I give Shelby a dirty look, but she completely ignores me. I’m not really all that upset about it, because honestly, I want to hear Emily’s answer.

Emily looks across the yard at Ethan, smiling before she answers. “We met at a karaoke bar.”

Jasmine nearly spits out her drink.

“A karaoke bar?” I ask, completely confused. Ethan loathes karaoke. Or, I guess, he used to.

“Yeah. It was a friend’s birthday party. We bonded over the fact that we were the only two who refused to sing.”

It’s ridiculous, but there’s a part of me that’s relieved to know that I was right about the karaoke.

“How long have you been together?” I ask. Gabby glares at me, but I don’t care. She can be surprised all she wants. I’m going to break my own rules tonight, because I just have to know the answer.

“A couple of months,” she says, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. She’s such a pretty woman, and there’s something about her that’s so bright, like she just exudes light. I can see why Ethan would be drawn to her.

“What do you do?” Jasmine asks.

“I’m a speech therapist at an elementary school in Fort Worth.”

“She also paints in her spare time,” Gabby says, chiming in. She says it with such enthusiasm that I wonder if she’s just been biding her time, hoping my curiosity would pique so that I’d start asking her questions like these.

I wait a few beats before I say something. “What do you paint?”

“Landscapes, mostly.”

“Show her,” Gabby says, nudging Emily’s shoulder.

Reluctantly, Emily fishes her phone out of her back pocket and she scrolls through a few photos before she hands the phone to me.

When I see the paintings, I’m stunned. They’re remarkably beautiful even with the cell phone’s awful picture quality. Breathtaking, really. It’s difficult for me to believe that someone I’ve actually met has painted them, which I know is ridiculous.

“Emily,” I say, smiling at her. “These are gorgeous.”

“Thank you,” she says. I can see her blush even under the dim lantern light.

I return her phone to her, and for the first time all night, it seems like none of us have anything to say.

“Can I ask you all a question that I’ve been wondering about all afternoon?” Emily asks, seeming kind of shy. She stands up and takes a seat next to Jasmine, then leans in. I don’t know who she thinks will overhear her, the guys are at least 30 yards away. “That guy over there,” she says, pointing towards the men gathered around the grill. “The one in the red shirt?”

“That’s Marco,” Shelby says.

“Yeah, him. Why does he have a tattoo of a Ring Pop?”

We all bust out laughing, clutching our stomachs, gasping for air. Jasmine’s having the most difficulty catching her breath, because she’s been harassing Marco about that tattoo ever since he got it, and I know she’s got to feel validated right now.

“Marco!” she shouts.

Every single head turns in our direction and Marco yells, “What?”

“Emily here wants to know all about your Ring Pop tattoo.”

Marco’s shoulders slump as Xavier, Ethan and Ben all crack up.

“It’s an ankh, you assholes!” he yells.

Emily shakes her head, grinning. “It’s a Ring Pop,” she says under her breath.

God help me, I like her.

“THIS IS the best hamburger I think I’ve ever had,” Shelby says, tilting her head to lick a piece of melted cheese that’s dripping off of her thumb.

I hum in agreement, remembering that my dad used to tell me that the messier the food, the better it tastes. The memory stirs up an unexpected warmth inside of me, and I tamp it down as soon as it rises up. Memories of my father are seldom good things, and when they are they usually leave as quickly as they came.

“We bought it from just down the street,” Jessa says, and every single member of the Wright family groans, Gabby included.

“I don’t want to think about my food having a face, Jess.” Nate looks warily down at his hamburger, but keeps eating it anyway.

Jessa rolls her eyes. “You always were really sensitive about animals.”

“Not to the point where he won’t eat them,” Marco replies. “He pounded down about fifty sliders at Ben’s bachelor party.”

“What happens in Vegas,” Nate says before taking another bite.

“You went veggie for a while when you were like, ten, right?” Jessa asks.

“Please don’t tell that story right now.” Nate puts his burger down and wipes his hands on the crumpled-up paper towel in front of him.

“What story?” I ask, figuring out that if Nate doesn’t want it told, it must definitely be worth hearing. He rolls his eyes at me, but follows it up with a cute grin.

“Mom, you wanna take this one?” Jessa picks up her bottle of beer and swirls it before taking a sip.

“Back before we built the patio onto the guest house,” Amy begins, smiling, “there was a huge tree back there, and we had a problem with baby birds and squirrels falling off of the branches. Nate always used to watch out for them, and when one of them would fall, he’d build them a little bed by filling a shoe box with old dishtowels. He’d feed them with ear droppers until they were big enough to go out on their own again.”

Nate looks completely embarrassed, and a few of the guys at the table are doing their best not to laugh at him, which is probably in their own best interest, because Nate could definitely take all of them. At once, probably. I can tell that Ethan wants to make a crack, and there’s a part of me that wants to see what would no doubt be a smack down of epic proportions on Nate’s behalf. But Ethan decides not to take the bait. The women, well…every one of them but those in his immediate family is looking at him all starry eyed and I’m a little jealous about it, honestly. There’s a part of me that wants to walk over to where he’s sitting, stand in front of him and write MINE all over his plain grey t-shirt. But that’s crazy, isn’t it? Wanting to mark my territory when there’s no territory to mark? I can’t have Nate-ish territory.

Right?

What is wrong with me?

Thankfully, Nate seems to be oblivious to his adoring female audience. “Can we talk about anything other than my wildlife rescue hospital?”

Amy sighs when she looks at her son, her hands clasped in front of her. In no time at all she’s turned her attention to Xavier.

“How’s your mama?” she asks. Xavier’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago. She’s doing well now, but for a while there…

“She’s great, thank you for asking,” he says, his mouth half-full. He smiles at her, and this cute dimple makes a dent in his cheek. It makes me remember why I had a slight crush on him when I first met him all those years ago.

“She’d smack you if she saw you talking with food in your mouth,” Jasmine says in a half-biting, half-sweet kind of tone. She and Xavier dated in high school, back before any of us knew them. They broke up the summer before college, but Jasmine teases him a little too much, and Xavier always looks at her a beat longer than he probably should. There’s something there still, but I don’t think they’ll ever act on it, and what kind of hypocrite would I be if I called either one of them out?

“It wouldn’t be the first time,” Ben says.

Amy rolls her eyes at her son, but she smiles in spite of herself. “Marco, how’s everything with you?”

“Well, thank you.” He’s always so polite.

“Since we’ve got a wedding coming up and I’ve got brides on my mind, I have to ask. Have you proposed to that girlfriend of yours yet?”

Marco’s mid-swallow, and he nearly chokes on his food. Ben gives him a light pat on the back, but it doesn’t take Marco long to recover.

“No, ma’am. I haven’t.”

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Amy asks.

Marco shrugs, and his face gets serious all of a sudden as he looks around the table, like he doesn’t know how to answer her. “I’m not sure if she’s the one.”