Plan B (Best Laid Plans #2)(18)

"So, when is the wedding? Are you planning yet or enjoying the engagement period for a bit?" Gigi beams at us from across the table. She's positively lit up at the prospect of my impending nuptials. I haven't seen her this happy in years, it's as if seeing me happy lifts some weight for her. Fake happy, I remind myself. But the result is the same, isn't it? For Gigi, and for Kerrigan. For everyone.

"Next week," I reply without missing a beat.

Daisy chokes. I pat her on the back and slide a glass of water in her direction.

Gigi's mouth drops, then she clasps her hands together and laughs. "Oh, a whirlwind romance! A love match! Just like your parents."

My parents had some kind of whirlwind summer romance as the story goes, but I wasn't born seven months after their wedding, so I don't think their whirlwind romance was quite the same as this one.

"Daisy can't bear for us to be apart any longer. Isn't that right, sweets? What with the long distance."

"Well, that explains why you haven't brought her around before." Gigi beams. "Where do you live, Daisy?"

"Suburban Chicago. Naperville."

"Cute place," I add, like I have a fucking clue.

Daisy somehow manages to continue smiling at my grandmother while also side-eyeing the hell out of me. She also kicks me under the table.

"So how did the two of you meet then?" Gigi wants to know as Kerrigan chimes in with "Oh, yes, tell us!"

"We met in Boston," Daisy begins.

"I offered her a ride to Fenway," I jump in. "Which she declined after insinuating I might be a serial killer. But she let me walk with her." I smile, remembering. An honest-to-God smile, not a fake one. She surprised me when she declined. It's not as if I have a habit of offering women I don't know rides, but she was so feisty in her response. She was wearing a pair of sunglasses that she pushed up onto her head to meet my eyes while she spoke. Her eyes were blue, her lips pulled into a smile even as she sassed me.

"You can never be too careful, ladies, you know how it is," Daisy says. "You can't just hop in a car with a stranger even if the very sight of him makes your stomach plummet to your toes and abandon all logic. Even if he's got the cutest dimple you've ever seen when he smirks." Daisy stops abruptly, suddenly intent on examining her water glass.

There's a slight pause while Gigi and Kerrigan stare at Daisy with hearts in their eyes and Daisy stares at the tabletop like she's said too much.

"Haha," Kerrigan finally says. "Like that would ever happen. Kyle has a driver follow me around. I'm not even allowed to take an Uber." My sister scowls at me, my overprotectiveness an ongoing issue between us.

"You could live with me if you'd prefer," I tell her. "I could have the driver deliver you to class each day instead of escorting you when you need to leave campus." The problem with raising a teenager when you can still recall being one yourself is that you remember, vividly, how fucking awful and stupid teenagers can be. Add to the equation her net worth making her a potential target and she's lucky her security team is as small and discreet as it is.

"You should pick your battles," Daisy interjects. "Having someone around to drive you places hardly seems worth the fight, right? Just take the car and fight with Kyle about something else."

I'm surprised. I expected Little Miss Contrary to take Kerrigan's side just to goad me, not for her to back me up.

"So when did he propose? Is there a ring?" Gigi glances at Daisy's left hand. Her bare left hand.

"It's being sized," Daisy says. She didn't even stumble on that lie and I'm not sure if I should be impressed or alarmed. "But I can tell you about it."

Of course she can.

"It's gorgeous." Daisy sighs and places her hand over her heart. "It's the ring of my dreams and Kyle picked it out all by himself. Honestly, I don't know how he did it. It's like he read my mind, you know? Because we'd never even discussed rings or getting engaged or any of it."

I wipe a hand over my jaw and try not to laugh.

"Platinum band," Daisy continues, now holding her bare hand up with her fingers spread, a finger from her other hand pointing to where the nonexistent ring would go. Wedding ring jazz hands. "Oval-cut diamond set in a halo setting," She sighs, a big dramatic romantic sigh. "And it's huge." She waves her fingers here and emphasizes the word huge. "I said yes." She glances at me and places a hand on my forearm, the other clasped to her chest. "Yes, of course! But I told him the ring was a bit much, you know? And that we could exchange it for something a bit more subtle. But he insisted. He said he wanted every man within a five-mile radius to know I was taken." She shrugs, like I'm impossible.

"Ugh, he's such a caveman." Kerrigan groans while Daisy nods.

I do what I can not to grunt.

"Tell us how he proposed," my sister asks, leaning in eagerly as the waitress sets plates of food in front of us.

"This romantic fool." Daisy bites her bottom lip, as if she's trying to contain herself in her enthusiasm over me, except I know better and I think she's merely trying not to laugh out loud while she visualizes what fairy-lie she's about to spin. Then she turns to me with a huge smile. "Do you want to tell the story?"