Page 32 of Must Have Been Love

She’s grinning at me. “I guess not. But you were wrong about one thing. You look super slutty.”

“I do not.” My mouth drops open. This outfit is far from slutty. It’s powerful and yet pretty. It has ‘not taking shit from anybody’ written all over it.

Not literally. It’s a kid’s party. But it sends the message, or at least I hope it does. And to a certain person.

The top half of the dress is a leather bodice, laced tight at my waist and sides, and so snug at the breasts that they’re practically lifted up to my chin. The skirt is made of a delicate cream cotton that skims my hips and falls gently to my ankles. My hair is down, a leather band – my crown – tied across my brow.

“A Warrior Princess,” Lee says approvingly. “I wish I could be there when you walk into that party.”

“I wish you could be too,” I say. Because I miss her face.

“But that ferry guy – Jesse – is taking you, right?”

“He is.” We’ve hung out a few times over the last week. And when he heard I was going to the party, he offered to drive. He has to leave early, but assured me that there are shuttles running from the hotel to the ferry every half hour, so I can jump on one of those to get home.

There’s a rap at the door, and I grin at my sister. “Speak of the devil. I have to go.”

I grab my bag from the counter then rush to open the door. Jesse is waiting on the step for me. A huge grin pulls at his lips as he takes my outfit in.

“You look amazing. Like that woman on that TV show in the nineties. I’ve seen reruns.”

“You don’t look bad yourself,” I say. “Flynn Ryder, right?”

“You know him?”

“I used to nanny for a little girl a few years ago. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watchedTangled.”

I pull the door closed behind me and lock up. Next week, if I hear back from the ABC office, I’ll need to start getting everything ready to open the place back up. I’m still not sure if I’m doing the right thing, but I’ll worry about that tomorrow.

Jesse’s car is an old rusty clunker that apparently belonged to his mom before he bought it off her. I like that it’s unpretentious. Just like him.

“So have you been to a party at the hotel before?” I ask as he drives along the country lanes out of the main town, toward the less populated part of the island, which he tells me all belongs to the Fitzgerald Company.

“Not for years. Or that I can remember,” he says. “Back when Hudson and Autumn’s dad lived here, he used to throw huge parties all the time.”

“What happened to him?” Autumn hasn’t mentioned her dad, even though she’s popped into the bar a few times to say hi in the past week. She wants us to get together for a girls’ night soon. She also says she has some ideas for the bar which sound intriguing.

“He died,” Jesse said. “But by that time he had no money left. Lost the whole island gambling.”

“He lost the island?” I frown. “How much of it did he own?”

“Nearly all of it. His great-great-grandfather won it in a poker game back in 1896. He built the original hotel and renovated the captain’s house where Hudson lives. And for about a hundred years nothing changed. Their dad got married, had six kids here, and then he got into a gambling spiral. His wife left him, he lost the island, and he never really recovered.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Hudson always wanted to buy the place back. He spent years making so much money it was coming out of his ears so he could do it. A couple of years ago it came up for auction and he snapped it up. And here we are.”

I look up, realizing he’s talking aboutourjourney, not Hudson’s. We’ve stopped behind a line of cars entering the gates to the hotel. Town cars, expensive sports cars, and the occasional rusty sedan like Jesse’s, which I assume belong to islanders who are invited to the party.

I take a deep breath, readying myself, because I’m not great in crowds. I’m not great with people at all, really. And one thing’s for sure, I’m really terrible when it comes to the unsmiling, handsome host of this party.

I have a feeling it’s going to be a long day.

ten

HUDSON

There are people everywhere and the party hasn’t even officially started yet. Not just staff – though Autumn has hired a whole army of them, thank god, because I’ve seen the full guest list and it’s huge. But my family and closest friends arrived last night, and our close-knit band are together having one glass of champagne before the party officially begins.

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