“She’s happy to be here with you,” he reminded me. “She wanted to come here. This is so far removed from where you had her before, and I don’t think she holds that against you, either. You did what you had to do, and nobody blames you for that.”
“I do,” I mumbled, though I was just being difficult for the sake of it. I still felt that gnawing sadness at the thought that I’d stuck Jolene in that place for so long without truly thinking about how deeply it might affect her, that I had handed her off onto other people and run off to live my own life, to follow through things with Kristo. I closed my eyes, and I tried to imagine what my parents might have said about the situation. But if they had been around, none of this would be an issue in the first place and trying to think about them was too painful for the time being, especially now that I was pregnant myself.
Kristo planted a kiss on my cheek and took my hand, tugging me gently out of the room.
“Come on, let’s get back to the party,” he suggested. “You don’t want to miss this. I know you don’t.”
“You’re right,” I agreed, and I took a deep breath, wiped my eyes, and followed him back out into the party. I looked around at this small group of people who I cared so deeply about and managed a smile. Jolene was here, she was happy, and that was all that mattered to me right now.
“You’ve done everything you could have,” Kristo murmured into my ear. “Really. Don’t beat yourself up.”
“I’ll try,” I promised him, even though I knew it was hollow. I couldn’t stop thinking about Jolene up in that place all alone. At least she was here with me now, surrounded by people who liked her and loved her. I took a deep breath and strode over to my sister as she took a bite of something with pâté on it.
“What’s this?” I asked her gamely, and she held it out to me.
“Why don’t you try it?” she suggested, and I cocked an eyebrow at her.
“How bad?”
“Pretty bad.” She lifted her eyebrows. “But you’ve got to see for yourself.”
I took it from her and nibbled a little. Soon enough, she was guiding me through all the fancy foods Kristo had gotten for her. I was surprised at how knowledgeable she was, and it was odd to me to see my little sister holding court like that, totally in control and totally authoritative on the matter. I found myself beginning to relax, even though I was still running through that guilt in the back of my mind. Kristo was right. I had done what I had to for both of us back then, and now she was here. That was all that mattered.
As the party drew on, I noticed Darla and Cleo flirting and grinned to myself. Kristo had told me that things between Cleo and her latest squeeze had gone south recently, and I had practically jumped at the chance to get her and Darla in a room together all over again. Their chemistry was intense, so much so that even Nonna was watching the two of them with amusement.
“And how long have they known each other?” she asked Kristo as he stood next to me.
“This is the second time they’ve met,” Kristo replied. Nonna’s eyebrows shot up.
“The second?” She shook her head, glancing over at Cleo who was casually touching Darla’s waist as she made a point in the conversation. “They look like they’ve known each other for years.”
“Yeah, they really do,” I agreed, and I bumped my hip against Kristo triumphantly in a silent reminder that I was the one who had thought to bring them together in the first place. He bumped me back, and I managed a smile.
“I’m going to make sure we got everything from the SUV.” Kristo stepped away from me, leaving me alone in the room with his family and mine. A few weeks before, I might have been launching straight into panic mode at the thought of it and of having to mediate a conversation between the two sides of our families, but now I barely even blinked. They were my family as much as they were his, and I couldn’t have imagined life without them.