A Wedding in December

“I—” Katie held tightly to her hand. “I thought you’d be upset. I was expecting you to have had a sleepless night.”

Rosie caught Dan’s eye and blushed. “Well, I didn’t get that much sleep, but—to be fair we haven’t had any time alone lately—”

“I meant because of Mum and Dad.”

“What about Mum and Dad?”

Katie stared at her. “You didn’t talk to our parents yesterday?”

“We had breakfast. They were worried about you, until the text arrived from Jordan.” She smiled at him. “That was thoughtful of you.”

“No problem.” Jordan was tense. Watchful. His eyes on Katie as she paced over to the window.

“So—how do you feel about what they told you?”

Rosie glanced at Dan, wondering what she’d missed. “What did they tell me? Er—” She thought hard. “They told me they’d had a great time on the sled safari. Apparently Mum fell in love with the lead dog. And they loved the restaurant.” She smiled at Dan. “It sounded romantic. We need to do that—”

“Wait,” Katie interrupted her. “That’s it? You didn’t talk about anything else?”

“What else were we supposed to talk about?”

Katie let go of her hand and took a deep breath. “You don’t know, do you?”

“Er—if you tell me what it is I’m supposed to know, I can tell you if I know it.” She watched as her sister walked to the window and stared out. “Katie? What’s wrong?”

Her sister didn’t answer.

The silence stretched from seconds to a full minute. Rosie glanced at Dan but he shrugged, clearly as mystified as she was.

Was this to do with Katie’s shoulder? The secret she was obviously hiding?

Rosie walked over to her sister and put her hand on her arm. Outside the sky was a clear blue, and the snow sparkled fresh and untouched.

“I love you. You can tell me anything, you know that don’t you?”

Her sister swallowed. “I—I thought they would have told you. I didn’t realize I was going to have to do it.”

“Do what? Told me what?”

“They’re getting a divorce, Rosie.” Katie’s voice was so soft the words were barely audible.

“What?”

“A divorce.” Katie rubbed her fingers over her forehead and only now did Rosie see how tired she looked. “I thought they would have told you yesterday.”

Rosie thought back to the interactions she’d had with her parents. They’d been concerned about Katie. She’d seen her father take her mother’s hand and squeeze it. He’d been reassuring and loving.

“You’re wrong. They love each other. They’re happily married. This last few days they’ve been behaving like honeymooners.”

“It was all a lie. An act. They’ve been living apart for months.” Katie sounded exhausted. “They’re not happily married.”

“I don’t know why you would think that. It’s insane.” Rosie felt Dan slide his arm around her shoulders, offering comfort. Why did he think she needed comfort? “It’s some sort of misunderstanding.”

“I know this is upsetting and the timing sucks, which is presumably why they hid it from you yesterday. They’re planning on carrying this charade through to the end.”

“They told you they’re getting a divorce?”

“I overheard them talking about it yesterday. Learned a lesson never to drop in on someone unannounced. They were so deep in a divorce discussion they didn’t even hear me arrive.”