Page 14 of Kiss Me at Midnight
“You’re having second thoughts about stopping the wedding,” Jud guessed.
She nodded.
“Me, too.” He drew her back toward the ramp leading up to the parking lot. “Let’s make a pact. If Rachel and Paulo truly love each other, we won’t try to sabotage their special day.”
“Agreed.” Lily hugged him, pulling back almost immediately, blushing profusely, perhaps because the photographer’s camera was clicking like mad. She adjusted her glasses. “That said, I think we should–”
“All aboard.” Abe tucked his wallet in his back pocket as he came down the ramp to the boat slip. “We depart as soon as the wedding planner arrives and our luggage is stowed away.”
“We’ll talk later,” Jud promised.
Lily dutifully headed up the gang plank.
Jud caught Abe’s arm, briefly halting his progress. “Where are the other wedding guests?” According to the porter, Jud had been the first to arrive.
“There are no other guests.” Abe clapped a hand on Jud’s shoulder before stepping onto the gang plank.
The weight of his words sank in. “It’s just us?”
Lily paused, turning halfway up the gang plank. “But…if Jud is the best man, that means I’m…the maid of honor?”
“You catch on quick.” Abe walked past her.
Lily stared into Jud’s eyes before glancing toward the ramp, the harbor building, and the New York skyline. “Every time I think this trip is challenging my moral bar, it just sinks lower. The best man and maid of honor are supposed to do everything to make a wedding day go off without a hitch.”
And instead, they’d be doing just the opposite.
“You can’t bail. Not yet.” Jud walked quickly toward her, thinking of all that was at stake–a film, his credibility in the industry, his family’s approval. “Your grandmother is already on board. Maybe we’ll get lucky and not only will we recognize they’re in love, but Abe will, too. No matter what happens, we’ll get through this.” He grabbed Lily’s hand and led her up the plank. “Together.”
“With our moral compasses intact?”
He didn’t answer. But he hoped so.
*
“You shouldn’t have come,” Lily told Grandma Dotty as she unpacked in their small stateroom, wrestling with her conscience and concerns about Rachel’s dismissive attitude toward her. Of all the ways she’d imagined their reunion going, this hot and cold reception wasn’t it. “I get the impression that Rachel is considering whether it’s open season on Lily Summer or not.” And if Lily stopped her wedding, she’d have every right to retaliate.
“You’ve seen her show. She’s changed a little since you were kids. Rachel is out to get everyone before they get her. All the more reason to have your granny in your corner.” Dotty lay on her back on her single bed and raised her legs up in the air, and then lowered them over her head. “That’s why I’m stretching. I don’t want to pull something if there’s going to be a brawl.”
“There won’t be a brawl.” Just five days of floating through rough waters. “I can take whatever Rachel throws at me because her father is going to feed and shelter those in need in my district.”
“Saint Lily, eh?” Dotty returned her legs to the recline position. “You were never a saint.”
Lily nearly dropped her cocktail dress. “That’s a horrible thing to say.”
“I don’t see why.” Dotty sat up, smoothing the short white hair she’d slicked back upon arrival. “No one in the Summer clan is an angel, including me.”
“You’re a saint,” Lily insisted. “And so am I.”
“Pfft.” Dotty got to her feet and took the two short steps to reach Lily’s side. “Saints are angels who’ve died and gone to heaven.” She tugged the pins from Lily’s hair. “You need to let your hair down or when you’re my age, you’ll have a bucket list longer than your arm.”
“Don’t.” But it was too late. Grandma Dotty had removed all Lily’s pins. Her hair came down to rest below her shoulders.
“Now you look like you belong on this fancy floating hotel.” Grandma Dotty stepped back to admire her work, frowning. “Or you would if you’d change into something snazzier. What I could have done if I’d had those legs of yours.”
“I’m not changing. It’s spring and we’re sailing on the Atlantic Ocean. It’s going to be cold.” Lily tugged on Grandma Dotty’s pink velour jacket sleeve. “You’re dressed for warmth.”
“You should dress to keep Jud’s eyes on you, not Rachel. I saw that girl through the peephole. She only had eyes for your man.”
