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“Oh my God,” Taylor said, covering her mouth with her hands. She sank down onto the bed. “What are we going to do?”
“Conrad went looking for him.” I was looking out the window again. My dad was finished with the porch, and he’d moved on to the bushes. I came away from the window and started unzipping my dress.
Startled, she said, “What are you doing?”
“You said it’s going to wrinkle, remember?” I stepped out of the dress, and it slipped to the floor, a silky white puddle. And then I picked it up and put it on a hanger.
Taylor put my robe over my shoulders, and then she turned me around and tied the sash for me like I was a little girl. “It’s going to be okay, Belly.”
Someone knocked on the door, and both our eyes flew over to it. “It’s Steven,” my brother said, opening it.
He came in and shut the door behind him. “Conrad got him back.”
I sank onto the floor and let out a big gust of air. “He’s back,” I repeated.
Steven said, “He’s showering, and then he’ll be dressed and ready to go. Go get married, I mean. Not leave again.”
Taylor knelt down next to me. Perched on her knees, she grabbed my hand and entwined my fingers with hers.
“Your hand is cold,” she said, warming it with her other hand. Then she said, “Do you still want to do this? You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. I had been so scared he wasn’t going to go come back. Now that he was here, all the fear and panic were rising up to the surface.
Steven sat next to me and Taylor on the floor. He put his arm around me, and he said, “Belly. Take this however you want to take it, okay? I have five words for you. Are you ready?”
I opened my eyes and nodded.
Very solemnly he said, “Go big or go home.”
“What the hell does that even mean, Steven?” Taylor snapped.
A laugh escaped from deep down in my chest. “Go big or go home? Go big or go home.” I was laughing so hard, tears were ru
Taylor jumped up. “Your makeup!”
She grabbed the box of tissues on the dresser and wiped my face delicately. I was still laughing. “Snap out of it, Conklin,” Taylor said, shooting a worried look at my brother. The flower in her hair was askew. She was right: the humidity wasn’t doing her hair any favors.
Steven said, “Aw, she’s fine. She’s just having a laugh.
Right, Belly?”
“Go big or go home,” I repeated, giggling.
“I think she’s hysterical or something. Should I slap her?” Taylor asked my brother.
“No, I’ll do it,” he said, advancing toward me.
I stopped laughing. I wasn’t hysterical. Or maybe I was, a little bit. “I’m fine, you guys! Nobody gets to slap me.
Geez.” I stood up. “What time is it?”
Steven pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “It’s two o’clock. We still have a couple of hours before people get here.”
Taking a deep breath, I said, “Okay. Steven, will you go tell Mom I think we should move the wedding inside?
If we push the couches to the side, we can probably fit a couple of the tables in the living room.”
“I’ll get the other guys on it,” he said.
“Thanks, Stevie. And Taylor, will you—”
Hopefully, she asked, “Stay and fix your makeup?”
“No. I was going to ask if you could get out too. I need to think.”
Exchanging looks, the two of them shuffled out of my room, and I shut the door behind them.
As soon as I saw him, everything would make sense again. It had to.
Chapter Fifty-five
Conrad
I woke up that morning to Steven shaking my bed. “Have you seen Jere?” he demanded.
“I was asleep,” I muttered, my eyes still closed. “How could I have seen him?”
Steven stopped shaking the bed and sat down on the edge. “He’s gone, man. I can’t find him anywhere, and he left his phone. What the hell happened last night?”
I sat up. Belly must have told him. Shit. “I don’t know,”
I said, rubbing my eyes.
“What are we go
This was all my fault.
I got out of bed and said, “Go ahead and get dressed.
I’ll look for him. Don’t tell Belly anything.”
Looking relieved, he said, “Sounds good. But shouldn’t Belly know? We don’t have a ton of time before the wedding. I don’t want her to get ready and everything if he’s not coming.”
“If I’m not back in an hour, you can tell her then.” I threw off my T-shirt and put on the white linen shirt Jere had made us all buy.
“Where are you go
“No, you stay here and take care of her. I’ll find him.”
“So you know where he is, then?”
“Yeah, I think so,” I said. I didn’t have a clue where that bastard was. I just knew I had to fix this.
On my way out, Laurel stopped me and said, “Have you seen Jere? I need to give him something.”
“He went out to get something for the wedding,” I said. “I’m going to meet him now. I’ll give it to him.”
She handed me an envelope. I recognized the paper right away. It was my mom’s stationery. Jere’s name was written on the front in her handwriting. Smiling, Laurel said, “You know, I think it might be nicer this way, coming from you. Beck would like that, don’t you think?”
There was no way I was coming back without Jere.
As soon as I was outside, I sprinted to my car and just gu
I went to the boardwalk first, then the skate park we used to hang out at as kids, then the gym, then a diner we’d stop at on the way into town. He’d always 268 · je
liked their strawberry milkshakes. But he wasn’t there. I drove around the mall parking lot. No car and no Jere. I couldn’t find him anywhere, and my hour was almost up.
I was screwed. Steven was going to tell Belly, and then this would be just one more, epic time I messed up her life. What if Jere had left Cousins completely? He could be back in Boston for all I knew.
It would have been great if I had some sudden epiph-any, some insight into where he was, seeing as how we were brothers. But all I could do was run down the list, every place we ever went. Where would Jeremiah go if he was upset? He’d go to my mom. But her grave wasn’t here, it was in Boston.
In Cousins she was everywhere. Then it came to me—the garden. Maybe Jere had gone to the garden at the shelter. It was worth a shot. I called Steven on the way over. “I think I know where he is. Don’t tell Belly anything yet.”
“All right. But if I don’t hear from you in half an hour, I’m telling her. Either way, I’m kicking his ass for this.”
We hung up as I pulled into the women’s shelter parking lot. I saw his car right away. I felt a mixture of profound relief and dread. What right did I have to say anything to him? I was the one who was responsible for this mess.
Jere was sitting on a bench by the garden, his head in his hands. He was still in last night’s clothes. His head snapped up when he heard me coming. “I’m warning you, man. Don’t come near me right now.”
I kept walking. When I was standing right in front of him, I said, “Come back to the house with me.”
He glowered at me. “Fuck you.”
“You’re supposed to be getting married in a couple of hours. We don’t have time to do this right now. Just hit me. It’ll make you feel better.” I tried to pick up his arm, and he shoved me off.
“No, it’ll make you feel better. You don’t deserve to feel better. But after the shady shit you pulled, I should beat the crap out of you.”
“Then do it,” I said. “And then let’s go. Belly’s waiting for you. Don’t make her wait on her wedding day.”
“Shut up!” he yelled, lunging at me. “You don’t get to talk to me about her.”
“Come on, man. Please. I’m begging you.”
“Why? Because you still love her, right?” He didn’t wait for me to answer. “What I want to know is, if you still had feelings for her, why did you give me the go-ahead, huh? I did the right thing. I didn’t go behind your back.