Free Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand Page B

ladies’ room and check her texts. She knew the answer was no. She was
     determined to be present. She would eat her crab cake. She wouldn’t worry about Alfie’s
     tree branch or about what Edge was doing, or about whether or not Carson needed to
     repeat fourth grade or about whether it had been rude to pick such an expensive restaurant
     for this dinner. She wouldn’t feel the weight of her age, even though it had been
     difficult to see Emma Wilton all grown up. A blink of an eye ago, Emma had been six,
     and Margot had been twenty-one. Forty was too old to be a maid of honor, Margot thought.
     And yet that was what their mother had wanted.
    There was a tap on Margot’s shoulder. She thought it was Finnreturning from the ladies’ room, or the waiter with their wine, but when she pivoted
     in her seat, she saw Rhonda. Rhonda Tonelli.
    Oh, shit,
she thought.
    Margot struggled to push her chair away from the table and stand. She thought,
What do I do? What do I say?
She’d had too much to drink to handle this graciously, but at least she was sober
     enough to realize it.
    She said, “Hey, Rhonda!” She moved in to give Rhonda a hug and a peck on the cheek,
     and Rhonda bobbed away to avoid this gesture, so Margot ended up with her hand on
     the side of Rhonda’s neck, and her lips landed on Rhonda’s bare shoulder. It all happened
     quickly, but the embarrassing fact resonated through Margot’s mind like a gong. She
     had kissed Rhonda’s shoulder.
    Oh, God, awkward.
    Rhonda said, “I didn’t know the address of the house, so I called my mother, but she
     wasn’t answering her phone, so then I called you, like, fifty times, and you didn’t
     answer. So then the cabdriver had pity on me—I mean, here I am, just landed on this
     island and there’s no one to meet me and I don’t know where the hell I’m going. So
     we pulled out the phone book and looked up Carmichael, but there were two Carmichaels
     so I picked one and I was
wrong
—the other Carmichaels were at home, I interrupted their dinner—and then finally I
     found the right house. The babysitter was there with your kids, she had no idea which
     room was mine, so I put my stuff in the blue room with the twin beds…”
    Kevin’s room,
Margot thought.
    “And thank
God
the babysitter knew where you guys were eating because I lost the e-mail you sent
     me with the name of the restaurant. It was like, ‘Welcome to Nantucket, Rhonda!’ ”
    Margot laughed. She said, “Welcome to Nantucket, Rhonda!”She stood with her back to the table, hoping to disguise the fact that there was no
     chair for Rhonda. Margot had completely forgotten Rhonda was coming. Margot had made
     a reservation for five people, but when they’d arrived, the hostess had said, “Four?”
     and Margot had said, “Yes, please,” and they were seated at a table for four.
    Now Autumn was up out of her chair, using her professional skills, informing the waiter
     that there would be one more joining them and they needed a chair. But then Finn returned
     to the table, her face streaked with tears, and Jenna hopped up to see what the matter
     was. In the process, she upended her wineglass, and Margot’s white silk sheath dress
     was splattered with burgundy, and Margot’s gut reaction, which she was not quick enough
     to suppress, was to shriek. The dress was ruined.
    Jenna said, “Oh, Margot, I’m sorry!”
    Rhonda said, “White wine will get that out. Use white wine.”
    Autumn said, “That’s a myth.”
    Rhonda said, “I’ve seen it done.”
    Margot watched Finn and Jenna, who were now hugging. Jenna rubbed Finn between the
     shoulder blades. “What happened?” she said. “What’s wrong?”
    The waiter came back with the fifth chair, and then there was the big production of
     squeezing it in and moving the plates, all of them still filled with very expensive
     uneaten food. Then the waiter noticed the spilled wine and Margot’s dress, and she
     ran to get fresh