“We’ve been talking about moving down there when Steve retires in a couple of years. Finn already has a place picked out for us. She says she’s going to take the master.” Kathy started to laugh but stopped abruptly. She must have seen the expression on Zadie’s face. The one that looked like a flower whose last petal had just been plucked.

“Z!” Finn lurched out of a scrum of red-and-white varsity jackets and tackled her sister in a hug. “You’re here!”

Zadie stumbled back a step. She wasn’t much of a hugger, never mind a surprise hugger. Finn was the opposite. When she was a kid, Zadie remembered her regularly hugging strangers at the park or at the library. In that way, Finn was a lot like their mom: sweet, bright, citrus. She even looked like her from certain angles; they both did, despite looking nothing like each other. Finn was tall and dark, with glossy black curls. Zadie, although five years older, was three inches shorter, with the complexion of a shortbread cookie. Most people had no idea they were related.

Finn pulled away and struck a pose. “What do you think?” It took a second for Zadie to realize she was talking about the straw UFO on her head.

“It definitely makes a statement.”

“I think you look gorgeous,” Kathy said emphatically. “Doesn’t she, Steve?”

Steve was on his way to the buffet to load up his paper plate for a third time when his wife corralled him into the conversation. He had grown out and waxed his mustache since the last time Zadie had seen him and, like many of the men over the age of fifty in the room, was sporting a bolo tie. “What was that, honey?”

“I said, ‘Isn’t Finn pretty?’”

“Oh, yes. Very handsome.”

Kathy’s jaw dropped. “Steve, you don’t call a lady handsome!”

“Why not? Handsome was commonly used for both men and women at the turn of the last century.”

Kathy turned to Zadie. “He reads one Jane Austen novel, and now he’s using words like incorrigible.”

“She hears that one a lot.” Steve winked at the girls, then jumped out of Kathy’s reach as she attempted to swat him. “If you need me, I’ll be with the meat,” he said and hurried away.

“I should probably check in with the caterers about the cake.” Kathy nodded politely at Zadie. “It was nice to see you.”

“You too.”

“All right. Well, you two have fun!” Kathy waved goodbye, then sashayed into the crowd.