“Max and Aly are also coming, and I want to get all the notes down for when we sit down with Olivier.”
“It’s my day off,” I tell her, turning again and getting out of the bed to go over to the coffeemaker. “Where is Vivienne? She stood me up last night.”
“She’s upstairs in the spare room. She got here last night and was going over the pros and cons of being single.”
“Oh, dear,” I say, laughing.
“You have no idea. Her pen ran out of ink.” She laughs. “I wish I was kidding.”
“Okay, fine. I’ll get dressed and come over,” I tell her, hanging up and then making myself coffee. I grab a cup and go back into my bedroom. Setting it on the bedside table, I grab my iPad and the remote to open the shades. I open the email from the drug company rep, Melissa.
To: Dr. Denise Horton
From: Melissa Bradley
Subject: Clinical Trial
Denise,
I’ve gone over the chart you sent me, and I have to agree that he would be a perfect candidate. I will be in your area on Wednesday. Would you be available to do lunch?
Let me know.
Melissa Bradley
I respond to her right away.
To: Melissa Bradley
From: Dr. Denise Horton
Subject: Clinical Trial
Wednesday is great. Let me know when and where, and I’ll be there.
I grab my phone and text Steve right away.
Looks like Melissa will be giving us the go-ahead for the new drug. I am meeting with her on Wednesday.
He answers right away because I know he’s at the hospital this weekend.
That sounds great. We should see if maybe we can get Evie in that also.
I was thinking that exact thing.
I answer him and get out of bed to take a shower, tying my hair up in a bun and getting under the water spray. I smile the whole time, grabbing my jeans and shirt and calling myself an Uber once I’m ready. Lucky for me, one is two minutes away. I scroll my Facebook and Instagram on my ride to Long Island.
I ring the doorbell, and I have to laugh when Vivi answers it wearing jeans and shirt and black sunglasses.
“Is this a new trend I don’t know about?” I laugh at her as she steps away from the door, giving me a chance to walk in.
“Va te faire foutre.” Go fuck yourself, she says. “Fucking white wine is never the answer,” she says, and I shrug off my jacket.
“You don’t say?” I ask her, then she looks at me. “You know you say that every single time.” I put my hands on my hips. “The day after.”
“It wasn’t my fault,” she says, and we walk into the house, a large central staircase greeting us. The white banister sits on light wooden stairs with carpet in the middle of the staircase. We walk past the formal living room, going straight into the kitchen, which is almost the whole back of the house. It opens to a huge family room with the biggest couch I’ve ever seen. The white cabinets line the square kitchen. The big white island in the middle. Two huge stainless-steel fridges take up half a wall. “Auntie Denise is here!” I hear Matthew yell from the family room.
The kids are as much my nieces and nephews as Max and Allison’s kids are. Cooper, little Vivi, named after Karrie’s best friend, and Franny all run into the kitchen toward me. I open my arms and take them into me, kissing them each on the head. “Cooper, you are growing like a weed,” I tell him. At almost ten, he is almost five feet tall.
“Isn’t he?” Matthew says, coming in and grabbing him around the neck to kiss his head. “He’s going to be a monster,” he says, and then he walks to the fridge, grabbing an apple. “If only he could stop eating me out of house and home,” Matthew says, and I know he’s joking. There is one thing that the Grants love, and that is their family.
It wasn’t always like this, especially at the beginning with Matthew and Max and that whole fake rape charge. But they put it aside once Max eloped with Allison, Matthew’s sister, and they had no choice. Allison didn’t give them a choice.
“What’s wrong with you?” Matthew finally sees Vivienne with her sunglasses.
“Your wife let me finish four bottles of wine,” she says, sitting on one of the stools at the counter. “I told her two was our max, but you think she listened?” She tries to take the shades off, but the sun coming into the room is just too much for her. “Where is that shrew?”
Matthew laughs. “She is on her way back. She went to pick up the food.” Vivienne groans when Matthew mentions food, and she lays her head on the island.
“You should take three Advil with a nice greasy burger,” I tell her, and she groans again. She doesn’t have time to do anything else when the front door opens, and Max and Allison arrive with Michael and Alex. Allison walks in, followed by Max holding Alex in his arms. “Hi, baby girl,” I tell her when he comes over to me and bends to kiss my cheek. She grunts and clings to his shirt with her chubby little fist. “Ugh, she loves you so much, it’s annoying,” I tell him, and he just squeezes her closer to his chest.