I glanced over to see both Linnie and Rodney exchange a glance and my mother staring daggers at J.J., clearly trying to get him back on track, apparently forgetting who she was dealing with.

“Um, hello?” the voice on the other end of the phone said. It was a guy, and he sounded unsure. “J.J.?”

“Yes, it’s me,” J.J. said. “Thanks so much for getting back to me.”

“Sure,” the voice said, not sounding all that enthusiastic to be speaking to my brother. “What’s up, man? Is everything okay?”

“Yep. I just had a question for you. Your name is what, again?”

“J.J., you know my name,” the guy said, now speaking more slowly. “You called me, remember?”

“I know, I just needed to check something. If you could just tell me your name. Your full name.”

I met Danny’s eye two seats down from me. He shook his head and then gave me a half shrug and eye roll combo, a series of tiny, quick gestures that I could nonetheless understand perfectly: No, I have no idea what he’s doing. But really, what did we expect?

“Uh,” the guy on the other end said. “It’s Billiam. Billiam Kirby.”

“Billiam!” J.J. said triumphantly, raising the phone above his head. “See? Did I tell you? Did I tell you?” Most of the guests just stared blankly back at him while my dad gave him the hand-across-the-throat gesture that in our family had always meant shut it down.

“No way,” Rodney muttered, reaching for his wallet.

“Dammit.” Danny sighed, tossing his napkin onto the table. “I owe him twenty-five bucks.”

“He got me for fifty,” Rodney said, shaking his head.

I turned around to look at Bill, still standing at the back of the room. He caught my eye and shook his head, but I saw he was smiling.

“A little louder, if you don’t mind,” J.J. said, raising the microphone to his phone again. “Nice and loud so that everyone can hear you. You’re on speaker.”

“I . . . am?” Billiam asked, sounding taken aback. “Uh—where?”

“My sister’s rehearsal dinner.”

“Wait, what?”

“Here, I’ll show you.” J.J. held his phone out toward the table, moving it back and forth. “Say hi, everyone.”

“Hi,” a few people murmured, distinctly unenthusiastically.

“Wait,” Billiam said on the other end of the phone. “I don’t understand any of this. What’s going on?”

“I just needed you to verify your name, that’s all. And it worked out great, because now there’s a ton of witnesses.”

“J.J.,” Billiam said, incredulity creeping into his voice, “was this seriously what you called me about? You said it was an emergency.”

“This was the emergency,” J.J. said. “I mean, come on, like you were doing something more pressing?”

“You know I work for the Pentagon now, right?” Billiam asked, his tone getting very cold.

“Hey, good for you!” J.J. said. “Well, it was nice to catch up. Let me know if you ever need Pirates tickets.”

“What—” Billiam started from the other end, just as J.J. hung up on him. He set down his phone and picked up his glass. “To the happy couple!”

* * *

An hour later, the rehearsal dinner had technically passed the end point specified on the invitation, but nobody seemed in a huge hurry to leave and the party had just moved into the lobby, much to the apparent dismay of the guy behind the check-in counter, who was sending unhappy looks our way. Rodney’s cousin Marcus had left, and his sister and brother-in-law—and Uncle Stu had disappeared around the time the server showed up with the bill—but aside from that, everyone was hanging out.

Right after the dinner, I’d noticed my mother and Mike standing together in the back of the lobby, talking, my mom’s face turning red, the way it did when she was upset, and Mike folding his arms tightly and looking at the floor. I’d gotten pulled into a conversation with Mrs. Daniels, and after that I hadn’t seen Mike again—or Jesse, for that matter. I wasn’t sure if Mike had left, but the thought that Jesse might have left without saying anything was making my stomach knot, and I was checking my phone far more than I knew I should be.

“Okay, where’s the bride?” This was Priya, flanked by the Jennys. “Are we ready to do this?”

“Do what?” I asked as I looked up from my phone.

“We’re taking you out,” Priya said, tugging Linnie up from her barstool.

Jenny K. slung her arm around my sister’s shoulders. “We voted. We need to have our last single-girl night.”

“Just a second,” Rodney said.

“Nope,” Jenny K. crossed in front of my sister, blocking Rodney’s path. “You get to be married to her for the rest of your life. She gets one more girls’ night with us.”

“Guys, it’s not like we’re going to not hang out after I’m married,” Linnie pointed out.

“But it won’t be the same,” Priya said, her voice going wobbly.

“Okay,” Rodney said, clearly knowing when he was beaten. He took Linnie’s hand and gave her a quick kiss, then stepped back. “Have fun. But not too much fun.” He was clearly trying for stern but not really pulling it off. “See you at home?”

“See you then,” Linnie called as she was swept out the door, laughing, pulled along by her friends.

“Rodney!” J.J. yelled at a volume that was far too loud for the lobby. “Brother-to-be! Come join us. Belly up to the bar.” Rodney smiled and walked over to join them.

“Hey.” I looked over and saw that Bill had appeared next to me. He was wearing a white button-down and a gray tie, the shirt only slightly wrinkled and the sleeves rolled up. His tie was loosened, and his hair was as eighties-movie impressive as ever. You might have mistaken him for one of the guests, except that he had a tablet and a phone in one hand and a pen tucked behind his ear.

“Hey,” I said, smiling at him—I was happier to see him than I realized I’d be. “I thought you’d left.”

“Before an event is over?” He shook his head and lowered his voice to speak gravely. “Never.”

“Well, then, thank you,” I said.

“You guys certainly have entertaining speeches. I liked the Billiam one.”

I laughed. “I thought you might. The decorations looked great.”

“Thanks,” he said, tugging at the knot on his tie. “I mean, it was a little easier without people telling me that my decoration placement was wrong. . . .” I laughed. “But it would have been a lot more fun if you were here. You, um . . .” He cleared his throat. “You look really nice.”

“Oh,” I said, glancing down at myself and smoothing out my dress. “Thank you.”

“Sure,” he said easily, giving me a smile.

Our eyes met, and it was a beat too long before I realized I’d just been staring at him without saying anything. “Um, you do too.”

“Yeah?” Bill asked, sounding pleased as he looked down at himself. “Thanks. I kind of had to get ready in my car. The shirt’s not too wrinkled?”

“It’s fine,” I assured him. “Why were you getting ready in your car?”

“Well, my mom moved out of Putnam when I went to school. I’ve been staying at my uncle’s and he lives over an hour away. So I have all my clothes with me, since I knew I wouldn’t have time to go back and change before the event.”

“I didn’t know being an assistant wedding coordinator was so intense.”

“You have no idea,” he said, his voice low and faux serious, making me laugh.

“Charlie!” I looked over to see J.J. motioning me over to where he, Danny, and Rodney were all sitting at the bar. It currently looked deserted, and I wasn’t sure if this was because the bartender’s shift was over, or if he’d just gotten sick of my brothers—both seemed equally plausible. “And young Billiam! Come join us.”