasn’t proving to be as fun and spontaneous as she had hoped. So she lured both of her brothers-in-law, two of her grandpas, and even Nolan out to satisfy her itch to move and groove.

“So Donna and Danno, huh?” teased Ty as she tried to teach him a few swing moves she’d perfected in a recent dance class at school. “It has a nice ring to it.”

“Oh, yikes,” Donna said. “That’s the first time I’ve heard our names said together. This definitely isn’t going to work out.”

“Sorry, kid,” Ty said, referring both to the topic of conversation and his inability to keep up with her complex moves.

“Eh, you’re hopeless,” Donna said. “Maybe Gavin will do better.”

“Ouch,” Ty said. “I thought I was first in your heart.”

“I don’t know,” Donna said. “There are three of you in the race now. You’ve got your work cut out for you if you want to maintain the lead.”

“Perhaps a bit of sabotage is in order,” Ty said with a devilish gleam.

“Oh, hi Donna,” crowed a voice in Donna’s ear. A voice she hadn’t been overly eager to hear again.

“Trynn, hello!” Donna said, spinning around to greet her. For a moment, she was confused about why Trynn would be here, of all places. And then she remembered Trynn’s old connection to Cat, through their violin teacher. But had Cat really invited her? Donna had helped address envelopes, and she was pretty sure Trynn’s name would have jumped out at her, if it had been on the list.

“You remember my husband, Dr. Gentry?” Trynn said.

“I don’t think we’ve met,” he said, extending a hand, clearly not recognizing her without the feather boa and pink wig. Or perhaps her kiss on his cheek hadn’t been as shocking to him as it was to Donna.

“Hello Doctor,” Donna said mock-seriously, meeting his eyes as she firmly gripped his palm.

“Jack is fine,” he said uncomfortably.

“He sure is,” Trynn crowed.

“I have to agree,” teased Ty, reaching to shake his hand too. “Ty Westerbrook. Brother-in-law of the bride.”

“He’s the shoe magnate I was telling you about,” Trynn stage-whispered to Jack.

Donna and Ty exchanged an amused smile at the word “magnate.”

“Donna was one of my Hot Box Girls in Guys and Dolls ,” Trynn explained to Jack, and Donna resented the implied ownership.

“Guilty,” Donna said in her best Brooklyn-ese.

“So I guess that thing with Nick didn’t work out?” Trynn said, pretending to look around for him, as if she didn’t already know the scoop from their theater circles.

“Oh that was over before it began,” Donna said.

“Is that why you’re dancing with your brother-in-law?” Trynn asked, as if there was something wrong with that.

“I have a date here somewhere,” Donna said, looking around. “He’s probably getting something to eat. He’s not much of a dancer.”

“Seems to be your curse tonight,” Ty said. “I can waltz, but I’m pretty hopeless otherwise.”

“You know,” Trynn said meaningfully. “Jack is an excellent dancer. We were on the same social dance team in college.”

Nobody seemed to catch the hint. So Trynn finally spelled it out.

“Jack, honey, why don’t you give poor Ty a break and take my old friend Donna for a spin?” she said, pulling Ty into conversation before anyone had a chance to respond.

So Donna and Jack were left staring awkwardly at each other.

“Do you swing?” Donna asked.

Jack raised his eyebrows.

Donna’s burst of laughter caught him off guard. She couldn’t blame him. She’d been known to startle her own self with the volume of her cackle.

“I’m talking about swing dancing, ” she said, but the hint of a smile tugging at the edge of his mouth suggested he’d known what she meant. “I was just trying to teach my hopeless brother-in-law.”

“East Coast or West Coast?” he asked.

“You choose,” she said.

Without a word, he led her out in the push-pull tension of West Coast Swing, which was honestly the only choice for the song. They fell into an easy, fun rhythm, and Donna noticed they were drawing attention, including from the photographer Lavinia had once again hired as her wedding gift to the couple (with strings attached, of course).

Jack was loads better than anyone she’d been partnered up with in class, even though he was clearly distracted, casting frequent glances in Trynn’s direction.

Oh, the jealous type.

“Don’t worry about Ty,” Donna said. “He’s harmless.”

“I’m not,” Jack said.

“You’re not harmless, or you’re not worried about Ty?” she laughed.

Jack considered the question.

“Yes,” Jack finally said, a corner of his mouth turning up

“Yes you’re not worried about Ty and Trynn, or yes you are ?”

“Yes, I’m not worried,” Jack said. “And no, I’m not not harmless.”

“Isn’t that a double negative?” Donna asked.

“Maybe even a triple,” Jack said, grinning. “You have dimples.”

“I do,” she said, grinning and turning her face side to side to show them off.

His attention was drawn back to his wife, and a crease furrowed his brow. He seemed to shake it off just as the song wound down, and he dipped Donna spontaneously.

“Trynn wasn’t exaggerating,” Donna said. “You know what you’re doing.”

“It’s been a while,” Jack said.

“I admit I didn’t think you’d be the dancing type,” Donna said, catching her breath.

Jack looked at her quizzically, clearly wondering when she’d had the opportunity to think about him at all.

“Oh, um, Trynn gave a certain…very serious impression about you,” Donna said.

Understanding dawned in Jack’s eyes.

“Ah yes, you no doubt have heard plenty about me during all those rehearsals,” Jack said.

“Well, I think I knew the date of every one of your big exams, if that’s what you mean,” Donna laughed.

“I’m sure you did,” Jack said, a tired look in his eyes just remembering it. “That last semester was brutal.”

“Well at least you’re done now, Doctor,” Donna said.

He laughed.

“Not yet,” he said. “Residency is even worse.”

Donna wondered how Trynn Gentry was going to handle that. But she didn’t wonder for very long, because she had some dancing and some mingling and some car decorating to do. And those condom balloons weren’t going to blow up themselves.

As if two family weddings in one year weren’t enough, Donna was in several more wedding parties the following February, including on the night of her 21 st birthday. But this time, it was her turn to wear the white dress and veil.

The dress was a bit old-fashioned for her taste, but she didn’t have much say in the matter. She also didn’t get to pick her own groom. But out of the seven available options, Mychal was the one she would have chosen anyway, despite him being 2 years behind her in school.

She had to admit she quite enjoyed having someone to kiss every night, even if it was a stage kiss to a fictional groom in a university production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers . During rehearsals, she and Mychal had decided to make their kiss as authentic as possible. None of this thumb-over-the- mouth stuff. After all, their characters, Dorcas and Benjamin, were supposed to be the most passionate of all of the couples, and neither of them had a real-life boyfriend or girlfriend to object. The director suggested they really play it up for comic effect, with Donna/Dorcas being the obvious aggressor. So every night, she applied extra layers of bright red lipstick just before the final scene. Then she enthusiastically smeared it all over Mychal/Benjamin’s mouth, ensuring the evidence could be seen from the back row when he finally came up for air.

As much fun as she had snogging the strapping young lad, she had no plans to pursue him—or anyone else in the cast—after the play ended. Mychal was wonderful onstage, and he could not have been a more willing stage-kissing partner. But his daily reports of fraternity-house antics suggested he was somewhat lacking in maturity off stage.

For a while, she’d had her eye on Adam, who was a senior and the male lead, but he quite clearly had a crush on the director. Things with Danno had long since petered out, but they’d remained friends, which Donna was grateful for every time she ran into him backstage. They were good enough friends that Danno organized an unauthorized behind-the-scenes champagne toast for Donna’s birthday—for select cast members only—to celebrate her new status as a legal drinker. (Which mattered less to her than it did to him.)

At the moment, she had no other romantic prospects. She’d already decided that if the situation didn’t improve in the next year, she’d drag Danno to yet another wedding—this time in Boston. Lavinia had gotten engaged to her hunky boyfriend the week before the play opened, which threw the entire blog content calendar into disarray and gave Donna a much-needed break from her blogging duties. Now she had all the time in the world to focus on her nightly nuptials to Mychal/Benjamin, her other coursework, and her pathetic love life.

Donna was thrilled for Lavinia, but the weddings and engagements happening left and right were making her increasingly aware of her singleton status. There was even a baby announcement! Audrey and Ty dropped the news on Christmas Day, bringing a glow of anticipation to Cat’s eyes and draining Liam’s face of all color, while Betty and Gavin eyed each other thoughtfully.

Donna could always be counted on to squeal the loudest, hug the tightest, and jump the highest for joy. And she did. But as the three newlywed couples fell into conversation about houses and nurseries and numbers of future children, Donna fell unusually quiet. Her sisters suddenly sounded so adult to her 21-year-old ears. Like they’d boarded a cruise to the future and left her waving from the shore.

Audrey tried drawing her into the conversation once or twice, but Donna ended up drifting toward the kids’ end of the table, where the twins were bartering their Christmas presents and Elizabeth sat leafing through the Jane Austen box set from Grandma Caro.

Forever caught in the middle, Donna had spent her whole life floating between the big sisters and the little sisters. At some point when she wasn’t looking, Audrey, Betty, and Cat had started having conversations about 401ks and cleaning supplies, while the youngest three were still consumed with acne and first crushes. The bigs all had houses. The littles all had bedrooms. And Donna lived in an apartment over a garage, by herself.

She’d often wondered if going away to college would have helped fill the void. Living on campus somewhere would have forced her to connect with roommates and classmates on a more intimate basis. But as it was, she lived too far away to really feel like a part of things, a situation that was unlikely to change with just two and a half semesters left before graduation.

She couldn’t believe she’d be joining the “real world” in a little over a year. To become what? Another classic California cliche: a waitress/actress desperately hoping for her big break?

Trynn Gentry had gotten hers. She’d landed a supporting role in a new sitcom about a high school drama club, which was called (predictably) Drama Club . She’d get to sing, dance, and act on the stage—and be on television too. Truly, the best of both worlds.

Donna personally preferred the stage to the screen, so she didn’t begrudge Trynn her success. What she did envy was the forward motion, the progress, the lack of limbo. The fact that Trynn knew exactly what she wanted and went after it.

But at least Donna had someone to kiss. For now.