“My god!” Elizabeth exclaimed from behind me as we entered the room. She pointed at the huge spread of food—the biggest feast I’d ever seen. “We could feed an entire town of people with all this food,” she said, her lips curled with obvious disapproval.

“Well, if you’d like, Miss Beake, we could gather up the leftovers when we’re done and take them down to the homeless shelter or encampments. There are plenty of homeless in New Orleans you could meet,” Mara said. “Wouldn’t that be something nice to share for your Facebook followers?” Mara was still going.

I cringed at the exchange. Elizabeth Beake wouldn’t be caught dead helping the homeless. And if she did, Mara was right—she’d surely post about it on Facebook to make herself and her daughter and of course, Saint Georgia, look good. Always with the holier-than-thou routine…

I sidled up next to Tinsley and smiled, brushing her forearm with the tips of my fingers like we did when we were kids.

“Isn’t it marvelous?” I breathed, nodding at the gorgeous spread.

“Sure is,” Tinsley said, quietly. She muttered something else under her breath that sounded like, “Looks expensive.”

“Thank you for helping plan the party. I know Mara can be a bit…” I couldn’t think of the right word to describe my best friend from college. ‘Bossy’ wasn’t enough to cover it. Mara could be downright intimidating and mean when she wanted to be, and Tinsley, with her quiet and introverted disposition, was quite the opposite.

“No problem,” Tinsley said, turning to get a good look at me for the first time. She smiled, showing all her teeth. It had been so long since I’d seen her smile, and I’d forgotten how beautiful and ethereal she truly was. Like the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker, I used to tell her when we were kids. But she looked so much older now, and thinner too. The baby fat of youth was gone, bones stretching over her skin, collarbones sharp like daggers poking through her chest. God, how I’d missed her though. I wondered if she’d missed me too…

“Come on, my beautiful bride! Your place is right here at the head of the table!” Mara ushered me away from my cousin, pulling out a heavy, high-backed chair with a screech, and all but pushing me into my seat.

“Thank you,” I sputtered, adjusting my chair and locating my fancy white dinner napkin on my plate. I placed it on my lap as I watched the others. Elizabeth and Bri took seats farther down the table, as far away from me as possible. Tinsley came around and took the chair to my right, and before Mara could sweep in and join my left, Georgia plopped down beside me.

“I’m famished. Can you believe all this food?” Georgia sighed, opening her napkin with a flicker of flare.