“What? We’re still getting married. Today. No matter what else happens. Once we know Max is okay, we are tying the knot.”
Blake’s smile was all the assurance she needed to know she was doing the right thing. As he headed for the restrooms, Danica saw Sally down the beach.
“Rusty! Chase!” Sally hollered, waving her arms above her head.
Danica turned to find Rusty, with Trevor on his shoulders and Chase by his side. Blake changed his path and met them, taking Trevor from Rusty and tickling his belly. For the first time ever, Danica heard the whisper of a thought in her mind. Children? She’d spent so many years building her career, and before Blake, she’d never had a partner that she wanted to have children with. No. She rolled the thought around in her mind for a moment or two. She wasn’t ready for children yet. She was enjoying her time with Blake too much to want it to change just yet. She was just discovering a side of herself that she wanted to explore even more. Maybe one day, she thought, and pushed the thought away.
She headed for Lacy, still hoping to stall any ideas of outing her mother and father. The way Lacy stalked toward her mother, hands clenched in fists, each determined step a little harder, faster, told her that Lacy might not be thinking rationally enough to hold her tongue.
“Danica!” Camille and Chelsea ran toward her. “They found her! They found Max!”
“Oh, thank goodness!”
“Apparently she got a call as we were boarding the ship that the justice of the peace came down with something and he couldn’t officiate. She was trying to figure out what to do when Treat came to the rescue.” Camille tried to catch her breath.
“Treat? Did he know someone else?” Danica asked.
“No. Apparently, when he opened the resort, he got ordained. He can hold the service. They were heading here in one of Treat’s private boats—or yachts, or whatever it is that he owns—before the storm hit. The storm was too strong, so they detoured back to the mainland. That must have been the boat you saw earlier.”
Danica shot another glance toward Lacy. Short of sprinting down the beach, there was no way she’d reach her in time to thwart whatever she intended to do.
“Good. Then they’re okay?” Danica asked.
“We think so.”
Chelsea touched Danica’s dress. “Oh, honey, look at you. You’re a mess.”
“Really? I thought I looked island chic.” Danica smiled.
“Aw, I’m sorry!” Chelsea said. “What are we gonna do about the wedding?”
With one eye on Lacy, who was sitting beside Madeline and her father, and the other on Kaylie, standing beside Chaz with her little girl in her arms and an enormous, relieved grin on her lips, Danica said, “We’re having a wedding.”
Blake and the boys joined the group as they left the woods and congregated on the hard, drenched sand. Sun parted the clouds in slanted streaks, warming the chilly air. Danica searched for her mother, hating herself for feeling the need to make sure she was okay after what Lacy had implied. She found her sitting beside Nancy and Sally on the chairs that the attendants had set up.
Her mother’s eyes darted toward her father and Madeline one too many times. Danica’s pulse sped up, and it took all of her energy to restrain from saying something right there and then. She could not fathom what her mother was thinking.
A horn from a boat in the distance called her attention. Danica turned toward the sound and took in the surreal scene; the treacherous waves had morphed into less threatening swells. Far off shore, she made out a large boat cutting swiftly through the swells toward the island. Danica breathed a sigh of relief.
“Let’s get everyone to the dock,” she said to one of the attendants.
With their clothing drenched, their hair matted to their heads like they’d walked out of showers, the group moved toward the dock.
“What a day,” Madeline said.
“Nothing like a little excitement,” Blake’s father said as he wiped his hand down his face.
Even with her dress ruined and the craziness of Lexi and Max missing, Kaylie bounced Lexi in her arms. “That was a crazy afternoon, huh, Lex?” she said, then planted a kiss on Lexi’s forehead.
“Lexi was so brave!” Michelle raved to Kaylie.
“Well, she is my daughter,” Kaylie said with a grin.
Right. Danica trudged through the wet sand behind Chaz’s mother and sister.
“This was not a typical wedding day.”
Elise. Danica froze. She had almost forgotten how unpleasant the woman could be. She feigned a smile and turned to face Kaylie’s soon-to-be mother-in-law.
“No, not typical at all,” Danica admitted.
Elise leaned closer to Danica and arched a perfectly plucked brow. “It was actually a little exciting.”
Danica blinked away her surprise. She didn’t know if she should take the prim woman seriously or if she was making a cruel, sarcastic comment. She chose the safest assumption.
“I’m so sorry for the hassle and the rain—”
“You couldn’t have helped it. This is nature at its best.” Elise looked at Chaz, with one arm around Kaylie, the other wrestling to keep hold of Trevor’s wiggling body. “It’s created a most memorable day.”
Maybe there was hope for their wedding day yet. If Elise could find good in such a horrible afternoon, she couldn’t be all that bad.
“That, it has,” Danica agreed.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The ship had been stocked with warm, dry towels, and clean sweat suits were supplied in various sizes by the hotel. They’d been waited on hand and foot and provided with warm beverages and a full meal to hold them over on the forty-minute ride.
As they headed back into the hotel, Kaylie said, “Treat must be behind our royal treatment.”
Treat. Max.
Scarlet met them in the lobby, quick to apologize for the afternoon’s less-than-ideal circumstances.
“It’s okay,” Danica assured her. “No one can control Mother Nature.”
“Mr. Braden would like to offer the executive balcony as an alternative location for your wedding.”
Scarlet’s poise made Danica remember how awful she must look. She felt horrible that the hard work the spa employees had lavished on them was all for naught, and she wondered if Scarlet was thinking the same thing.
“Let me talk to Kaylie and see what she’d like to do. Do you know where Treat and Max are?”
Scarlet nodded toward the main entrance of the hotel. “I do believe they have just arrived.”
Max walked through the doors looking every bit as uncomfortable as she had earlier in the day, when Treat had joined them in the lobby. Her hair was tussled and her face was flushed. Treat, walking a few feet behind Max, no longer wore a suit, but donned a pair of pressed blue jeans and a black polo shirt.
Does the man ever look bad?
Blake and Kaylie were the first to reach them, with Chaz on their heels.
“You’re okay?” Kaylie wrapped her arms around Max. “I’m so sorry. I was so scared that something happened to you!”
Max was silent in Kaylie’s arms.
“We hit a rough patch,” Treat explained, “so we docked a few miles down the beach. We didn’t mean to worry you.”
“You missed your flight?” Danica asked.
“When I heard what had happened, I told Max I could officiate the service.” He looked at Max, who was now in Chaz’s arms, and something changed in his voice. Danica saw sadness sweep through his eyes, then disappear quickly, as if he realized he shouldn’t reveal his inner thoughts. “I didn’t mind missing my flight.”
When Chaz released Max, Danica noticed that she did everything she could to keep from looking at Treat.
“Well, thank you, for everything. The staff on the boats were incredibly kind, and all these clothes. We’ll pay for it all, of course,” Danica offered.
“Of course we will,” Blake said, wrapping an arm around Danica’s waist.
; “No need. Remember what I said about family?” Treat took one last look at the back of Max’s head, then nodded and excused himself.
“Max, everything okay?” Danica held back her real question. What the hell happened out there?
“Yeah. I’m so sorry. I know you really counted on me to do everything right, and I’m sorry. I should have had a backup plan for the justice of the peace.”
“Don’t be silly,” Chaz said. “You did everything perfectly. It was the perfect day, and we’re not going to let a little storm ruin our attitudes. Right, Kaylie?”
Kaylie broke into a wide grin. “Nope. Whatever happens, happens. Right, Danica?”
Danica was too tired to think about why she kept repeating her mother’s words.
“What now? Should we just table the wedding and go to the justice of the peace in a day or two?” Kaylie asked.
“You’re kidding, right?” Danica knew she wasn’t. Danica looked at Blake and knew he’d be fine either way. They could wait to get married or they could get married right that very second, with wet hair and matching sweat suits. She looked at her mother, and in her mind she heard, There are no happily ever afters. Danica steeled herself against the words as she drank in Blake’s loving gaze and the way Kaylie leaned her head against Chaz’s arm, a sleepy baby girl in her arms. Oh, yes, there are.
“No way. I wanna get married. I don’t care if it’s midnight and we’re the only two on the balcony. Blake, I want today to be our wedding day.” Danica took his hand and said, “Just say okay. Please. Let’s do this.”
Blake took her in his arms again and kissed her. “You don’t have to ask me twice,” he said with a satisfied grin.
The kids were almost asleep by the time they decided to take Treat up on his offer for an evening ceremony on the balcony. Scarlet and Max agreed to work together to firm up the details, and Kaylie agreed to have two of the hotel staff members watch the kids rather than try to hold a ceremony with two overtired children and worn-out parents.
Blake and Danica collapsed into sleep minutes after taking hot showers and lying on the bed to rest. Danica awoke an hour later. Unable to go back to sleep, she left Blake a note and snuck into the hall in search of Lacy. Again.
She knocked on Lacy’s door.
No answer.
She knocked again, tapping her foot as she waited for Lacy to answer.
She stared at the door, afraid to move. Afraid of a repeat episode of the night before, or worse, after whatever she said she’d chosen to ignore seeing out on the island. Danica took a deep breath and knew she had to face things with Lacy head-on or she’d spend the rest of the evening worrying herself to death.
Downstairs, she went out to the veranda and searched beneath every palm tree she could see. She was on her way to the pool when she heard her voice.
“Danica.”
She spun around and found her mother, freshly showed, hair styled, makeup in place. “Mom?”
“Let’s take a walk,” she said.
Danica followed her mother out the front doors and down toward the beach.
“How are you holding up?” her mother asked.
“It’s been a crazy day,” Danica replied.
“It’s been a crazy few days,” her mother corrected her. “Who were you looking for on the veranda?”
“Oh, no one.”
“Not Lacy?” Her mother lifted her chin toward the outside bar, where Lacy sat in the sweat suit she’d been wearing when she left the boat.
“How long’s she been there?” Danica asked.
Her mother shrugged. “I came down about a half hour ago and she was there. Come, let’s sit with her.”
Danica stopped walking. “Let’s give her some space. I think she wants to be alone.”
“I think we should go sit with her.”
“Mom?”
Her mother looked at Lacy, then back at her. “Danica, I make my own beds and I sleep in them. Even when they’re full of rocks.” She nodded toward Lacy and began walking in her direction.
Can today get any worse?
Lacy lifted her eyes as they approached, then turned her chair away from them.
“Lacy, my mom wanted to sit with you.” She hoped Lacy would read her message in the inflection of her voice. Let’s not talk about it. “I think she thought you could use the company. I tried to tell her that you wanted time alone.” Danica watched Lacy’s stoic face and her mother’s determined eyes as she made herself comfortable in the chair beside Lacy.
“Danica, sit, please,” her mother said.
Danica sat across from her, feeling like the earlier storm was simply a prelude to the hurricane that was about to hit.
They sat without talking for a few minutes. A waitress took their drink orders and brought a round of iced teas. It was already almost seven o’clock and they were meeting at nine for the ceremony. That gave them two hours to either address the elephant in the room or accept that it was too big to deal with. Danica hoped for the latter.
“Lacy, we haven’t had much time to get to know each other.” Her mother sipped her tea.
Lacy didn’t respond, but Danica didn’t miss the clenching of her fingers around the arms of the chair.
“Mom, maybe we should do this another time. I still have to do my hair.” Danica reached up and touched her springy curls. She’d noticed that they were out of control when she walked by the mirror in her room, but was too focused on finding Lacy to care. Now it wasn’t her hair she was worried about; it was Lacy, whose lips were pressed so tightly together they were turning as white as her knuckles.
Her mother was not persuaded. “I think we need to talk. A lot has been revealed to you girls, and—”
Lacy kept her eyes trained on the beach as she spoke in a hard, flat tone. “Revealed? I don’t think that’s the right word.”
“Lacy.” Danica reached toward her.
Lacy turned hate-filled eyes toward Helen. “Revealed doesn’t begin to cover it. To reveal means to make something known to others, to cause or allow something to be seen. What you are doing is covert. It’s hidden.”
“Is it?” her mother asked.
Danica had never seen this combative side of her mother, and it momentarily stilled her thoughts. Was she saying what Danica thought she was saying? Did she want to get caught with her father? Was this some sort of ugly revenge aimed at Madeline, who didn’t even seem any wiser to the whole sordid affair?
“Mom?”
Again her mother ignored her.
“So you were trying to get caught? Because I can think of better ways to do it than hiding beneath the trees.” Lacy dropped her eyes to her drink and ran her finger around the edge of the cup. “Was that your master plan?”
“There was no master plan. I’m not out to hurt anyone.”
What on earth are you doing?
“You’re not out to hurt anyone? Is that what you’re telling yourself? You and my mother, you’re both so messed up. No wonder everything around me keeps blowing into smithereens.”
“Nothing is blowing to smithereens, and I don’t have to tell myself anything. What happens, happens.”
Whatever happens, happens. Kaylie. Danica shot a look at her mother. She’d heard Kaylie repeat her mother’s words so often she could hear her voice ringing in her ears. Hearing those words come from her mother’s mouth struck a chord with her. How is Kaylie involved? Oh God, does Kaylie know?
Lacy was persistent. “How can you say that? If you and my father are fooling around, then you two are forcing this to happen. It’s not just happening.” Lacy was calm. Too calm.
Danica worried she’d lose her calm facade any second, and she didn’t know Lacy well enough to know what that might mean.
“Lacy, your father and I are friends. We always have been and we always will be. Your mother knows this. She knows we talk.”
“Does she know you kiss?” Lacy asked.
Kiss?
Danica watched the color drain from her mother
’s face and felt it drain from her own.
“That’s right. I saw you today on the island. And don’t try to deny it. I was there. I saw it with my own two eyes.”
“Mom?”
Her mother looked at her. “Yes, there was a kiss. A kiss, not many kisses, not passionate kisses. A kiss.”
“Mom, how could you?” Danica mouth went dry. She took a drink and closed her eyes, trying to escape her mother’s admission.
“It was a mistake.”
“It didn’t look like a mistake,” Lacy accused.
“No, I suppose to you it wouldn’t. Your father and I go back a long way, Lacy. Seeing him again didn’t just bring back the hurt he caused me, but it also brought back the friendship that we once enjoyed, and I got carried away.”
Lacy didn’t respond, and Danica couldn’t have if she wanted to. The idea that her mother had kissed someone else’s husband sickened her. Not to mention that Danica genuinely liked Madeline. She was a nice woman, despite the fact that she stole her mother’s husband in the first place.
Danica forced herself to speak, though it came out as a whisper. “Mom, how could you?”
The pain in her mother’s eyes told her that whatever transpired had been a mistake—one she wasn’t sure she’d ever get past.
“I don’t know, and I plan to tell Madeline, regardless of what your father thinks.”
“No,” Lacy said adamantly. “You can’t tell her. You’ll only hurt her.”
“It’ll hurt, but it’ll hurt more if she finds out in a month, or a year, or five years. Lacy.” She reached for Lacy’s hand, but Lacy stepped back. “I don’t want him back. I don’t love him. I don’t want to hurt your mother, but I do need to tell her what happened, and if she hates me for it, then she does. She deserves to know.”
Danica felt like she’d been punched in the stomach. Her mother kissed her father. The man who hurt her so deeply that it took years for her to find her footing again. Anger stewed within her and came out in hurtful words. “He hurt you. He threw you away like trash without ever looking back. What were you thinking? You deserve every hurtful thing she gives you.”
“You’re right, I do.”
Sisters in White Page 16
