“Oh…” Lifting her hand in a wave, she watched as he walked back up the path toward the house.
So, he wasn’t Jessica’s boyfriend. Secret relief. Must be because Josh deserved someone nice, and from what she’d seen so far of Jessica, that wouldn’t be her. Still, if he was a boyfriend, he’d be around a lot, and that might be…comforting. It was good to have someone she could relate to.
She leaned against the doorframe and smiled. And maybe talk into going to a movie sometime.
Chapter 8
“You’re so lucky to be getting married.” Kim chirped from the window end of the dinner table. All the girls nodded agreement.
Josh winced. ‘Lucky’ wasn’t exactly the word he would choose. Not under these peculiar circumstances.
Next to Josh, Kate leaned forward and smiled a response to Kim. She’d barely uttered a word throughout the meal, but had appeared to relax a little after Mr. Cole had excused himself to take a call. It was funny. She seemed like such a different person when he wasn’t around.
“Do you have your dress yet?”
Unsure which of the girls had fired off that question, Josh flaked off a piece of Ahi tuna steak and put it in his mouth. His patience with talk about the wedding had worn about as thin as the wasabi butter sauce the fish had been served in.
“I ordered it from a designer in San Francisco.” Kate allowed her fork to hover over her barely-touched food. “They shipped it to the Friday Harbor Bridal Salon. I’m picking it up tomorrow.” She sounded self-conscious, like she’d prefer not to be the focus of everyone’s attention.
The fish went down Josh’s throat like a lump. He really didn’t blame her.
He’d made a new plan to leave after dinner. Jessica, Stuart, and their friends were too much for him, and the situation with Mr. Cole being engaged to this young girl was beyond strange. He had known before coming here that it might feel awkward being in the home of a man who had been suspected of orchestrating his wife’s disappearance, among his other notorieties, but having Kate here had really thrown him for a loop.
He glanced across the table at Jessica. She laughed and tipped back her head, swilling the last bit of wine from her glass. At school, he had thought she was fun to be around, but after witnessing her treatment of Kate this afternoon, his attitude toward her had shifted.
“Where are you having the wedding?” Another perky female voice sounded from the far end of the table.
“Here at the house.” A strained politeness tinged Kate’s speech. “We want it to be small without the press interfering.”
“Maybe you’ll have helicopters hovering overhead.” Kim’s eyes widened like the idea thrilled her. “It’ll be so celeb-du-jour.”
Josh swallowed his disgust. One thing was for sure, he wouldn’t be hanging out with this crowd now that he had graduated. He wouldn’t be accepting any more invitations out to Shaw Island either. Unless…. He stopped himself. Why was he intrigued by the idea of coming back?
He had to admit that under different circumstances, he would really like Kate. Not the future-Mrs.-Cole Kate, but the fun Kate he’d originally met standing on this very table.
Of course, she was obviously not a woman of faith. That had been the reason he’d avoided getting involved with any of the girls at school too. Having that in common was a nonnegotiable point. So why did he feel drawn to her in a way he hadn’t experienced before? It was a draw that went beyond physical attraction and their shared love of old movies.
He took in a breath. What kind of guy was he to have these thoughts about another man’s fiancée? That was the real reason he needed to just remove himself from this situation.
“Do you have a lot of people coming to the wedding?” Staci’s enthusiasm, though sincere, was a bit more refined than Kim’s.
“Oh, no.” The words came out on a nervous quiver. “Just a few of Chase’s friends.”
“Dad’s friends?” Stuart cocked an eyebrow. “And what about your friends?” His emphasis on the word ‘your’ implied a hope for a fresh batch of female eye candy.
“Don’t be a jerk, Stu.” Jessica tossed him a look. “Maybe she doesn’t have any friends.”
Josh gave her a heated glare. Why was she acting this way?
Kate answered slowly. “I…have friends. They’re just not in a position to come up here.”
Jessica scowled. “When I get married, I want to fly everyone I know to Italy for the wedding. And I know they’ll all be there.”
“Of course they’ll be there.” Stuart slurred. “Who’s going to turn down a free trip to Italy?”
Mr. Cole entered the room, giving Kate a warm look as he retook his seat at the head of the table. “Well. What have I missed?”
Jessica smiled with fake sweetness. “We were just discussing why your next wife has no friends.”
Josh tossed a scowl across the table. Was she enjoying this?
Kate looked at Mr. Cole and shook her head as if she was trying to no-big-deal Jessica’s impudence. “She’s talking about our guest list for the wedding.”
Mr. Cole smiled lightly. “Jessica, I’m sure Kate has friends. They’re just down in California and won’t be able to make it up here.”
Jessica twisted her mouth and held her wine glass up to a server who hastened over to refill it. “Then, who’s going to be your maid of honor?”
“Oh.” Kate rolled a small red potato around her plate with her fork. “I hadn’t really thought about that.”
“Now that’s just sad.” Jessica made a show of swirling the red liquid in her glass. “A wedding without a maid of honor. No one to go with you to pick up that wedding dress tomorrow.”
“Oh, but…” Kate stammered. “I won’t have to go alone. Your dad is going too.” She turned a pleading gaze on Mr. Cole. “Right, Chase?”
He chewed and swallowed. “Not tomorrow. I’ll be in meetings all day with Sam. We’re close to finishing the proposal for the new drug we’re submitting to the FDA.”
“But…” Kate’s voice trembled. “I can’t go into town by myself. What about the press?”
“Hmm.” Mr. Cole seemed to consider. “I have a simple solution for that.” Using the commanding tone of a man who was used to directing business subordinates, Mr. Cole spoke as he sliced into a broccoli floweret. “You’ll have Jessica. She can accompany you in her capacity as your new maid of honor.”
Kate and Jessica fired each other a similar look of horror, which floated over the center of the table like a storm cloud.
After a moment, Kate sputtered. “Oh, I…don’t think she’d want—”
“I’m sure she’d be happy to do it.” Cutting into his tuna, Mr. Cole glanced up at Jessica. “Wouldn’t you, dear?”
Chewing slowly, Josh watched Jessica attempt to form an answer that would get her off the hook without blatantly defying her meal ticket father.
Realizing the hopelessness of that, she attempted a compliant smile. “Sure.” She turned an ireful eye on Kate. “Happy to.”
“Good, then that’s settled. You’ll go together tomorrow to pick up Kate’s dress and to choose one for Jessica.” Mr. Cole’s gaze turned toward the wall of windows. “It’s a lovely evening. I’ve asked for dessert to be served out on the deck.”
Noisily, everyone scraped their chairs back and headed outside. Josh pushed to his feet, but didn’t step away from the table.
“You coming, Josh?” Kim asked as she retrieved her half-full wine glass from her place at the table.
“In a minute.” He glanced down at Kate, who had remained seated.
Kim flicked a look at Kate, then smiled at Josh before following the others out to the deck.
As Mr. Cole stood, he touched Kate’s chair as if he intended to pull it back for her. Her gaze fell on her plate, which she’d barely touched. “I…I’ll just be a minute.”
“Of course, dear.” A muffled tone sounded and Mr. Cole pulled his phone from his jacket pocket. “You don’t mind, do you? I’m expecting another call fr
om Sam.” Without waiting for a response, he put the phone to his ear and headed toward the foyer.
Jessica came around the end of the table and fairly hissed at Kate. “If you think I’m going to wear a hideous pink taffeta dress and stand next to you with a smile plastered on my face, think again.”
Kate’s eyes grew wide. “I…I’m not a fan of pink either.”
“Good.” With a departing fiery glare, Jessica stormed off.
Kate looked pale, like she’d just been doused with cold water.
Josh retook his seat next to her, mentally calculating when he’d have to leave to catch the last ferry. “You didn’t eat much.”
Brow furrowing, she started to pick at her food. “I guess I’m just not very hungry.”
He gave her a sideways smile. “The food was good, but….” He leaned toward her, lowering his voice. “Just between you and me, I’d rather have a burger and a shake.”
She looked up, surprise flashing in her eyes. She forked a small bite of tuna. “I’m with you.” Her face fell as she looked at the French doors where Jessica had exited. “I didn’t mean to upset her.”
Josh frowned. “Of course you didn’t.” This was crazy. How could he possibly comfort this girl when she was voluntarily engineering a huge train wreck? The sooner he got away from all this, the better.
“I don’t know if I can do it.” She now gripped her fork like she might want to stab someone with it.
He jarred. Was she seeing the folly of her plan to marry Mr. Cole? “Do…what?”
“Go shopping with Jessica.” Her teeth gritted. “She’s obviously not happy about me marrying her dad.”
Disappointment flared. She could go through with the marriage, but she couldn’t handle the shopping? “Don’t worry about Jessica. She’s still pretty upset about her mom. I mean, not that that’s an excuse or anything.”
Nodding, Kate stared at her plate.
His heart went out to her. “Besides,” he heard himself continue. “I could go with you on your wedding errands tomorrow with Jessica. Kind of act as a shield.” He paused, then added. “If you want me to.”
She looked up, her face brightening. “I’d owe you a milkshake.”
He smiled in response. “Make it chocolate, and you’ve got a deal.”
Was he crazy? This girl was an inch away from stealing his carefully-guarded heart, and he was letting her do it. What was he thinking?
Chapter 9
Kate sunk down deep into the front seat of Josh’s car as he drove off the ferry onto San Juan Island. His suggestion that they could elude the press lurking outside the estate by taking his slightly dinged-up teal blue Toyota instead of the limo had seemed risky at first, but to Kate’s amazement, it had worked.
As the car advanced slowly along with the rest of the ferry traffic, she peered out the window at the main street of Friday Harbor. Instead of a swarm of paparazzi, a mix of tourists and locals milled about a very cute, old-fashioned looking town.
A couple of kids zoomed past on skateboards, stirring up melancholy thoughts of Dakota. He loved pretending to roll down the street on one of his longed-for modes of wheeled transportation. To Kate, it had always seemed like a blessing in disguise that he couldn’t afford a skateboard or roller blades. Lacking strength and coordination, the poor kid would have been crushed by his inability to soar the way he did in his imagination. It was probably better that he was stuck with pretending, even though the sight of him at fifteen running and leaping garnered too many cruel comments.
Kate blinked. She had to believe that when she’d left, someone had stepped in to shield him from the harshness of the world.
Recognizing that slinking down like a fugitive was far more suspicious than just behaving like a normal person, she pulled herself up a few inches. She scanned the quaint area, which looked like the setting for a Hallmark movie. Quaint shops lined the street that, under different circumstances, she’d be itching to explore. As it was, she bit her lip and prayed that they could do what they needed to do and get back on the ferry before anybody tried to get her picture.
Optimism overtook her tongue before she could suppress it. “This town is so cute.”
A harrumphing noise from the backseat reminded her that Jessica had grudgingly accompanied them, no doubt just to please Chase. Kate clamped down on her enthusiasm for the picturesque town and vowed to keep her thoughts to herself to avoid giving Jessica more opportunities to berate her. Her fragile self-esteem didn’t need that right now.
“There it is.” Josh curved smoothly into a parking place directly in front of a pale pink storefront with the words ‘Friday Harbor Bridal’ painted in elegant script on a sign above the entrance. “Wait right here.” He exited the car, crossing to Kate’s door in a refreshing show of chivalry.
As he opened it and reached in to help her out, Kate gave herself a mental pep talk. She could do this.
Glancing around for reassurance that no one was going to assault her with a camera or a microphone, she stepped out of the car and tested her weight on her sore leg. Confident, she took one step, then stopped and stared. There in the window of the gift shop next door was a pink flier featuring a color photo of a woman beneath the word ‘MISSING’.
Kate’s heart took off at a sprint. Without reading further, she knew that the pretty blonde in the picture had to be Trina Cole, Chase’s first wife.
“They’ve been up all over the islands for a full year.” Jessica spit the words from just behind Kate. “Get used to it.”
Alarmed by the comment, Kate looked down the sidewalk. A pink rectangle adorned every window on the street. Panic set in. What exactly was she up against here?
Josh joined her. “Try not to let it bug you.” He opened the door to the dress shop. “At least the wedding people thought ahead.”
He jutted his chin toward the window next to the open door. A single piece of scotch tape remained with a tiny bit of pink paper sticking to it. The implication was obvious. They had made a hasty and possibly passive-aggressive effort to avoid offending their high-paying customer.
She forced a wan smile and entered the shop.
Twenty minutes later, she stood in the fitting room staring at herself in the triptych of full length mirrors. Her gown, which had looked elegant and impressive in the designer’s watercolor rendering, now looked more like a parachute with a chandelier perched on top.
“It’s really quite exquisite, Miss Jennings.” The woman who had helped her into it bent to spread the train out so Kate could experience the full effect.
“Do you think so?” Kate frowned. Maybe she just wasn’t used to seeing herself dressed this way, but she felt more like she should being saying “Trick or Treat” than “I do.”
“Oh, yes.” Standing, the woman assured her. “The shop in San Francisco did an excellent job, and it will hardly need any alterations. You know, those are real Swarovski crystals on the bodice.”
Kate nodded, as if the significance of that was actually…well, significant. The designer in San Francisco had looked at Kate’s collection of photos clipped from bridal magazines and had come up with this design, tying together the different elements Kate had said she liked. It was a one-of-a-kind, but at the moment that distinction seemed to Kate not to be very impressive.
“Are you ready for the viewing?” The high pitch of the woman’s voice betrayed an edge of nervousness that would no doubt be quashed only when the sale was finalized.
“Viewing?” Kate hated feeling ignorant, but she’d never even set foot in a bridal salon before, much less paid attention to their standard protocol.
“Yes. You know…” The smile in the woman’s eyes melted slightly as she swept an arm toward the door leading out of the small room. “Showing your friends.”
“Oh. Right.”
Friends. The thought of parading around in front of Jessica sent her mind into a tiny tizzy, but she wanted Josh to see the dress. She needed some reassurance that she didn’t look ridiculou
s in it, and she had a feeling she could count on him to be honest.
She scooped up as much of the skirt as she could in her arms to facilitate walking, and followed the woman out of the room, trying futilely to keep the crystals on the bodice from jingling.
When she stepped into the viewing area, Jessica looked up from her phone, made a sound of amused disgust, and went back to typing a message. Josh stood, looking at Kate with an expression that was impossible to read.
“What do you think?” She hated the insecurity she couldn’t keep from her voice.
Tapping away at her phone, Jessica uttered something that was barely discernable. “S-t-a-y-p-u-f-t.”
Kate’s lower lip started to quiver and she bit down on it to keep from crying.
Josh looked at her with a smile that was slight, but sincere. “It’s really beautiful.”
Making a snorting sound, Jessica ramped up her texting.
Josh shot Jessica a warning glance then turned his attention back to Kate. “It’s your wedding.” He took a step closer to her. “Do you like it?”
Did she like it? She studied her image in the mirror. Why was she even questioning? This was exactly what she had asked for. Finding an alternative would take hours, and what if she found nothing better? She didn’t want to risk wasting Josh’s and Jessica’s time, nor that of the poor bridal shop woman. Besides, it was just a dress. No big deal.
Her shoulders slumped. “It’s fine.”
The woman clapped her hands, but Kate felt the hollow absence of that magical feeling she had always expected to descend over her at this moment in her life. Choosing a wedding dress was supposed to be something a woman shared with her best friends amid tears and clinking champagne glasses. This felt more like she was agreeing to try out a cable package she wasn’t completely sold on.
The next half hour passed in a whirlwind as the woman marked a few alteration points with pins, and Kate changed back into her linen suit and “sensible” flats. She was then escorted into an office where she signed so many papers she felt like she was buying a house. When she finally made it out to the front of the salon, Josh stood, the only one in the room.
Tide Will Tell (Islands of Intrigue: San Juans) Page 5
