Sun-Kissed

by Melissa de la Cruz

  It was five o’clock in the afternoon. Already the guests were starting to show up: Anna and Kevins society friends, Kevins parents, a few gossip columnists from the various newspapers.

  Jacqui started to panic. If Anna never appeared, she was looking at a full-scale fiasco. Kevin would not be pleased to learn that “Anna” had orchestrated a hundred-thousand-dollar party and then failed to turn up at the event. Jacqui had to do something. Rob Thomas was scheduled to serenade the happy couple any minute now. A jazz trio was quietly playing standards in the patio as guests trickled inside.

  She spotted Eliza walking through the front door on Jeremy’s arm. The two of them were giggling, and Eliza was glowing. There was a visible new tenderness between them. Jeremy was wearing a linen suit, and Eliza looked gorgeous in a long white linen dress with a slit up to her knee.

  Jacqui greeted the two of them warmly.

  Eliza hugged her friend close. Her eyes shone. Part of her wanted to tell Jacqui everything. How Jeremy had surprised her with a reservation at the Bentley Hotel and how they had spent the night in the best room in the house when the hotel staff found out “Eliza Thompson” was staying there. Jeremy had learned there were some benefits to being a princess. And then how Jeremy had taken off her clothes so slowly and with such delicacy, she had almost died from anticipation. She hadn’t even needed to wear the lingerie set. Everything had been perfect, and she hadn’t planned a single thing. She restrained herself from spilling the beans. What had happened the night before was a beautiful secret that she wanted to keep to herself for the time being. The girl who used to suffer from TMI now realized why people didn’t want to kiss and tell.

  “You guys, you have to help me,” Jacqui said, skipping the usual pleasantries.

  Eliza immediately noted the urgent tone in Jacquis voice. “What’s wrong? What do you need?”

  “Anna isn’t here.”

  “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know. I checked her ATM card and tracked it down. She got on the flight, and she took a car from the airport, and she should have been here by now, but no one’s seen her. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Calm down,” Jeremy said reassuringly. “She lives here. She’s got to come home at some point.”

  “I know, but Rob Thomas—”

  “Rob Thomas!” Eliza cackled.

  Jeremy raised a questioning eyebrow. “Rob Thomas?”

  “Is going to be on that stage in five minutes to serenade the ‘happy couple.’ Kevin is already on his way; he’s going to be here any minute. I don’t even want to think about what’s going to happen if he finds this party and no Anna.”

  “Okay, let’s figure it out. Where does Anna usually spend most of her time? Maybe she went there,” Eliza said helpfully.

  Jacqui furrowed her brow. Anna … where did Anna spend her time.… The beauty salon … shopping on Main Street … but lately, she was always next door, at the Reynolds castle, participating in some drinking game. Jacqui took a quick look around the assembled guests and noticed that the web site guys weren’t at the party yet, which was odd, since they had promised to be there.

  “I think I know where she is,” Jacqui said ominously. Duffy thought Anna was an MILF. She wouldn’t put it past him to make a move on an older, married woman. Duffy would probably think of it as just another adventure. Anna probably liked all the attention too. Maybe she shouldn’t have let Anna tag along with her to all those clubs that summer or have introduced her to the web site guys. If Anna had hooked up with some guy half her age, it woudn’t bode well for a reunion….

  The door to the Reynolds castle was unlocked. Jacqui led her friends into the game room, where the Beirut Ping-Pong table was housed. Alas, no one was flicking Ping-Pong balls into the paper cups of beer.

  “Ben? Duffy? Grant? Where are you guys?” she called.

  For a long moment, there was no sound. The house was empty. Damn. Her cell phone rang—it was Georgina, wondering where the Perrys were. Rob was setting up and was ready to sing their song.

  “Let’s go; she’s not here,” Jacqui said despondently, kicking at a beach ball with the web site’s logo.

  “In here!” a voice called from the kitchen.

  They trooped in to find Anna Perry leaning on the kitchen counter, hanging out with the three guys. “Oh, hey, Jacqui,” Anna said. “Eliza, haven’t seen you in a while. And is that Jeremy, who used to work for us?” she called happily, waving them over.

  The three guys were all wearing beachy formal wear—Duffy in a tan linen suit, Grant in seersucker, and Ben in a festive guayabera shirt.

  “These guys say I’m throwing some big party at our house this evening, but they’re just pulling my leg.” Anna smiled. Her luggage was on the floor, and she looked tan, rested, and happy after her week at the spa. Jacqui was relieved to note Anna wasn’t drinking. The perennial party girl cup of beer was absent from her hands.

  “This place is such a mess!” Anna said, spritzing the counter with lemon cleaner and wiping it off energetically. “I thought I’d give them a hand getting it back in shape.”

  “Uh, that’s really nice, Anna, but I think Kevin has a surprise for you,” Jacqui said. “You really need to come home now.”

  “A surprise?” Anna asked skeptically. “What kind of surprise?”

  Just then, the sounds of the first chords of “Lonely No More” wafted from across the way.

  “A nice surprise.” Eliza grinned.

  the perrys are lonely no more

  WHEN THEY RETURNED TO THE PERRYS’ BACKYARD, ROB Thomas was onstage with a guitar.

  “What’s going on?” Anna asked, mystified, but she had the presence of mind to bid hello to all of her society friends. “Why are Kevin’s parents here?” She stopped when she saw her bald husband walk through the crowd.

  “There’s no gazebo!” he kept saying to anyone who would listen. “What’s going on?” he asked, turning to Madison, who had yet to explain why there was a full-scale event complete with ten-foot-high chocolate fountains in their backyard.

  He stopped when he saw Anna.

  The two of them stared at each other.

  But before they could say anything to each other, Rob Thomas was leaning into the microphone. “I’d like to dedicate this song to a really special couple, who I’m told are celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary tomorrow. Here’s to Anna and Kevin Perry! In this day and age, it’s so great to see a couple who can stick together!”

  “But how—?” Kevin asked, sputtering.

  “Oh, Kevin!” Anna said softly as Rob started singing the song. “Remember when we …?”

  Kevin still looked upset. Who were all these people? Why were there three fifty-foot tents set up on his lawn? But when he saw the look on Anna’s face, his features relaxed. “You got my e-mails?”

  Anna nodded. “Are you serious? You really don’t want to go through with it?”

  After Shannon had stopped sending them the fake love note e-mails, it turned out that Anna and Kevin had struck up a correspondence after the disastrous lunch at Babette’s anyway. Seeing how jealous Kevin had acted had made Anna feel beautiful again, and she had reached out to Kevin with a barrage of flirtatious and tender e-mails that he had actually responded to. Would wonders never cease.

  Jacqui, who had been watching with bated breath, exhaled.

  “Happy anniversary,” Kevin said softly. “I’m glad we’re able to celebrate.”

  “I’ve missed you,” Anna said, putting her hands around his chubby neck.

  “I missed you too, babe,” Kevin admitted.

  The crowd cheered and lifted their glasses in a toast. The Perry kids surrounded their parents (well, their dad and their stepmom) and hugged them happily. Ryan punched his dad on the shoulder and congratulated him on his fifth anniversary. Kevin kissed Anna on the cheek and ruffled the girls’ hair and chucked the boys under the chin. Madison and Zoë beamed, while William and Cody ran around them, hooting loudly.

/>   “And I have a surprise of my own,” Anna said. “I’m pregnant!”

  “You are?” Kevin yelped.

  “Three months. That’s why I’ve been so cranky. Hormones. Mood swings. The whole thing. I just found out at the spa.” Anna smiled. “And I promise I’ll tear up the credit cards.”

  “I promise I won’t work weekends anymore,” Kevin replied.

  “So you’re not getting divorced?” Madison asked.

  “Nope, not a chance,” Kevin promised.

  As they awkwardly slow-danced to the Matchbox Twenty song, Jacqui left them alone and found a stone bench to sit on. She gripped the edge in triumph. She’d done it. The Perrys were going to be together. They would need her to au-pair, and she would be able to complete her fifth year. Her future was safe for the time being. There was still no guarantee she would get accepted into NYU, but she was willing to try again. She would ace those math and science requirements. Jacqui was nothing but determined.

  Nothing motivated a girl to succeed like the fear of having to help the spoiled trophy wives of Brazilian billionaires stuff themselves into Gaultier corsets for the rest of her life.

  sting was right after all

  AS ANNA AND KEVIN PERRY GROSSED OUT THE YOUNGER guests with their suddenly overly passionate reunited-and-it-feels-so-good make-out session in front of the stage, Mara and Ryan were sitting quietly in the hammock in front of the au pair cottage. Mara had come back to the boat late last night, still angry, and had slept in one of the guest berths. The two of them were still technically not speaking to each other, but Mara had promised she would attend the surprise party, and once Ryan had found out what the girls were up to, he’d decided to attend as well. After all, it was his dad they were talking about.

  Ryan had pulled her away from the throng, and they had sat down uneasily in the hammock. It was the site of their first kiss—something that couldn’t have escaped their notice.

  “Look, Mara,” he said, sighing deeply. “I did make a call, but it’s not what you think. I was going to try and help things along, but you had already gotten in. The only thing I had the admissions office do is hold a place in the dorm next to my fraternity. That was what I meant about us being together. You got in on your own. My dad had nothing to do with it.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that last night?”

  Ryan gripped the hammock cords in frustration. “You were so ready to believe the worst about me. It pissed me off.”

  “Oh my God, Ryan, I’m so sorry,” Mara said. She felt terrible. She’d been so ready to assume that just because he was rich and privileged, he wouldn’t be able to resist using his connections to help him get whatever he wanted.

  “No, don’t be,” he replied. “There’s no need.”

  “I think I’m going to go to Columbia,” Mara said softly. “I think it’s a better fit for me.”

  “I know,” Ryan said glumly, softly kicking back on the grass so that the hammock swayed gently in the evening breeze.

  “I’m sorry,” Mara said helplessly.

  “I would never hold you back, you know. All you had to say was that you didn’t want to be at Dartmouth, and I would have understood. I just thought you did, so I made all those plans—I wish you’d believe that I only want the best for you,” he said softly.

  “I know that now. Oh, Ryan, I messed up so many things,” Mara cried. It broke her heart to know how much she’d doubted him all summer, thinking that he wasn’t supportive of her ambitions and that he felt resentful of her career, when all along, he’d had the best intentions at heart.

  “So what happens now?” Ryan ventured. “With the two of us?’:

  “We break up,” Mara said bravely. She’d given it a lot of thought, lying alone in the V-berth by herself the night before. She’d started out the summer so nervous about her writing skills, intimidated by her boss and her subjects, but now she was confident she could make it as a journalist. At the very least, she wanted to try. Plus, she truly doubted whether she and Ryan really belonged together. Maybe he would be better off with a girl who could share his love of the ocean, not one who wanted to spend the evening in front of a keyboard. She very much hoped she was the girl for him, but she also didn’t want to make him miserable, the two of them trying to bend so far back to accommodate each other that they lost sight of who they really were.

  Ryan exhaled. “Is that what you want?”

  Mara sighed. If you loved somebody, you had to set them free. If they were meant to be together, they would be together, no matter where they ended up. Maybe it would be a year or two years or maybe even after they graduated from college. Someday, she hoped they would find their way back to each other. But she had to take that chance, she had to risk it, for both of their sakes.

  “Yeah. I think we need to grow up a little. Both of us.”

  “I love you,” Ryan said, squeezing her hand tightly. “I’ll always love you.”

  “I love you too,” Mara said back.

  They kissed, and it was a heavenly, soul-searching kiss. It was just like their first kiss on the hammock, but so much deeper, because it was bittersweet.

  They went back to the boat to have one last great night together as a couple. And the next day, they would leave as individuals.

  a door is closed, but a new window opens

  THE TWO LONG BEEPS OUTSIDE THE DRIVEWAY SIGNALED that Eliza had arrived. Jacqui quickly packed up her bags in the au pair cottage. The boys had offered her a ride to the city on the Black Hawk, but she’d declined, wanting to spend a few more hours with her friends. She felt a little wistful that none of the boys had worked out as a boyfriend, but she was eager to go back to New York and everything it offered. In a city of eight million people—there had to be one boy who was right for her. She was certain of it.

  Shannon was zipping up her carryall, stuffed with the clothes she’d bought on numerous shopping trips with the older girls.

  “Thanks for all the help this summer,” Jacqui said, offering her a hand.

  Shannon shook it. “No problem. It was fun,” she said with a wicked smile. “Is it always like this in the Hamptons?”

  Jacqui laughed and thought about it. “Pretty much.”

  “So, I’ll see you in the city? And don’t worry about me staying with you. Madison said I could stay at their town house when I come to visit. No offense, but I heard their place has a lap pool in the basement.”

  That girl was too much, Jacqui thought, smiling.

  Eliza was in the driver’s seat, leaning on the horn. She had her hair in a high ponytail, and she was wearing Jeremy’s work jacket. It made her feel close to him. The two of them had spent the night at his apartment, and he was planning to come visit her in the city before she had to go off to college. Since he had his own company now, he would come up whenever he could, and she’d promised to come down every month. They were going to make it work. He was her one true love, and she wouldn’t let go of him.

  She had broken the news to her parents the night before. She was going to defer a year at Princeton and apply to Parsons instead. She was serious about becoming a fashion designer, and she wanted to see where this path would take her. All her life she had lived up to someone else’s expectations, but she wanted to see what would happen when she tried to live up to her own. Her parents had not taken the news lightly, and they still hoped she would come around—hence the compromise of deferring a year.

  Mara was sitting in the shotgun seat, leafing through the final issue of Hamptons magazine. Her column had been a huge success, and for its last installment, Sam had approved a six-page exclusive on the designer whose name was on everyone’s fall shopping list—Eliza Thompson. The magazine had a double scoop as well—after the dismal failure of his fall fashion show, Sydney Minx was out of business, and the designer had announced he was going to retire to his French villa. As for Paige McGinley, Eliza had heard that the former high-handed assistant had been reduced to working the counter at Saks, where she could use her
skills at flattery to sell women expensive clothing they didn’t need.

  Mara was going back home to Sturbridge to pack. She and Ryan had said a tearful good-bye that morning, and her eyes were still red from crying. She had to be brave, but already she was wondering if they had acted too quickly. In any case, he wasn’t going anywhere. Mara knew exactly where he would be, and Dartmouth wasn’t too far away. But they had agreed on no strings. They were free. Free to return to each other as well.

  She tried not to feel too sad. After all, there was so much to look forward to. Already, Sam Davis had asked her if she would think about interning at Metropolitan Circus during the school year. The general-interest magazine famous for plastering nude pregnant celebrities on its cover had hired her as editor in chief, and Sam Davis was going to back to the New York media world as fast as you could say “private town car.”

  Jacqui finally emerged from the front door. She stuffed her bags in the trunk and slid into the backseat.

  “Ready?” She smiled at them.

  Eliza gunned the engine, and Mara put down the magazine. She plugged her iPod into the auxiliary connection, and the car’s stereo reverberated with Gwen Stefani’s sultry voice singing, “Your lovin is better than gold….”

  It had been another hectic, arduous summer. The Hamptons had been a wonderful host to their adventures, and they would miss its rocky beaches, its shingled cottages, its rustic yet elegant charm. Perhaps they would come back again, older, wiser, less likely to end up dancing on tables at Cain. Or not.

  Whatever happened, they knew they would have each other to turn to for support, advice, love, and friendship. The Hamptons had brought the three of them together, and they would always be grateful for that gift.

  And now, New York City beckoned….

  acknowledgments

  This book would not have been possible without some high-octane girl power! Shout-outs to my homegirls Siobhan Vivian and Sara Shandler at Alloy Entertainment; the supadupafly chicks over at S&S: Emily Meehan, Jennifer Zatorski, Elizabeth Law, and Tracy van Straaten; and the chic ICM gals: Josie Freedman, Karen Kenyon, and Kate Lee. And where would I be without the boys: mad props to Richard Abate and James Gregorio at ICM; Ben Schrank, Josh Bank, and Les Morgenstein at Alloy Entertainment; and Rick Richter at S&S.