Nadia nods a few times before glancing at Auntie and then back at me.
“We fucked up.”
Now it’s me who’s chuckling.
“Yeah, Nad. We sure did.”
A few moments pass in silence before she speaks again.
“The wedding is in January, you know.” She waves her hand at me to make her engagement ring catch the light. I almost forgot all about it. “I wonder if she’ll be okay enough to go. I wanted her andPapato walk me down the aisle together.”
Her voice breaks, and I don’t even think before reaching to put a hand on her shoulder.
“She’ll be there.”
“Will you?”
I blink in surprise.
“If you want to, that is,” Nadia backpedals, like she’s also surprised herself. “You’re part of this family, Cole. I don’t want to shut you out anymore. You should be there.”
“Then I will be.”
She gives my hand a squeeze. “I think you’d like him, you know—my fiancé. His name is Daniel. I’m sure it will be a little awkward when you first meet, but still. He’s a good man. When I met him, I...”
She trails off like she’s embarrassed, and I jostle her shoulder with mine until she swats me away and gives in.
“I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but when I met him, all I could think was, ‘Igetit now.’ I finally understood about....about you and Roxanne. It’s like they say; sometimes you just click.”
I go hollow inside. To say we ‘click’ doesn’t even come close to what happens whenever I’m in a room with Roxanne Nadeau, but what the fuck did that get us in the end?
“She’s gone,” I blurt. “Roxanne, she...left. She moved to Toronto.”
Most people would ask me what the big deal is, but Nadia still knows me well enough to stare with a mix of sympathy and concern.
“It didn’t work out,” I say to the floor. I can’t handle facing her pity.
“I’m sorry. You know whatMamanwould say, right?” Nadia asks me gently as she nods towards the bed. “She’d tell you the hardest thing to do is usually the right thing.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “That’s exactly what she’d say.”
Saying it is the easy part. Living it—that’s the challenge.
