The Bookish Life of Nina Hill(60)

“Yes.” Nina nodded. “But I don’t really understand.”

Lili hugged herself. “Well, when I looked up the team, I saw his name and thought it was entirely possible there was more than one Tom Byrnes in Los Angeles, right? I knew Richard had a brother named Tom, but he and I had never met, and you and I had never really met properly before that night. It was a long shot.”

“Yeah,” said Nina. “Kind of unbelievable.”

“And yet these things happen,” said Lili. “In my experience they happen more than you’d think. So I invited you to the wedding, and if it was supposed to be, then he would be the right one.” She shrugged and looked around. “Besides, there are lots of single men here because most of the people who work for Rachel are young guys who lift stuff, so if Tom wasn’t the right Tom then you still might meet someone nice.”

“Clare said your sister was a smuggler?”

Lili laughed. “She’s an importer of art and artifacts. She works with museums and private collectors, but one time when Clare was visiting her at work, Rach told her she was a smuggler, and then it was funnier to leave it like that.”

“Let’s hope Clare doesn’t grow up to work for the IRS.”

“Wash out your mouth,” said Lili, and got to her feet. “Have fun tonight. Tom seems very nice, and Richard is fantastic. We’re definitely improving the gene pool in the family by adding him.” She looked around. “Wait . . . where’s the camel?”

It turned out Clare had the camel and was trying to persuade it to climb into the back of her mother’s car. It further turned out that camels are not easily persuaded, particularly if you want to fold them up like umbrellas and squeeze them into small spaces, so Clare wasn’t getting very far.

Once she was separated from Humpy, under duress and with a lot of heated tears, she revealed she’d had four ice cream bars and two bags of gummy worms, and then threw up all over the back seat of the car. Nina offered to go hunt down a damp cloth and a roll of paper towels and headed off. While she was talking to a helpful waiter, Tom came up behind her.

“Hey, Nina, fancy meeting you here.” He’d spotted her after the ceremony, but he’d had to go and pose for fifty thousand wedding photos, and it had taken him until now to come find her. “I’m not sure how you are here, I’ll be honest.” He blushed slightly. “I mean, I’m really glad to see you.” Smooth move, ex-lax, he thought.

Nina had her arms full of paper towels, which was good because she could hand him a roll and explain the Clare–camel–gummy worm situation as an opening conversational topic. That way maybe he wouldn’t notice how flushed her cheeks were.

“So, let me get this straight,” he said, as they crossed the grass. “You’re here at the invitation of Clare, my new sister-in-law’s niece, who has been overcome by sugar and attempted camel-napping, and we’re on our way to provide assistance.”

“That’s about the size of it,” replied Nina. “Her older sister is one of the girls who was staring at you last week at the bookstore. She’s in my elementary book club.”

“Wow, it’s a small world.”

“No,” said Nina, spotting Lili and Clare still sitting on the ground by their car, the camel chomping the grass nearby. “It’s a very big world, but Larchmont is very small.”

Clare was looking much better, so Tom led the camel back to its original spot while Nina helped clean up and Lili explained to Clare that no, she couldn’t have more ice cream now that she felt better. No, even though she’d made room by throwing up. No, even if it was probably the gummy worms that had caused the trouble. And no, she couldn’t have a camel.

Tom and Nina decided it was probably best to back slowly away. Lili clearly had this under control.

“Congratulations, by the way,” said Nina, as they meandered across the grass. People had started dancing now, in an area near the front, and many of the rugs were empty.

He looked at her, puzzled.

“On your brother’s wedding. Congratulations on your new sister. I don’t know her, but Lili is really nice. And her nieces, as you saw, are great.”

Tom grinned. “I only met them myself very recently.”

“Oh? Richard and Rachel haven’t known each other very long?”

Tom shook his head. “No, they met last summer, although apparently Richard had seen her before and kind of fell in love at first sight. Then, when he spotted her again, he went for it.”

“Wow. That’s . . . bold.”

Tom shrugged. “That’s the Byrnes family for you. Overconfident. We’d rather try hard and fall on our faces than not try. It’s my mom’s fault; she’s insane.”

Nina paused. “Actually insane, as in mentally ill, or mad as a hatter insane?”

Tom laughed. “Well, I’m not a psychiatrist, but she’s definitely mad as a hatter. She likes to try lots of new things and get out there and do stuff. She skis, she skydives, she rides horses, she runs marathons.”

Nina smiled but said, “She sounds exhausting.”

Tom nodded. “She can be. Richard is like her, my sister, Amelia, is even more like her, and I’m a little bit like her. I’m not so adventurous.”

Nina looked up at him. “And your dad?”