Save the Date(107)

“Well,” Siobhan said, letting out a breath, “we can discuss when I’m back? Tomorrow?”

I smiled and nodded, even though she couldn’t see me through the phone, already looking forward to laying this out and talking about it for hours with my best friend—the insane weekend we’d had and all the ups and downs. “It’s a plan.”

*

“Okay, this one goes out to Linnie and Rodney!” Glen yelled from the stage. The crowd on the dance floor—which included my sister and newly minted brother-in-law, who’d been dancing up a storm—cheered, and Any Way You Want It launched into their take on “Don’t Stop Believin’?” yet again.

It was the third time, by my count, that they’d played it during the reception, but the group dancing didn’t seem to mind very much. The rest of the dinner had gone off without any other major disasters. If people had noticed they were eating supermarket cake when the dessert was served, nobody mentioned it. My dad especially seemed to be a big fan, and had eaten at least three pieces. The speeches had all gone well—my dad’s had been lovely, as had Rodney’s mom’s. And best of all was Rodney’s brother, Ellis, who had surprised us all by Skyping in from Japan for his speech. It was very early in the morning there, and he didn’t seem entirely awake, but even so, most people in the tent were sniffling by the time he’d finished it.

Danny had stood up and given a toast that had been very moving—about how Linnie and Rodney’s love had always been an inspiration to him, and he hoped that he would be lucky enough to find something like it someday. I kept waiting for him to mention Brooke, or their relationship, but then he just continued with his speech. I noticed Brooke getting up and leaving soon after—from what I could tell, she still hadn’t returned. And right after that, Any Way You Want It had started playing, and the dancing had begun in earnest.

I’d joined Danny and my siblings on the dance floor and had tried to subtly work my way over to where Jesse was dancing with Mike and Kyra. Because this was it. The wedding was over. The reception was going great, and everyone was having a good time. And now I could finally spend time with Jesse, not having to worry about anything else.

But even though Jesse smiled at me when I joined them and would sometimes take my hand and spin me around, or dip me, he hadn’t made any attempt to dance with just me. And it made me trying to dance with just him feel all the more awkward, and after a few minutes I stopped trying. I didn’t have a ton of time to dwell on this before the bridesmaids pulled me into a bridesmaid dance-off that had everyone up on their feet, laughing and clapping. Whenever I looked across the room at Jesse, he would smile or wink at me, but he wasn’t making any effort to come closer. I was chalking it up to not wanting to be obvious in front of Mike, but the longer it went on, the more it was starting to bother me, and finally I’d gone back to sitting at my table.

“How many times are they going to play this?” J.J. grumbled as he dropped into the seat next to mine. He held up his phone. “DJJJ is all ready to go!”

“Let’s give them a few more songs, but then, you should probably take over,” I said. I hadn’t realized just how long a song it was until I’d heard it played, live, three times. “I’m not sure we can handle another one of these.”

“Oh, good,” J.J. said, brightening, as he started to scroll through his playlists. “Any requests?”

“Just so long as it’s not Journey, I’m happy.” I leaned back in my seat to look out at the crowd, feeling myself relax.

People were divided between the tables and the dance floor. The ones at the tables were either watching the dancers, or talking in groups, or just lingering over cake and coffee. Olly had shaken off his earlier rejection and had been spending most of the night talking to one of Rodney’s cousins, who didn’t seem to have much of a problem with the fact that he’d been trying to get the bride to run away with him just a few hours earlier. Ralph had, to my surprise, hung around and was busting serious moves on the dance floor—people had started to give him some room, as his Running Man tended to go wild. Mike was talking to Elizabeth and her husband. Rodney was standing to the side of the dance floor with his parents. My dad and Linnie were dancing, my father doing what we all called the “Jeffrey Grant finger-point dance.” Danny was dancing with our mother, twirling her around while she tossed her head back and laughed. I glanced around and still didn’t see Brooke anywhere, but I was sure she must have come back—it was just hard to keep track of everyone in the shifting crowd.

“Charlie!” I looked up to see Danny standing in front of me, looking happy and out of breath, his bow tie loosened. “Come on,” he said, beckoning me to the dance floor. “No Grant left behind!”

I looked around and realized there was nothing left to do but dance. Things seemed more or less under control. People had enjoyed their supermarket cake, Linnie and Rodney were married, and the band had just launched into “Any Way You Want It.” I kicked off my shoes, then ran to join my family on the dance floor.





CHAPTER 24


Or, The Family Grant




* * *



TWO HOURS LATER, I LEANED back against the couch in the family room and speared a bite of my supermarket cake. “It was a job well done,” I said as I raised a forkful of cake toward my middle brother. “Thanks for saving the music.”