She had on dreamy layers of gauzy white that caught the ocean breeze which also kicked up the gown’s hem to reveal anklets of freshwater pearls and tiny starfish. Matching circlets were on her wrists and another had been weaved into her sun-kissed hair that rippled past her shoulders.
“Maybe it’s for a fashion spread,” Lilly said, a lump gathering in her throat.
“No.” Jojo braced herself on the mound of fine grains, her feet wide apart as she continued to gaze down on the couple. “They look so young,” she said, a winsome note in her voice that Lilly suspected the other woman would hate if she detected it. “I was never that young.”
Maybe so, Lilly thought, at least not after her big brother died.
“What makes you think this isn’t for advertising?” she asked.
“That,” Jojo said, pointing as the groom swept up the bride in an artless embrace and held her overhead, her hands on his shoulders. She laughed, the happy sound carrying on the breeze, and as the man slid her down his body there was a sensual romanticism in their molded bodies that made Lilly’s throat close up completely and an ache of yearning fill her chest, in all the space not occupied by her barbed heart.
“Some people get that,” she heard herself say. Audra. She fiercely believed that there were people deserving of that kind of happiness and her best friend was one of them.
“Intellectually, I agree,” Jojo said. “Though it won’t be me.”
Or me, Lilly agreed.
Then she heard the echo of Alec’s voice, something he’d said the night before. That’s just plain sad.
It was her own inner voice that continued the conversation. I’m beginning to think it’s just plain sad for me, too.
In the lobby of the small movie theater at the resort, Alec loitered by the entrance, glancing at his watch and then sliding his phone from his pocket to check for messages. Nothing.
The smell of popcorn and the gurgle of a soda machine didn’t distract him, nor did the extended family members who drifted through the doors and into the theater itself. That took a sharp elbow. Frowning, he glanced over to see his second cousin, Kane Hathaway, watching him, an amused expression on his face.
“You look like an expectant father,” he said. “All you need is some pacing and a pocketful of cigars.”
“Mom and Dad’s movie is scheduled to start in less than half an hour.”
“Yeah, I heard. Rumor is, they got some Hollywood guy to produce it.”
Alec snorted. “Kind of. An intern at one of the studios runs a side business of converting old photographs and video to digital. They had him compile thirty-five years of old and more recent memories into an hour, adding a soundtrack too. We’ll be cursing Mom for having to watch it every holiday for the next thirty-five years.”
Kane grinned. “We’ve got a champagne bar set up inside the theater itself. Maybe a little bubbly will cause it to go down easier.”
“I hope I don’t need it. She promised there’s no nudity.”
“Of you guys when you were babies?” Kane said, still smiling.
He sent his cousin a look. “Of her and Dad on their Kauai camping honeymoon.”
“Oh.” Kane sobered, then brightened again. “But she did promise.”
“She also promised that she’d never read Jojo’s diary. Until she was outed when my sister’s bad ninth-grade poetry convinced Mom her darling fourteen-year-old daughter had lost her virginity.”
Kane chuckled. “I vaguely remember hearing about that. Jojo ran away from your house to stay at ours with Jessie for a few days she was so mad.”
“I’ve never found out what Mom had to do to get back into Jojo’s good graces.”
“Speaking of Jojo, is she here?” Kane asked, glancing around. “I know she checked in this morning but I haven’t had a chance to say hello yet.”
Reflexively, Alec glanced at his watch, checked his phone. “She took Buster for a walk this morning, brought him back, and no one’s seen or heard from her since.”
Kane grimaced. “Are you worried? I know it’s only been a few months since the divorce. Should she be alone?”
“She’s with Lilly. At least that’s what Dad thinks. They were together when they brought the puppy back.”
“Lilly. I saw you in the pool with her last night. What’s going on between you two? It looked…like you were getting to know each other really well.”
Alec shoved his hands in his pockets, rocked back on his heels. “I don’t have a fuck’s idea what I’m doing with her,” he admitted. “Maybe I’m just trying to work her out of my system.”
His second cousin nodded, as if considering the wisdom of that. “Could happen,” he mused.
“Not if I don’t know where the hell she is,” Alec said, temper spiking. He yanked out his phone and checked the screen again.
“You tried to call—”
“Both her and Jojo. No response. Not to texts, either.”
“I’m sure they’ll show up,” Kane said. “I can alert the front desk to let us know if they come through the lobby.”
“No. Jojo would hate that. And they will turn up. Lilly won’t leave her friend Audra for too long.”
“The bride-that-wasn’t.”
“Yeah.”
“I haven’t seen her around the grounds.”
This time it was Alec who grimaced. “I don’t think she’s left their bungalow once since arriving.”
“So much for our newfound reputation. We can only hope she’s not tarnishing the hotel’s glowing image as healer of broken hearts via her social media accounts.”
“Is that a real concern?”
“Hell, no, at least not to me. I’ve never liked that schmaltzy PR angle, even though we didn’t start it. Great-Great-Grandfather Hathaway wouldn’t approve either. Did you know he was married five times?”
“Sounds to me like he had more faith in romance
