Ellie opened her car door, balancing a white cardboard bakery box on her forearm. Her green blouse was loose, fluttering in the July breeze as she stepped onto the grass.
“I brought the extra cupcakes,” she called out, her smile wide but her eyes shifting quickly toward Brad.
Brad laughed, a quick, sharp sound that seemed to jump out of his throat before anyone had made a joke. He rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand.
“Let me grab those before you drop them, Ellie,” he said, taking two long strides across the lawn.
As his fingers brushed the side of the box, Ellie looked up at him through her dark eyelashes. It was a brief, silent exchange, but Brad froze for a fraction of a second, his shoulders dropping in a way I had never seen before.
My hand went back to my wedding ring, turning the metal twice around my finger.
“We have plenty of room on the main table,” I said, stepping closer to them.
