Which also meant just skipping out on the cookout wasn’t an option. They would all notice I wasn’t there, and it would turn into a situation. All I could do was hope the sick feeling would go away as I tackled my to-do list for the day, and I would be okay by the time I needed to get to the cookout.
By the time I got to Harleigh’s house that evening, the flopping feeling in my stomach had passed. I was still a little tired, but at least I could breathe in the smell coming from the grill and look at the huge bowls of pasta salad and baked beans and not feel like I had gone green.
Harleigh was better than Desiree at letting me know what I could bring to the cookout and had tasked me with dessert for the evening. Had I been feeling better, I might have gone through the effort of baking up a few trays of my caramel brownies. Instead, I gave myself permission to cheat a little bit.
While I was shopping for groceries for the week, I picked up a pound cake and a couple of containers of berries. To make up for the shortcut a little bit, I bought heavy whipping cream and stood at the kitchen counter with my hand mixer creating mounds of sweet fresh whipped cream as the berries macerated with sugar beside me.
The resulting trifle might not have demonstrated any tremendous baking skills, but it was beautiful and looked delicious as I set it on the table with the rest of the food. Harleigh came up to me and gave me a hug with her free arm as the other settled a huge bowl of potato chips onto the table as well.
“That looks amazing,” she said.
I shrugged. “It’s just a trifle.”
Just then, the sliding door that led from the cabin onto the back deck opened, and Desiree and Rebecca came out laughing. I’d been happy to hear Harleigh was going to invite Rebecca to the cookout. It made me really happy to see how the other women had accepted Rebecca into our group. She fit in with all of us so well, and I liked to see her opening up more.
The four of us sat down on the cluster of furniture to the side of the deck to talk.
“You doing okay today, Lauren?” Desiree asked when I sat back and let out a sigh.
“I’m fine. Why?”
Harleigh had grabbed drinks for us on her way and handed a bottle of my favorite peach iced tea to me.
“You just look tired,” Desiree said.
“You do,” Harleigh confirmed, sitting down with her own drink.
“Thanks for the confidence boost, but I’m really fine. I think I must not have slept great last night. I woke up not feeling really well and was just super tired,” I said. “I’ve been running around doing errands all day, so I guess I’m just kind of run-down.”
The women exchanged glances.
“Are you sure that’s it?” Rebecca asked.
“What do you mean?” I asked, swallowing a sip of my tea.
“You’re sure it doesn’t have anything to do with…”
Her voice trailed off as my eyes widened, warning her not to say anything else.
Harleigh looked between her and me a couple of times. “Sure it doesn’t have anything to do with what?”
Rebecca’s mouth opened, but no sound came out.
“I was telling her the other day that I went to lunch and then heard some people got sick,” I said quickly. “So I was worried I might have caught something. But I don’t think that’s it at all.”
It might have been the flimsiest and least well-put-together lie I’d told them about the situation to date, but they didn’t press me any further. Having to come up with yet another lie brought some of the queasy feeling back to my stomach, and I took another sip of my tea in hopes of settling it.
The guys came up from around the grill at that moment, shifting the focus of the conversation. Carter stayed standing over by where Desiree was sitting, and I tried to hold back a cringe as Harleigh kissed Brett and Aiden leaned down to stroke Desiree’s hair.
I wished so much that I could do that. That I could have as simple a moment with Carter as to give him a hug or a kiss when he came up the way the other women did. The frustration surging up inside me, I got up.
“I’m going to go grab something to snack on before the burgers are ready,” I said. “I haven’t eaten much today.”
They kept chatting away as I went over to the table to fill up a plate. Carter came up a few seconds later and snagged a chip off my plate, grinning at me as he popped it into his mouth. I didn’t say anything to him and continued down the table.