Pasting a smile on her face, she stopped by the drinks table just long enough to pick up a glass of orange juice. Mom was already pouring her a cup of coffee at the table. A spot was open for her between Mom and Grandpa. Mom’s dad still looked handsome and vigorous with a full head of steel colored hair at seventy-one. Birdie only had the two grandparents now, Grandpa Dailey and Grandmother Robinson. The first adored her, the second wanted to improve everything about her. But she knew the old woman loved her in some warped and twisted way.
Birdie slid into her seat and gratefully accepted the cream pitcher her grandfather passed her.
“Feeling a little under the weather this morning, eh?” He nudged her with his shoulder.
“Nothing some coffee and juice won’t fix. Maybe half a pound of bacon.”
Grandpa snickered. “If you want a Bloody Mary, they make a pretty good one here.”
“No thank you. Vodka on top of last night’s champagne? Sounds like a nightmare in the making. Especially if we have to sit through the happy couple opening five hundred gifts.”
“Only two hundred,” her mother answered. “The rest are at the Wu’s house.”
“Oh thank God. I hope most of them are gift cards.”
“I expect so. Most of what’s on the table are envelopes.”
Birdie had kept her gift very small. Personalized His and Her leather travel tech organizers. Perfect for holding passports, phones, charging cords, earbuds, and a little cash. She’d even thrown in matching luggage tags, also personalized. Useful for all the traveling in their future. For the bridal shower she’d given Meilin a pair of panties with “Groom Landing” printed on the front. Not every gift had to be practical.
“Am I the last to arrive?” She looked around the room, making note of all the groomsmen minus the traitorous Ozzie, who was still a no-show. The rat.
His uncle, the ever nosy Larry Attenborough, looked up from his plate and gave her a wide smile across the table. “Looking lovely as usual today, Miss Birdie.”
“Courtney,” she corrected absently. Too many people were looking at her with speculation in their eyes. Was her almost un-virginized state that obvious? Or was she too obvious about looking for Ozzie?
Dad leaned around Mom. “Everyone is here, except Oswald who caught a ride to the airport about an hour ago. His flight is in a few hours. He needed to get back to be ready for a meeting on Friday morning. This way he’ll be able to grab a few hours sleep once he gets in.”
“Ah.” She busied herself sipping her juice, then stirring her coffee.
“Want me to get you something from the buffet?” Dad asked. “Eggs? Sausage? Rolls?”
“Um, sure. A little of everything, I guess.” Not that she was especially hungry, but food would help the last of her hangover.
Dad pushed back from the table and came around to kiss the top of her head. “I know what you like, puddin’.” The silly nickname made her smile up at him. For all the years they’d missed, they were making up time. If a childish nickname made him happy, then it made her happy. They’d had a rough start, but things were cool now. Last night while dancing with him she’d even called him Daddy and nearly brought both of them to tears.
“So other than opening gifts, what’s on for today?” she asked her mother.
“Not much else. Some folks want to see Alcatraz. Your aunt wants to go shopping. Thank God we’re already on Union Square and won’t have to travel far. Your grandfather is taking your grandmother to the Legion of Honor Museum. I think Albert is taking the kids down to Great America. We’ll all meet back here for dinner at seven.”
It was a given that Dad’s sister, Liza, wanted to see the best of what San Francisco had to offer in the way of shopping. Heck, they could even do a quick cruise of Chinatown, which was also close by.
“I’ll go with Liza. Not that I need much.” Other than some sexy new underwear. Oh yes, she wanted something better than the plain Lycra she’d been wearing last night with the idea of holding her up and in. If she was starting a friendship with benefits, it was time to up her game in the lingerie department.
Birdie looked to Drew’s two friends from London. “You two on the Alcatraz trip?”
“Yer,” Phillip Hammond answered. “Don’t need to follow the women around and carry shopping bags when I can do that anytime at home.” His smirk said he wouldn’t do it there, either. “What are your plans on arrival in London?”
“I’m not sure what Mom has planned. Other than the next event on Sunday, and then on Monday I report for work.”
“Once you’re settled in, I’ll be happy to squire you about town, help you get a feel for things,” Drew’s other friend from London, Calvin Whetmore, offered. The smile on his face was just a tad too smarmy for Birdie’s taste, although she thanked him.
“I’m sure I have plenty of guides, not to mention my own brain, to get around. Plus, it’s not like I haven’t been there before.” Granted it had never been longer than two weeks at a time, but she had been on the tour of London and knew the Vauxhall area around the condo and offices fairly well.
“We’ll look you up in a couple weeks,” Phillip said. “Get you introduced around so you have some friends to hang with.”
If nothing else, they might know a few of the more fun night clubs. “That’d be great. Thanks.”
Dad returned with a pair of plates, each one loaded with more than she could eat, but he had a fair sampling of the buffet tables. Had Drew been sitting beside her, he’d happily help, but the newlyweds were occupied on the far side of the room.
However, before she took off for the day, there was one person she very much needed to talk to. Jack.
Shortly before graduation, he’d done his best to talk her out of moving to London. He’d used the argument that her grandfather needed her here in California. If she wanted to run a company, there was one readymade for her, especially with her mother moving halfway around the world.
It was a good argument, and one she’d discussed in depth with her grandfather. While he’d miss her, he said, there were plenty of people who would love to buy his business, so she wasn’t to worry about it for even a second. She glanced his way, and Grandpa winked back at her. They were good. Always had been. More often than not, they teamed up as co-conspirators in teasing her mother. Mom claimed she was the sandwich generation, or more specifically, the turkey in the middle getting squeezed between the elder and younger generations.
So she just needed to clear the air with Jack. It took a little maneuvering, but once she’d finished eating, she got up from the table, picked up a fresh glass of juice, then wormed her way into the group surrounding the newlyweds. It didn’t take long to cut Jack from the group and get him off to the side.
“Jack,” she started.
“Courtney, we really don’t have anything else to say to one another.” Although he smiled for their audience, she couldn’t miss the hurt in his voice.
“I don’t want to leave with you mad at me. You’re a good friend. I’ve very much enjoyed, and appreciated, having you around. Once Drew left, you became my best buddy.”
Jack winced at the buddy designation, but he also sighed and looked at the ground for a second before raising dark eyes that held a lot of sadness and hurt, but also resignation.
“I’d say you were more than a buddy, Courtney.”
She