Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 98324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
“Maybe.” She’s quiet for a second. “I can’t guess what he’s thinking, Darcy. And I’m not there. But you sound like you have everything decided for both of you. Shouldn’t Eric get to weigh in?”
I close my eyes and picture his ruddy, sexed up face right after he took off my blindfold. “He’s having fun, Zoe. Carefree fun. He’s letting off steam. And I’d be an idiot to take it for more than that.”
“But liking him doesn’t make you an idiot,” she says softly. “You know that, right?”
“Sure,” I lie. Because counting on Eric to pivot from a weekend of fun into some kind of epic love affair would be pretty damn stupid. “Zoe—it doesn’t matter, though. Whatever this is, it’s fun. I promise.”
“Oh, I believe you. Just try to keep an open mind?”
“Will do.”
“Also—red lipstick. Makes you look like a classic movie starlet.”
I snort. “Roger.”
We hang up the call, and I put on another carefully chosen Wedding Experience outfit.
Then, damn it, I put on some red lipstick before heading down to the lobby. In the elevator, I check my look in the mirrored button panel and try to see things with Zoe’s brand of optimism.
Nope. Life just doesn’t work that way. Eric was joking when he called me a bad girl. You didn’t tell me, he’d said. How good it would be. And I’d pointed out how many times he’d walked past me at work and not realized it for himself.
He was teasing. But I wasn’t. I’d been invisible to Eric for years before I accidentally propositioned him. And I know why—I’m not the kind of person he notices. We’re at opposite ends of the pecking order.
I don’t even blame him for it. It is what it is. But I won’t fool myself, either.
The elevator doors part in the lobby, and I head outside. The air smells salty and warm, and I stop outside the doors to take in the view. The deep green lawn. The sky that’s deepening to a purplish blue. The gentle crash of waves against the distant sand. Someone’s laughter carries faintly on the breeze.
The sight of Eric’s warm gray eyes sweeping my body, just before he smiles. His hands on my wrists…
Whew. My joy may be fleeting, but it’s still magical. I wish I could close my fist around this memory and carry it around with me wherever I go.
With my sandals sinking into the grass, I turn around like Maria in The Sound of Music. The beach is alive… with the sound of Eric Tremaine’s dirty talk. And it’s glorious.
I only stop when I see something moving in my peripheral vision. It’s a woman in a powder blue dress. She’s hurrying beneath a towering lilac hedge toward the party.
But there’s something almost furtive about the way she’s avoiding the main path.
Then I recognize her. “Patty?”
Eric’s mother startles. “Oh, Darcy! Good evening. Are you heading to the cocktail hour?”
I cross toward her. “I was on my way. You?”
“Yes. I was just…” She gives a guilty glance in the direction of the wedding chapel. “Having a look around. Shall we go to the patio?”
Hmm. “You go ahead. I think I’ll take a look around, too. I haven’t seen the wedding chapel yet.”
She opens and closes her mouth a couple of times. “All right. The flowers aren’t up yet, though. Tomorrow it will be lovely.”
“Oh, I’m sure. I just thought I’d stretch my legs. See you over there? Save me a glass of rosé.”
“But…”
I leave her there staring after me, and I cross the lawn in the opposite direction. Because my spidey senses are tingling.
After I turn the corner around the main hotel building, the wedding chapel comes into view. It’s on a gentle rise, nestled against the tree line. It’s built to look like it’s been here for generations—weathered cedar shingles gone silver-gray and white trim that gleams in the twilight.
I open the door and step inside, admiring the big windows toward the ocean. The room is set up to position the shimmering Atlantic Ocean as the wedding party’s backdrop. It’s exactly the kind of calculated New England charm that Dad’s company excels at—genuinely beautiful, designed to photograph perfectly for the marketing brochures.
In less than twenty-four hours, my brother and Maribel will stand here and pledge undying love to each other. They’ll use words like forever and death do us part. I’ve got to hand it to Theo. It’s pretty incredible that anyone in the Kendrick-Randolph family has the guts to do that. We learned at an early age that love, dysfunction, and betrayal go hand in hand.
I’m happy for him. I really am. Maybe this is the real reason I came to the wedding—to witness my brother trying to break the curse. To see if it can be done.
As I do a full circle, though, I spot one thing out of place. And now I know I was right to come in here. The oversized photo of Danny is propped up against the whitewashed wall. Eric’s mom went with the darker frame from which Eric’s brother smiles out, looking a little more smug than I remember.