Jude
Yes, but not yet. There's a chance Cedric might change his mind. If you can pretend to continue dating Jude McConnell long-distance for the next two months or so, that would be ideal.
Gemma
Okay.
Jude
Thanks for your work. It really is appreciated.
He waited and waited.
She did not reply.
ChapterSeventeen
Fiona and Remy had very little in common. So little, that Fiona had grasped early on the importance of cultivating any overlap between herself and Jeremiah’s girlfriend.
One area of overlap? They both harbored affection for Remy's elderly friend Wendell.
Which explained why Fiona was spending the first Saturday in April scurrying around Groomsport's dock, working to stage a wedding proposal on a sailboat.
Wendell had told Remy and Fiona privately last month that he wanted to propose to Marisol. Not only that, but he dreamed of doing so on a sailboat.
Initially, they'd settled on the idea of him proposing to Marisol while he sailed her around the bay. Wendell was a bookish sort and though he'd lived on a remote island most of his life, he'd never learned to sail. Remy had suggested lessons.
Wendell had quickly flunked his first three lessons. After his instructor had been hit with the boom during his fourth and final lesson, Wendell and Remy had seen the brilliance of proposing on a sailboat moored to the dock.
As the only talented hostess in the group, Fiona had volunteered to rent a sailboat and to prepare all the engagement “swag.” A picnic lunch, balloons, champagne.
She checked her watch. Goodness! Just ten minutes left before Burke would be dropping off Wendell and Marisol. She and Remy would have had everything ready by now if it wasn't for the wind. Though today's temperature had reached the high fifties, the wind kept impishly trying to fling things overboard. At the moment it was threatening to lift her dolman top over her head and expose her bra.
Clamping down her mint-green shirt with one hand, she placed items on the boat's built-in outdoor table. A heavy crockery vase filled with flowers. Porcelain plates. Fabric napkins held down with flatware. Then she and Remy stuffed the remaining items into the space below deck.
According to Wendell's plan, she and Remy were to wait out of sight until after he proposed, then pop into view. Which brought to mind scantily dressed women exploding out of the tops of life-sized cakes.
As she and Remy jammed into the tiny interior it became abundantly clear that Fiona's flair for the dramatic had led her astray. She'd purchased just two clusters of silver, cream, and gold balloons. But each cluster contained an enormous number of balloons.
Now every inch of cubic space inside the sailboat was taken up by females or balloons. The smell of latex was dizzying. The scent reminded her of when she was a girl, tasked with blowing up balloon after balloon for her siblings' parties and how sore that had made her cheeks.
I'm doing this for an excellent cause, she reminded herself. Remy loved Wendell. And Fiona was very fond of him and Marisol, both of whom were so kind and endearing. She only wished this good deed hadn't resulted in balloons pressed against her temples and butt. Hyperventilating down here did not appeal.
“I now know what a gumball feels like when it's waiting in a gumball machine,” Remy murmured.
Fiona started giggling.
Then Remy started giggling.
“I should have purchased more balloons,” Fiona said sarcastically. “Why was I so stingy? What was I thinking?”
“Stingyis not a word I associate with you, Fiona.”
“Well, that's one thing I can be glad of in this highly uncomfortable moment.”
Balloons squeaked against each other. “Don't mind me,” Remy said. “I'm just trying to adjust my position so I can see out the window.”Squeak squeak. “Wendell and Marisol are coming. I think. I'm looking through ivory-encased helium, so I'm not sure.”
Turned out, Remy was correct. Soon, thank God, the sound of Wendell and Marisol's voices reached Fiona through the thin door in front of her. It had a window set into it, covered by a slightly see-through shade. “Do you want to come and stand in this spot, so you'll have a view of the big moment?” Fiona asked.
