Lighthouse Beach

by Shelley Noble

Lillo froze. They’d bypassed the whole introductory part of her explanation of why she wasn’t a doctor. So she just jumped in.

  “Actually, I’m a landscaper.” If gardening for local folks who weren’t able or didn’t have the time to care for their own little plots of green could be called landscaping. She also helped out at the community center, nonpaying. And the lighthouse gift shop, lower than minimum wage. She got by.

  “Landscaper?”

  The drink Jess was holding started to tip. Lillo caught it just before it spilled over. “’Fraid so.”

  “But what about medical school?”

  “I went.” Lillo shrugged. “It just didn’t work out.”

  “Why?”

  Oh God, why had she come? “Too much blood,” she said, and forced a laugh. Just too much damn blood.

  “Oh.”

  “Well, I’ve always been envious of anyone with a green thumb,” Diana said. “If I ever get out of my apartment and into a penthouse with a roof, I’ll call you for sure. Allie, too.”

  “Right,” Allie agreed. “Thousands of acres of green. I can’t keep a poinsettia alive.”

  Lillo smiled and laughed throughout the rest of dinner, but she was wondering if Jess had invited her thinking she was a doctor. And if it mattered that she wasn’t.

  It obviously didn’t matter to Diana and Allie, and by the time they wove their way back to the marina they were acting like old friends—very stuffed, slightly tipsy old friends.

  It was late, after midnight; the road was empty of traffic, and with the exception of Lillo losing her shoe again, they made it to the other side without mishap. Music and laughter echoed across the parking lot from the marina balcony. Things were still in full swing there. Lillo started thinking about her bed.

  The four women picked their way between cars and SUVs and the occasional motorcycle and were halfway across the tarmac when they heard a moan.

  Lillo stiffened, alert, ready for any surprises.

  “What was that?” Jess asked, looking in all directions.

  Another moan, louder this time.

  Lillo moved in the direction of the sound.

  Diana held her back. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “But if it’s a mugging …” Allie began.

  “It isn’t.” Diana swept her arms around Allie and Jess and urged them toward the marina.

  Another high-pitched moan, closer. Instinctively, everyone stopped and turned in the direction of the cry.

  “Oh shit.” Diana began pulling Jess away. Allie’s mouth dropped open. Lillo stared. A couple was clenched in a standing embrace up against a Mercedes that shone silver in the security lamps.

  “Do you think she needs help?” Lillo asked.

  “Oh baby, oh baby, yes.”

  “Oh, really,” said Diana.

  “I guess not,” Lillo said. “Who cries ‘Oh baby, oh baby’ anyway?”

  The four of them had stopped, and like the witnesses of a train wreck, compelled to look, they stood, slightly tipsy and weaving.

  Allie giggled.

  “Oh God,” Diana whispered.

  Jess reeled. “Oh my God, is that—”

  “No,” Diana said, and thrust her toward Allie.

  Allie jolted into action and threw both arms around Jess, but Jess pushed her out of the way. “You cretin!” she screamed. “You—” She was cut off by conjoined cries from the couple.

  Jess lunged forward, but Diana grabbed her by the waist. Allie latched on to her arm and the two women trundled their struggling friend away.

  Lillo took a quick look back. The man had collapsed over the woman, leaving her pinned against the car, but she didn’t seem to be struggling to get free. The couple in their tumble over the top were oblivious to their audience.

  In fact, they both appeared to be relaxed in postcoital recovery. Ugh. Kind of stupid, but not worthy of Jess’s reaction, unless … Lillo was beginning to have a nasty suspicion.

  Jess heaved a gut-wrenching cry. “You bastard.”

  “Let’s get her back to the hotel,” Diana ordered.

  She and Allie each took an arm and they pulled Jess away.

  Lillo turned to follow the others inside and realized they hadn’t been the only observers. Two valets leaned against a nearby car, arms crossed, enjoying the show. Above the door to the hotel, the crowd at the balcony bar stood at the rail, all looking out to the parking lot. And at the very front was a couple she recognized, older than Lillo remembered them, but just as distinctive. And just as judgmental and demanding as they had been years before. The Parkers.

  “Hurry,” Lillo said, and added her body in an attempt to shield Jess from curious eyes. Too little too late, she knew as they guided the sobbing Jess across the lawn toward a secondary door away from the gawking crowd. Diana held the door while Allie pushed Jess inside.

  Lillo stopped Diana from following them. “Was that who I think it was?”

  “You said you wanted to meet the groom? Well, you just did.”

  Chapter 2

  “Let’s get her upstairs,” Diana said as she steered them down the hall toward the corridor with the elevators. “This way.”

  Allie pulled up short. “But that goes right past the bar. What if someone sees her?”

  Jess’s legs crumpled beneath her.

  “Well, we can’t parade her through the lobby in this condition.”

  “Diana’s right,” Lillo said. “I’ll go ahead and try to run interference.” She stepped past them, searched the hallway, and then motioned them forward. They’d gone several yards when a man burst through the doors to the bar, which swung back, nearly hitting the woman who was close on his heels.

  “Mother of—” Diana swore, and attempted to turn Jess in the opposite direction.

  “—the bride,” Lillo finished. She held her ground. She knew those people. They were older, but there was no mistaking them. They swept past her like she wasn’t even there.

  “Jessica Braithwaite Parker. Stop this instant.”

  That voice. Just as demanding and cold as it had been the first time he’d dropped his daughter off at camp. And his wife cowering behind him as usual. Never once had Lillo seen the woman stick up for Jess. Not even tonight.

  Lillo’s stomach turned sour.

  Jess stopped, turned, already slipping away from her friends, even though she could barely stay on her feet. And Lillo wondered if it was because of catching her groom in flagrante delicto in the parking lot before a crowd of people, fear of her parents, or because she was just weak from starving herself for the wedding.

  Diana and Allie immediately repositioned themselves at her side.

  “I know you’re upset,” Mrs. Parker began.

  “Upset?” screeched Jess.

  “Keep your voice down,” Mr. Parker snapped. “Do you want the whole world to hear you?”

  “Like they just saw her fiancé bonking another woman?” Diana said. “That just wouldn’t do, would it, Mr. Parker?”

  Parker moved into them, took his daughter’s arm. “We’ll take you to your room. After a good night’s sleep, without these outside agitators, things won’t seem nearly so dramatic.”

  “Ha!” said Diana. “That’s a first. I’ve never been called an agitator before.”

  Parker shook his finger at her.

  From the way Diana looked at it, Lillo was afraid she might take a bite out of it. She did absolutely nothing to stop her.

  “Your father’s right,” added Mrs. Parker. “Your big day is almost here and you want to look your best.”

  Lillo’s brain fritzed out. How could they still expect her to marry that ass?

  Diana was the first to react. “Wait a minute. Her big day was when she graduated magna cum from Wharton business school. Or when she almost single-handedly turned CPF Global around. You think marrying James Beckman’s family fortune is her big day? Yours maybe. But it will suck for her.”

  “Of course we’re proud—” her mother began.

/>   “This is not about you. And you can’t expect her to walk down the aisle with that ass in front of everyone knowing what just happened.”

  “Oh, grow up, Diana. Boys will be boys.” Mr. Parker tried to push Jess toward the elevators. But her feet seemed nailed to the floor.

  “That’s why women marry ‘men.’ Maybe you should postpone the wedding until he grows up. Which, if you ask me, will be never.”

  “You girls are making a mountain out of a molehill.”

  “And upsetting our daughter,” his wife added.

  “Ha,” Diana said. “I think James Beckman has already managed that on his own.”

  Mrs. Parker grasped both of Jess’s hands. “Things will be fine on Saturday, as long as you quit crying, dear. You don’t want everyone to see you tomorrow with puffy eyes and a big red nose. We want this weekend to be perfect.”

  Jess pulled her hands away and ran her index fingers under her eyes, but it was a hopeless attempt. She sniffed, then looked straight at Lillo. For an eternity, their eyes held.

  And Lillo understood in that instant why Jess had begged her to come to her wedding. She still couldn’t stand up for herself, not even after all these years.

  “I can’t. Please call it off. I can’t walk down the aisle with everyone laughing at me.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. It’ll be forgotten before you return from your honeymoon. Go to bed—things will look different in the morning.”

  Jess hung her head.

  Lillo threw her good sense to the wind and stepped in front of them. “No, they won’t. They’ll only be worse. How can you ask Jess to marry someone who would do that to her anytime, but especially tonight of all nights? If she doesn’t want to get married, then she isn’t going to.”

  Mr. Parker turned on her. “Who are you? I don’t believe you’re anyone we know.”

  “Lillo Gray.”

  “Gray,” he echoed. “Gray. I don’t recall …” His eyes narrowed; the storm clouds descended. “Good God. You’re the girl whose parents ran that camp where we sent Jessica for those summers, not that it did a speck of good. What are you doing here?”

  “Jess invited me.”

  “Well, you can uninvite yourself. And you other two can take yourselves off to bed; we’ll see to Jessica.”

  The three women didn’t move, but Lillo could feel Allie’s resolve weakening, a woman who didn’t like confrontations. Neither did Lillo, and yet here she was. This wasn’t a few months at camp or college. This was a life choice. And Jess was no stronger tonight than she’d been at ten or twelve or sixteen. Maybe it was hopeless to try to help her.

  “You’ll cut this nonsense out this minute, Jessica,” Mr. Parker said. “You will walk down that aisle on Saturday and do it with a smile on your face.”

  Jess gripped her stomach and caved. “Do you hate me that much?”

  Mrs. Parker took her by the shoulders. “We love you and we want what’s best for you.”

  Diana barked out a laugh. “By making her marry a sleazebag who can’t keep it in his pants even at his own wedding? Sorry, Jess, but it isn’t the first time, and knowing James, it won’t be the last.”

  Jess moaned.

  “You,” Mr. Parker said, actually pointing a finger at Diana, “can mind your own business.”

  “She hasn’t had as many opportunities as you have, Diana,” Mrs. Parker said. “For all the good it did you. And she may not have another as good as this, if she gets any.”

  “Jeez, what century are you living in?”

  “We just want her to be happy.”

  “By making her marry that creature?” asked Lillo. “That’s going to make her happy? You never did get it, did you, or have you always consciously tried to undermine Jess’s self-esteem?”

  “How dare you!” Mr. Parker exploded; his face turned so red that Lillo feared for his health.

  “We’ve always encouraged her to be better,” Mrs. Parker said.

  “Like the way you encouraged her year after year at fat camp? We didn’t miss the little gibes. The smiling condescension. You must really think kids are stupid. Well, they’re not. And it hurt. And she wasn’t even that fat. Well, it stops now. Jess never needed to be better, she just needed to be herself. And you wouldn’t let her.” Lillo sucked in her breath, horrified at herself. She’d spent the last year trying to erase herself and now—

  What had she just done? She didn’t know what Jess wanted. She didn’t even know what she herself wanted.

  Diana and Allie were staring at her. So were the Parkers, and even Jess, who straightened slightly.

  Mr. Parker took a threatening step toward her. “I want you out of here, tonight.”

  “I’ll happily leave … when Jess tells me to.”

  “If you’re not out of this hotel in the next hour, the manager will help you out.” He turned his back on Lillo, arrogant as always. He thought she was afraid of him, but nothing could be further from the truth. Bullies didn’t scare her in the least.

  If she’d had a weapon handy, she might have tried to kill him. She stepped back, horrified at her own thought.

  “I suggest you other two girls return to your own rooms. Jessica, your mother and I will walk you to your room.”

  The three friends took an unconscious step toward Jess.

  She gulped. “It’s okay. I’ll see you in the morning.” She grasped Lillo’s wrist, whispered, “Please don’t leave. I’ll talk to them.” Jess stepped away from them and walked down the hall, cutting between her parents as she passed, neither slowing down nor glancing at either of them.

  With another quelling look, Mr. Parker took his wife’s arm and propelled her toward their retreating daughter, catching up to her and flanking her as they turned the corner to the elevators. Not two parents offering comfort and support but two guards taking her to face her life sentence.

  “Whew,” Allie said. “You were fierce, Lillo. No wonder Jess was so determined to get you here.”

  “I just hope I didn’t make things worse. Do you think she stills wants to marry him?”

  “I don’t think she ever wanted to marry him,” Diana said. “Not really. They just brainwashed her into thinking no one would ever marry her if she was left to her own choices.”

  “That’s terrible,” Allie said. “I can’t believe any parent would do that.”

  Lillo and Diana exchanged looks. “They would,” Lillo said. “Some people really are that despicable, no matter how much they try to convince themselves otherwise.”

  Diana sighed as she looked into the empty space of the corridor. “And I thought I had controlling parents. This is so wrong. I swear, if I ever have children, which is looking like it’s pretty much not happening at this point, I will never use them as pawns in a power struggle or for empire building. And you can quote me.”

  She started off down the hall. Allie and Lillo ran to catch up.

  “So where are we going?” Allie asked.

  “Well, I’m not going back to my room,” Diana said.

  “And I’m not leaving. Jess begged me to come. I didn’t really want to. I didn’t understand why after all these years she asked me, but now I get it. I just don’t know what, if anything, to do about it.”

  “None of us are going meekly back to our rooms,” Diana said. “We’re going to follow them upstairs, and when Jess is alone, we’ll make a stealth invasion.”

  Allie’s eyes rounded. “Are we going to kidnap her?”

  “Now there’s an idea.” Diana stopped at the next corridor and peeked around the corner to the elevators. “Safe! Come on. We don’t have much time.” She hurried ahead of them and jabbed the up button so hard Lillo half expected the building to shake.

  Stealth invasion indeed, Lillo thought as they crept along the corridor to Jess’s room. Skulking along like she didn’t belong here. Which she didn’t.

  Farther down the hall, a room door opened.

  “Quick,” Diana warned, and ducked into the ice-machine alcove
.

  The three of them pressed against the wall until the people passed. Diana held Lillo and Allie back and peered out. “It’s them. We’ll give them time to get in the elevator, and then it’s Operation Wedding Fail.”

  Lillo frowned. It was almost as if Diana was having a good time.

  They scuttled down the hall and huddled around Jess’s door like the three witches in Macbeth while Diana tapped on the door then stuck her face in front of the peephole.

  Lillo had decided Jess wasn’t going to let them in when the door opened a crack. They all pushed inside. Lillo shut the door behind them and put on the chain just for good measure.

  “Are you okay?” asked Allie.

  A silly question, Lillo thought. Jess was definitely not okay. Not okay, but resigned. Lillo remembered the look. And she knew Jess had capitulated. She’d be marrying James Beckman this Saturday.

  Lillo could only stand back and watch as Allie and Diana sat down beside Jess, attempting to heal a hurt that had begun long before she had ever met James. And Lillo knew all the talking in the world wouldn’t cure the pain.

  “They’re right,” Jess said, and sniffed. “I won’t get a better offer.”

  “Really?” Diana asked. “You want to walk down that long aisle to marry a man who cheats on you and say ‘I do’ to God knows what kind of life you’ll be dished out?”

  She snorted, stood up. “Come work for me. That’s a real offer. Not ‘Will you marry me so I can continue to act like the ass I am, help myself to your family’s assets until you get so fed up you divorce me, pay me, give me alimony, stock options, anything I want just to get rid of me.’”

  “Diana, that’s not helping,” Allie said.

  “Then what do you suggest?”

  Confronted, Allie only shrugged.

  “It’s my own fault,” Jess began. “If I’d been more—”

  “Oh God, I can’t believe this.” Diana stalked off across the room to stare out the window.

  But Lillo could. Nothing had changed. She couldn’t help Jess. Hell, she couldn’t even help herself. Then why had she come? She didn’t owe Jess anything. But Jess had wanted her here, so Lillo had come, like a moth to a flame she had come.

  Jess was the same old docile, malleable girl she’d always been, except for being ridiculously thin. She would swallow the dregs of her self-esteem and do what she always had done. Make apologies for her shortcomings, promise to try harder, and do whatever would please her parents.