“I’m very happy to meet you, too,” Jordan said with a smile as he shook her hand.
“Your mom said you’re getting married?”
“Yes, that’s correct,” Rory answered the young woman, a small smile on her lips.
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
“Looks like you can take the Hamilton family out of the barbecue, but you can’t take the barbecue out of the Hamiltons,” Jordan laughed, looking behind them.
Rory turned to see what he was looking at. A broad grin appeared on her lips at the sight. Uncle Luke stood by the old rusty barbecue grill adding wood chips to its hearth. Andrea burst into laughter and Rory joined her shortly after.
“There will always be a barbecue as long as Uncle Luke is involved,” Andrea spoke.
“Well, while he tries to get that old crust bucket to work, I think I’m gonna head down to the beach,” Natalie spoke. Jordan nodded.
“What about you, Rory?” the young woman turned hopeful brown eyes in her direction.
“I want to take a dip but not just yet,” she answered.
“Okay.”
“So, is Donny coming?” Rory turned to ask her mother after Natalie and Ben left.
“No, he had to work today,” Andrea sighed.
Rory smiled at how obvious it was that her mother missed the man she was falling in love with. It was cute. It reminded her of how sad she would get when James couldn’t go with her to every function she had to attend and when he had to go to corporate conferences, leaving her at home by herself. Everything was changing. Here she was, miles away from him, missing him terribly but also not sure that she actually wanted to see him. This was the most confused she had ever been.
“Hi, guys. Sorry we’re late.”
Rory looked behind her to see Ben and Marg walking in their direction, Ben’s nineteen-year-old son Josh behind them.
“Hey, Ben. Hi, Marg, Josh,” Andrea greeted, hugging the two older adults.
“Hi, Drea, Rory,” Marg greeted back.
“We actually got here a half hour ago, so you didn’t miss anything,” Andrea explained to them.
“Hey, cuz,” Josh greeted Rory with a smile.
“Hey, Josh,” she greeted back. “Where’s your sister?”
“At home freaking out about wanting to miss the deadline to submit her thesis,” he replied, rolling his eyes.
Rory chuckled. “I know the feeling,” she empathized.
“Well, I don’t but what I can say is that she has been driving me up the wall,” he spoke in annoyance.
“You know you love her,” Rory teased.
A small smile creased his lips. “I do.”
Another half hour later, Rory had greeted all the members of her family who’d attended the trip.
She decided to head down to the beach where the younger population had begun congregating. Reaching for her jean shorts, she quickly pulled them over her bikini bottom before removing the floral print dress she’d worn.
“Mind if I join?” she called out to her cousins playing beach volleyball.
