We start off for the parking lot. The Cadillac is still there, and Rainer and Jordan are reliving an extended Vegas weekend with “Rhonda.”
“I told you eventually we’d be real friends,” Alexis leans over and tells me.
“I never doubted it,” I say.
“You did,” she says. “But this is a night of forgiveness.”
I squeeze her arm. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
I gesture toward the boys. “This.”
“That,” she says, hiking her carry-on farther up her shoulder, “has nothing to do with you. It never did. They just had to be reminded of that.”
I help the guys load the suitcases into the car. We laugh as Alexis tries to be the architect of the whole thing. “What did you pack?” Jordan asks.
“None of your business,” Alexis says.
Rainer holds the door open for us, and we crawl in the backseat, Jordan up front. I’m thinking if there were cameras here now, they’d catch the four of us joking and driving and singing to Taylor Swift. And there’d be no way to spin that as anything but the truth: four friends in Hawaii, catching up and moving on.
CHAPTER 20
We get Alexis settled. Jordan stays to hang out with her, and Rainer and I head back to our side of the condos. The last thing I hear before the door closes is Alexis asking Jordan if there is anywhere he can secure her frozen yogurt at this hour.
“This isn’t New York City, A,” Jordan says.
“Come on,” Alexis says. “Since when do you not know how to make anything happen at any hour? That is not the Wilder I know and love.”
“Fine,” he says. “But you owe me.”
Rainer shakes his head as the door snaps closed. “Walk you back?”
But Rainer’s room is first, and when we get to his door, he asks if I want to come in.
“Yeah,” I say. I’m still wired from tonight, from having Alexis here. I’m not remotely tired.
Rainer holds the door open, and he follows me inside. I go into the living room. Our condos are almost identical, but I’ve always thought he had the better view. I push the sliding doors open and step out onto the balcony.
The cool ocean breeze hits me, and I lean over the railing, closing my eyes. “Today was pretty great,” I say.
“Leave it to Alexis,” Rainer says from behind me. “You were right, about Jordan and me.”
“Which part?”
“All of it, I guess. I do care about him.”
“I’m glad,” I say.
“He’s changed, you know.” He clears his throat. “He’s different now. I know a lot of that has to do with you.”
“I don’t—” I start.
“No,” he says. He looks straight at me. “You do.”
I turn away from the railing and go inside. Rainer pivots to watch me. I take a seat on the couch where we’ve spent so much time—me in his lap, reading lines, kissing, becoming what we are.
“I keep thinking this is all going to make sense,” I say. “That I’m just going to have the answer.”
