Page 17 of Fathers of the Bride

‘Our Kelly’ was a bit presumptuous. Though he had lived on our street since before we’d adopted her, it wasn’t like he was officially anything. Or unofficially either.

“Do you mean Instagram? Kelly’s not on Instagram.”

“Raj is. I follow him.”

“You follow Raj? Why would you do that?”

“Someone’s got to look out for your interests.”

“Stop following him immediately. If Raj is saying bad things about me, I don’t want to know.”

“You don’t want to know at all? You’ve never peeked at his Instagram page?”

“No. I’ve never laid eyes on him.”

Lucas studied me a moment then said, “There’s something wrong with you. Anyway—they went to this sushi soul food fusion restaurant. You would have been horrified.”

“I am horrified. About a lot of things.” Including Lucas.

His phone chirped and he said, “Hold on.” He swiped his fingers this way and that. Then he said, “I’m setting up a date with this very interesting couple.”

“Couple?”

“Uh-huh. I like to try everything once. Or in this case twice.”

“Make surenotto tell me all about it,” I said.

He pulled a face at me. He typed with his thumbs really quickly—how did people do that? Then, with a dramatic sigh, said, “The return of the prodigal daughteranda wedding. I’ve been left out of so much.”

“It’s been something of a surprise for us too.”

“You’re meeting the in-laws this weekend. Nervous?”

“How do you know that? Raj?”

“Avery’s mom. She’s a hoot. You’re going toloveher.” Taking in the look on my face, he added, “I friended her on Facebook. Do you never look at your phone?”

“Don’t tell me any more. I want to go old school and let it all be a surprise.”

“You must be living in dread.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you haven’t seen Andrew in, what? Two years—or is it three? It’s going to be horrible, isn’t it?”

“As a matter of fact, we had coffee the other day.”

“Really? How sophisticated.”

When Andy and I broke up, I’d made the mistake of crying on Lucas’ shoulder a few times. I pulled back when I began to suspect he was enjoying my pain. I could feel him angling for a deep, sloppy talk. Instead, I said, “It was fine. It’s all going to be fine.”

And then, Kelly was standing in the kitchen doorway. “Daddy, we should go.”

“I’m making you whole wheat pancakes.”

“We’ll have them when we get back—Hello, Lucas. How are you?”

“It’s Uncle Lucas and I’m fabulous.”