Page 3 of The House on Firefly Beach
Chewing on a grin, Hallie teasingly shook her sister by the shoulders. “Why do I have bowls of Doritos snack chips on the table between the dishes of lamb and rosemary appetizers and the prosciutto wrapped persimmons? Is this a football game?” Hallie broke her mock-seriousness and bent over laughing.
“That’s what you said you wanted,” Sydney said, unable to hide her own laughter. “There are also crystal dishes of pink bubble gum—did you see them? Dubble Bubble,” she added as if that upped the status of the gum.
“Wait till your next wedding,” Hallie said. “You’re getting a Jell-O mold, a big, wiggly bride and groom in wild cherry.”
Sydney burst into laughter.
When Sydney and Hallie were in elementary school, they’d planned out their weddings. Sydney had wanted Jell-O for her reception, while Hallie had drawn a map of the table she’d wanted to see at her nuptials, which included Doritos and Dubble Bubble, both of which Sydney had managed to hide from her sister until this moment.
“You deserved the wedding of your dreams,” Sydney said, still giggling. “Think of me as the magic maker.”
Hallie rolled her eyes, still smiling from ear to ear before being pulled away to accept congratulations from a group of Ben’s relatives.
Sydney waved at Robby from across the makeshift dance floor that had been built with old wood from original planks in the cottage. Aunt Clara had ripped them out in her previous renovation and saved pieces of them that were stored in the guesthouse basement. Hallie had decided they would be perfect at the reception. Together, Ben had sanded the edges, and Sydney and Hallie had oiled the boards, encasing the whole thing in an oak frame. It now sat in the center of the lush green grass, dotted by lanterns and hanging lights.
While couples filtered onto the dance floor, the band kicking up to a slightly more festive beat, Robby was at the dessert table, helping himself to the wedding-bell cookies and sneaking some to Beau. His light brown hair was disheveled, the sleeves of his tuxedo shirt were rolled to the elbow, and his jacket, shoes, and socks were long gone.
Robby was Sydney’s whole world, the last remnant of the life she’d worked so hard for, which had come crashing down around her a few years ago when Robby’s father Christian had left her for another woman. Sydney had known Christian since his family had moved down the road when he was fifteen but growing up, they’d never been anything more than friends. In her late twenties, he and Sydney reunited, falling in love quickly. They’d started dating seriously and soon after Sydney found herself swept up in a romantic whirlwind, everything moving in a flash. Not long after they started dating, they both admitted they had fallen head-over-heels. Christian rushed over one night, breathless, telling her he couldn’t live without her, and before she knew it, she was planning her wedding. He’d ended up finding someone else, their relationship falling apart after only five years. She should’ve known it wouldn’t last by the lackluster romance they had once they’d settled into their daily routine. It seemed he was more interested in the chase than the actual happily ever after.
As her sister began the wedding planning, Sydney feared he’d be invited, but Hallie had told her that even though they’d all known him forever, and he was Robby’s father, she’d never put her sister in that position.
However Nate was a different story entirely. He most certainly got an invite.
A darling of the music industry, Nate Henderson had left Firefly Beach after college to pursue a career as a songwriter, and Sydney wasn’t sure evenhehad been prepared back then for the future that lay ahead of him. In his career so far, he’d already achieved thirty-seven number one hits, and eleven movie soundtrack titles. His success, which earned him the title “King of the Ballad,” and his unprecedented gorgeous good looks propelled him into the public eye and won him a spot on quite a few magazine covers. One of them had even titled his rise to fame as “extraordinary” and named him “Man of the Year.” He and Ben, having grown up together, were easy collaborators in their line of work, and they’d teamed up on many major albums. A prominent Nashville news show had labeled them country music’s dream team. So when Ben and Hallie began to make the guest list, Sydney knew that having Nate there would be inescapable.
Sydney allowed a little glance in Nate’s direction, and it looked as though he was passing his business card to one of Ben’s producer friends.Ugh, figures, she thought. She wondered if this was nothing but an opportunity to network for him.
She pushed her thoughts of Nate aside and swayed on the edge of the dance floor. The yard was full of candles and strings of lights in the trees, their branches hanging over masses of white tables adorned with magnolias and more hydrangea blooms bursting from centerpieces. It couldn’t be a more perfect night. The weather was unusually cool for June, the evening temperature topping out at seventy-five degrees, without a cloud in the sky. With the sun now sinking low on the horizon, the fireflies had come out and were mingling with the crowd. Against the swells of champagne as the bottles were uncorked, and the live music, it was like a summer dream.
“Mom!” Robby said, running over to her with a handful of cookies. Beau chased him across the yard, both of them coming to a stop in front of Sydney. “Ben said later, when all the guests leave, if I’m still awake, he’ll play football with me!”
With the wedding planning, Hallie and Ben had spent a ton of time around the cottage, playing with Robby to free up Sydney so she could plan with her sister. They were inseparable.
“It might be very late before everyone leaves, but perhaps you’ll get a chance to play,” she said, taking his free hand and swinging it back and forth to the music while he nibbled on the cookies in his other hand. Beau got tired of begging and trotted off. “Thank you for helping me hang the lanterns today,” she said.
“You’re welcome,” Robby replied before popping the last cookie into his mouth. “It was fun!”
“You just liked sitting on my shoulders.” Sydney reached over and tickled his sides, making him giggle. She wouldn’t admit to him that he was getting so big that she’d had a pinched nerve from him being on her shoulders all day hanging the lanterns. She’d had to take ibuprofen to make the ache stop. But she would do it every day if he’d let her.
“Robby!” Hallie called from the dance floor. She twirled her train out of the way and beckoned for him to join her. “Come dance with me!”
Robby gave Sydney a bashful look. “She wants me to dance,” he said. “Yuck.”
Sydney stifled her laughter. “Aunt Hallie is only going to get married one time. This will be the only night you’ll probably ever have to dance with her. …Unless you want to dance with her at your own wedding.”
“I’m not getting married! Girls are double yuck!”
Hallie waved him over again.
“Go on. Ben dances with her.” Sydney knew that Robby would do anything his new uncle did.
“Okaaay,” Robby said, running over to the dance floor.
Hallie grabbed his hands and gave him a spin, introducing him to a few people around them.
Taking in the sight of him, Sydney thought about how wonderful he’d been while they’d restored the cottage and planned the wedding. He’d helped any chance he could get, sometimes sticking labels on the favors or folding the invitations, and when he couldn’t help, like with the floral arrangements, he spent time drawing or playing outside. When she allowed the thought to filter in, she wished he had siblings and a better father. Robby only saw his father on the random holiday. Christian would call up out of nowhere, as if he’d remembered suddenly that he had a son. He’d offer to take Robby to a movie or some other location that didn’t require a lot of parental supervision. Then he’d buy him something and bring him home.
If she were honest with herself, her life—and Robby’s—wasn’t what she’d hoped for the both of them. Growing up, she’d always envisioned that perfect little family, playing games together, reading stories at bedtime, taking summer vacations. That hadn’t happened for the two of them…
