SOFIA SOL

“Oh no!” Celia murmurs as she wrangles my cherry red garter. “You can see this through the white.”

Surveying it through my floor-length, silk, off-white gown in the mirror, I cock my head and smirk, “Even if you couldn’t see the color, the texture would show through.”

My cousin Hannah smiles from behind her champagne flute, “Skin tight wedding gown, leave it to you.”

“At least I didn’t wear my Thai pads, or boxing mitts.”

Ceels jokes, “Or your gun.”

“Oh, I’m wearing the gun!”

Sage laughs, knowing I’m full of shit. But Celia is too focused on my curls now to care. She’s folding one wide ringlet—really loose and wide so that it barely qualifies—over the others with the precision of a surgeon.

Through the mirror I lift my eyebrow to Hannah and she stifles a laugh. But Ceels heard it and glances over. Straightening up she plants her hands on the hips of her Maid of Honor, taupe-colored, silk gown. “Am I being anal?”

“Extremely,” I smile, lifting the hem of my dress, the short train following me, walking barefoot to the booze without tripping myself. “I need a stiff drink. Thank God Melodi thought ahead.”

A light knock on the door sounds and my cousin Emma pokes her head in, chestnut waves framing her cupid face in a new bob she got, and hates. “You guys, we’ve got about fifteen minutes.”

I wave her in and she quickly shuts the door so that the throng of Cockers exploring the plantation for the first time, doesn’t get an accidental sneak peek of the main show. “Well, then hurry up, Emm. I’m toasting with something stronger than that crud Hannah’s downing like water.”

Hann laughs, rising up and setting her half-full glass down. “This is my first one. You make it sound like I’m a lush.”

“You are a lush. I saw you in Florida!” I razz her before glancing to Emma. “Oh shit, you’re going to start gushing, aren’t you. I can see it in your face! Don’t gush.”

Secretly I want her to.

With chestnut eyes as big as she can get them, Emma circles me. “Sofia Sol! You are so sexy in this I am going to have to cover my husband’s eyes…and my dad’s!”

Laughing I push her shoulder, “Gross, don’t make me think about Uncle Jake like that.”

Hannah mutters, “Seriously,” taking her freshly filled shot glass from me and sniffing the golden contents. “Tequila? Are you trying to kill us? And Tanner only has eyes for you, Emma. Soph could walk around naked and he’d still be watching you.”

Sage and Celia cock their heads as they hold up their shot glasses. I voice what they’re thinking, “Bullshit. But you don’t have to worry, I might be rocking this thing but I’ll keep it on.”

Emma sticks her tongue out at Hannah, and gets a longer one in return. The three of us are close as hell, the oldest Cocker cousins, with Ben a month behind me. We’re three of the seventeen descendants of six notorious brothers in Atlanta. And Hannah and Emma used to be roommates until I whisked Hannah off to Florida. Then everything changed, as meeting the love of your life will do.

I should know.

“What’ll we toast to?” Sage asks, red hair warmed by the taupe bridesmaid dress she’s wearing. I chose this color because all four of them look great in it, no matter their skin color.

“To my sisters,” I smile, meeting each of their eyes. “I don’t have any siblings by blood but…with you girls I have everything I need.”

After a collective bunch of “Awwww!” we clink our glasses and bring them to our lips, eyeing each other to see if we’re really sucking these bad boys down or sipping. I mutter, “And to hot sex and true love.”

They laugh and we throw ‘em back, wincing as the hot sting courses down our throats in one nasty gulp.

Sage coughs, the youngest of us and not much of a drinker. Ceels hits her back to help her, but Sage waves her away and croaks, “I’m fine. Totally got this!”

The door opens and all heads turn to see my mother sneaking in, shutting the door quickly and cocking an eyebrow at the empty shot glasses in our five hands. “My timing is off. Give me one.”

I pour it, grin, and hand it over. Mom sips and touches Emma’s arm, while looking between her and Hannah, “Three beautiful bridesmaids, one gorgeous Maid of Honor, and…” she turns me, “And the stunning spawn of Satan.”

“Mom!” I laugh with her.

She reaches for the skirt of my gown and lifts it, giving me a dreamy-eyed expression. I’ve never seen her moon over anything but that’s what she’s doing to me, and it feels pretty damn great. “Sofia Sol,” she whispers, “You’re breathtaking.”

“Thank you,” I smile, stepping in for a hug. She kisses my hair. “You look beautiful, too, Mom. But I always think that about you.”

She pulls away to scan my face, wondering if I’m joking. “Do you?”

“Every time I look at you I think, my mom is a queen.”

Emotion twists her forehead and she blinks a few times, “Can we go back to yelling at each other?”

“Yes, please!”

“Oh good!” she laughs, tipping her glass back and dropping it with an empty thump on the table by my window. Wiping her eyes she announces, “To change the subject, Nancy and Melodi are fighting over the food. Mel put out her jambalaya in front of your grandmother’s chili and just as quickly, it was moved, chili up front.”

To Celia and Sage, who don’t know the Cocker family at all, never having been to one of our famous family BBQs in Atlanta, I explain, “Grandma Nance makes the best chili in Georgia if not the whole South.”

My cousin Emma says, “And while she acts humble and always says something like, it’s probably burned this time, it’s always perfect.”

Hannah rolls her pale green eyes, “You are going to die when you taste it.”

Sage puffs up a little, “Wait until you’ve tried Mel’s jambalaya! There’s never any left.”

“Never any chili left over, either,” Hannah says, “Uncle Jason, or our cousin Gabriel, one or both of them always run off with it and leave the party with their stomachs distended.”

“Tonk, Fuse, and Honey Badger once got in an actual fight over the last spoonful!”

Mom throws up her hands. “Alright, they’re both delicious. God, you’re as bad as they are downstairs.”

Sage and Hannah quickly apologize to each other, and I just shake my head, “Ciphers and Cockers, let the egos begin!”