But then Asher remembered Eliana’s radiant face when they’d won, and how she’d thrown her arms around him, and knew he’d adopt a thousand sea turtles if she asked him to.
When they’d arrived, Julia had taken one look at Eliana and burst into tears. Eliana had ushered her sister into the nearest bathroom, leaving Logan and Asher alone together.
There had been a beat of awkwardness between the two of them in the wake of that bathroom door closing, cutting off the sound of Julia’s sobs. Asher didn’t have a lot of friends. Really, he didn’t have any friends who weren’t also patients or former patients or friends of his grandpa that he’d sort of taken on as his own. It wasn’t that he didn’t like people, but he didn’t see the point. It was better to go through life alone, without getting attached to people, and missing them, and realizing they were always strangers anyway.
Yikes. That was a bitter thought. When had he become this way? After his grandpa died? After his parents and grandma died? He’d curled up in his shell and snapped at anyone who tried to reach out to him, until everyone gave him a wide berth. Except for Eliana. Being friends with her was nice.
He flexed the hand she’d been holding earlier.
More than nice. Filling in a way food never could be.
Winnie had been not-so-subtly encouraging him to go to therapy for the last year. And he’d been not-so-subtly pretending he didn’t know what she was talking about. Perhaps it was time for him to actually call the person on the card she’d given him.
“Do you think they need help?” Asher asked Logan, indicating the bathroom.
Worry creased Logan’s brow. The awkwardness from earlier had dissipated, and the two men leaned side-by-side on the railing, their backs to Miss Havisham, as they stared at the bathroom door. “No. Eliana’s got this.”
“What’s going on? If you don’t mind talking about it,” he hurried to add.
Logan let out a long sigh. “The fabric Winnie ordered for the bridesmaid dresses arrived stained. The company refunded Julia, but they can’t get more material shipped out here in time for Winnie to make the dresses.”
“Oh.” He paused. “Are there no fabric stores near Diamond Cove?”
“I don’t know, man. Maybe?”
Asher pulled out his phone and searched out fabric stores. Seven popped up within a thirty-minute drive, and if they were willing to drive up to two hours away, they got that number up to nineteen. He tipped his phone to Logan to show him the map. “One of these has to have something appropriate, right?”
“I hope so. I hate when she’s sad. Sometimes I wonder if we shouldn’t have just eloped.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Julia has the softest heart of any person I’ve ever met, and she worried her family would feel bad about missing her wedding.” His own eyes softened as he talked about her, his love palpable. Asher tapped at his chest. This heartburn business was going to be the death of him. “I’m glad she has Eliana, who is determined to make this a perfect wedding.”
The phrasing “perfect wedding” set off an alarm bell in his head. “No wedding is going to be perfect.” Asher had attended enough weddings at The Palms—many of them second or third marriages after a spouse died—to know that things happened.
Seagulls descended on the cake, or the resident flamingos stole the show, or Sweetie set off a chain reaction of screaming and scrambling when the out of towners saw her.
“I know. But the Peters women are perfectionists, and they’ll do everything in their power to make it as perfect as they can.”
That sounded really stressful to Asher. And impossible.
The bathroom door opened, and Julia came out, her face red and streaked with tears, but she smiled at Asher warmly when she saw him. “How are you?” she asked, so heartfelt, he knew she meant it. She was in crisis but still reaching out to the people around her. Logan slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her close to his side.
What Asher wouldn’t give to do the same with Eliana.
The lines around Eliana’s eyes and mouth were deep, and her expression strained. She didn’t look like she’d been crying, but close.
“Asher found a bunch of fabric stores we can drive around to and check out for more dress fabric,” Logan said.
Julia’s lips trembled. “I can’t. We don’t have time to drive around everywhere. We have a meeting with the caterer later this afternoon, and I’ve got a book signing tonight.”
“We can go,” Asher said, surprising himself. And everyone else, apparently, by the way they gaped at him. “I mean, I can go. I don’t know what Eliana’s plans are…” he stammered.
“I don’t have anything going on today,” Eliana said.
“But your book,” Julia protested.
Eliana waved her hand like it was nothing, though those lines deepened even more. “This is more important. Besides, Asher has no idea what kind of fabric to get, do you?” She looked at him inquisitively.
