Page 41 of Shake the Habit

“Botany,” Aunt Paula announced.

“What about it?”

“That was Lara-Lee’s main interest, botany. She was always talking about important experiments that she was conducting with plants, as if any of us girls gave a hoot. We were much more interested in boys than seedlings, and she used to say that we were cretins. We probably were,” she added reflectively.

“She kept up that interest, because she moved to her farm and planted an orchard. It doesn’t look like she had a lot of luck with it, though.”

“That makes me very surprised. She was the most hard-headed woman I ever met, including myself. I find it difficult to believe that she would have given up…oh, there’s your boyfriend.”

“Aunt Paula, he isn’t,” I said, but I was already moving toward Caleb.

“That’s how we all refer to him!” she called after me.

“Hi,” I greeted him. “Is everything all right?” He was frowning as if it wasn’t.

“No. Yes,” he answered. “Yes, everything’s going to be fine, and I’m sorry that I got held up. Happy birthday.”

“You already told me this morning,” I reminded him. I’d awoken to Sir nudging me and to a text from Caleb.

“Now I can say it face to face, and I can give you this.” He handed me a box whose size, shape, and weight was immediately familiar. He’d gotten me shoes?

“You didn’t have to buy me a present,” I reminded him, smiling. That was something I’d been adamant about with my mother: I would allow a party, but absolutely no gifts. Aria hadn’t listened, either. “Thank you very much, though.”

“You’re welcome. Hello, Sir.”

The dog had barged over and then made his happy noises as he greeted Caleb, his favorite person. Whenever we got within a few miles of the farm, he started whining and barking in anticipation. Dogs just knew.

“Caleb, I’m glad you could come,” my mom said as she approached, and he got moved along into the party to see the other guests. I spotted him in conversation with Aria’s husband and later with Marc. But I hadn’t seen Aria since I’d asked her to go outside and talk to Taygen, and Marc himself wasn’t looking very happy. He was also trying to disguise that, but he’d always been terrible at hiding his feelings.

I sighed inwardly and also went into the back yard, where Aria and Taygen sat on the swings that my cousins and I had loved to play on when we were kids. Taygen held Aria’s little girl but was not looking any happier than when I’d seen her come out here.

“Maybe you can explain it, Kayleigh,” she called. “You can tell me what’s wrong with Marc.”

“Wrong?” I asked carefully, and just as carefully settled myself into the third swing. After the porch railing disaster, I’d been more cautious about interacting with the world around me.

Taygen started listing an inventory of problems that she and my cousin were having, including the old argument over installing shutters on his house, his lack of interest in wedding preparations, and his constant focus on work. Aria met my gaze over her head and raised her eyebrows. Whatever advice she’d been giving, it hadn’t worked to calm things down.

“So, what’s wrong with him?” Taygen asked me. “Why has he changed so much?”

“I think he seems a lot the same,” I answered, still cautious. “He was very worried about our big construction project, but that’s easing up.” At work, he did act more relaxed about it and I was taking a much bigger role in organizing, so things on-site seemed to be improving, too.

“Is he going to behave this way every time he gets hired? I thought that he wanted to be a contractor,” she said, frowning. “That’s all he’s ever done, it’s his dream.”

“Maybe that’s part of the problem,” Aria pointed out. “He wants it so much that there’s even more pressure on him.”

“It’s like he’s a different person,” Taygen told her. “He spoke really ugly to my dad.”

“What? Marc did?” I was surprised, but also…not. He’d been talking to me about how he didn’t care much for her father.Marc didn’t like the way that Taygen’s dad treated his wife and he also didn’t like how much the guy had to drink each night.

Apparently, there had been a discussion about the wedding that had turned mean-spirited. Taygen was the only girl in their family and her parents had offered to pay for everything, which meant that they believed that they should have a lot of say in the planning. For example, they didn’t like Marc’s choice of groomsmen, they didn’t agree about the suit he had chosen, and…

“They don’t want to pay for so many guests,” she finished, speaking the words quickly.

“Which branch of our family do they want to cut out?” I asked, and her eyes darted in my direction before she resettled them on the baby’s beautiful face.

“It’s just about numbers,” she mumbled.

Was she talking about me or was I being too sensitive again? I glanced over at Aria but she looked as confused as I felt.

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