Elin Hilderbrand: Beautiful Day

Ryan said, “You look worse than I feel. We brought copies of the Times and the News and Observer so everyone could see the wedding announcements. You want to be the first one? We’re sitting over there.”

“I would,” Margot said. “But I have to talk to my mother’s cousins. I’ve been putting it off all weekend.”

Margot fixed a plate of things she didn’t normally allow herself to eat-fried chicken, hash browns, and a big scoop of cheesy grits topped with barbecue. What did it matter if she weighed five hundred pounds? No one had loved her when she was thin.

She sought out Everett and Kay Bailey, her mother’s favorite cousins. It was a sign of devotion to her mother that Margot did this. She had always loved Ev and Kay, but the whole “catching up” thing was the last way Margot wanted to spend her time at this brunch.

They were, of course, delighted when Margot sat with them.

“Oh, what a wonderful surprise,” Kay said. “Here’s Margot! Where are the kids?”

“Back at the house,” Margot said. “With their cousins and a babysitter.” Playing their iDevices, she thought. Eating cake for breakfast.

Margot hadn’t seen Ev and Kay since her mother’s funeral seven years earlier, so there was a lot to discuss. Like her divorce from Drum Sr.

“He’s getting married again,” Margot said. “To a Pilates instructor named Lily.” A woman I had never heard of until three days ago. She ate a few huge forkfuls of barbecue and grits.

Was Margot dating anyone? “No, nobody special.” Unless you count the fifteen months I spent in a nebulous haze of sex and unrequited texting with my father’s law partner.

And how about work? It sounded as though she’d had quite the meteoric rise up through the ranks at Miller-Sawtooth. “Work is good,” Margot said. “I love my job.” Work had always been Margot’s ace in the hole. The rest of her life might be falling apart, but work-promotion, esteem, salary-had always been gangbusters. Or at least it had been until Griff. The first event of Griff was bad enough, but the reappearance of Griff had been exponentially worse. She had liked Griff months ago and regretted her actions, but over the course of the weekend, he had revealed himself to be even kinder, funnier, cooler, and more genuine than he had seemed previously. And he had liked her! He thought she was pretty! And smart! And tough and discerning! (The ultimate compliments, in her line of work.) And she had picked him off like a sniper. She had been ruthless and unethical; she had blown, blown, blown it!

Maybe the expression on her face gave away that work was a sore subject.

“Your dad seems good,” Ev said.

“Good?” Margot said. “Yep, he’s good.” As long as he doesn’t end up as a permanent denizen on my pull-out couch. More than anything, Margot hoped he didn’t default and go back to Pauline just because he couldn’t face life as a singleton.

“And your brothers?” Kay asked.

“Kevin is Kevin,” Margot said. “Out slaying dragons, making the world a safer place for humanity.” She and Ev and Kay all pivoted in their seats to observe Kevin and Beanie, arm in arm at the bar-where, Margot knew, Kevin would order a light beer and Beanie would get a V8 with nothing in it.

“And Nick,” Margot said. What the hell could she say about Nick that wouldn’t make Ev and Kay’s hair stand on end? At that moment, he was dancing with Finn to “Am I Blue?” The two of them looked like they had been welded together; Nick’s chin was on Finn’s head, her face smushed into his chest, her eyes closed. Their feet were barely shuffling. Margot watched them for a moment with awe and horror. They had spent the night together in Jenna’s room-Autumn had once again repaired to the groomsmen’s house with H.W., and Jenna and Stuart had spent their wedding night in the cottage at the Cliffside Beach Club. No one had said a word about Nick and Finn cohabiting in the family home-not her father, not Kevin, and not Margot herself. She wasn’t the moral police, they were both consenting adults, infidelity wasn’t against the law. But come on!

Jenna and Finn still weren’t speaking. They might never speak again, even if Nick and Finn ended up getting married someday.

Married! Margot barked out an unhappy laugh. Ev and Kay smiled at her as if to ask what was funny, and Margot rummaged for a neutral statement to make about Nick.

But at that moment, something happened. Margot saw a man enter the tent. Handsome guy, broad shoulders, bowlegged walk. Margot’s mouth dropped open.

No way, she thought. Oh, my God, no way.

“Excuse me a second,” she said to Ev and Kay.

She bumbled with her chair and her drink, which she had wisely decided to bring with her. She needed to get a better look.

Oh, my God, yes.

The man who had entered the tent was Scott Walker.

Inwardly, Margot squealed. She watched Scott Walker approach Nick and Finn on the dance floor. The band continued to play, but Nick and Finn stopped dead and separated, although Nick still had a hold of one of Finn’s sunburned arms.

Margot thought, Jesus, Nick, let go!

She thought, Scott is going to punch him.

Finn’s face was the face of someone who saw dead people. She looked petrified.

There were words, spoken by Scott, but Margot couldn’t hear them over the strains of “Everybody Loves My Baby.” Then Nick said something, and Margot hoped he was pulling out the charms that had, heretofore in his life, kept him alive and out of prison. Finn said nothing; she barely blinked.

Scott took Finn by the other arm. For a second, both Nick and Scott had a hold of Finn like they were engaged in a tug-of-war, and Margot thought, Everybody loves my baby, indeed! She wanted to know why Finn had men fighting over her wimpy, lying, cheating ass. It was neither fair nor just. Then Nick let go, and Scott led Finn out of the tent and down by the dock, where they stood and talked. They were fifty yards away, but still in full view of everyone.

Jenna appeared at Margot’s side.

Margot said, “I cannot believe this is happening. Can you believe this is happening?”

Jenna said, “I called him.”

The foghorn sounded. The ferry pushed forward off the dock. Margot and Doug sat in the front seat of the Land Rover, and the three kids with their iDevices were in the back. Ellie was wearing her flower girl dress; she had spilled Hawaiian Punch down the front, and the back was covered with grass stains, but that hardly mattered now.

The wedding was over.

“Forget the Marriott in Stamford,” Doug said. “I’m going to pack up my things, deal with some issues at the office, and come back up here next weekend. In fact, I’m going to stay all summer.”

“All summer? ” Margot said. “You’re kidding me.”

“Not kidding,” he said. “I’ll go to the beach. I’ll golf at Sankaty. Why not? Edge can take care of things at the office.”

Margot nodded once sharply, in a way that she hoped conveyed that she did not want to talk about Edge. She was, however, insanely jealous at the thought of her father spending the entire summer on Nantucket. Because despite how weird and difficult the weekend had been, she didn’t want to leave the island. It physically pained her. As the ferry lumbered toward Hyannis, her heart broke a third time.

Which reminded her.

“I’m going up,” Margot said. “Who’s coming with me? Ellie?”

Ellie shook her head.

“Come on, you said you would.”

“I changed my mind.”

“Boys?” Margot said.

“No!” In chorus.

She sighed and felt impending tears. Her mother had never had a problem getting Margot and her siblings to do her bidding when they were this age. Margot and Kevin and Nick hadn’t been allowed to rebel until they were teenagers.