Audra approaches Kyle, and even though she’s trying to talk quietly, we can still hear her. “I’m in charge of the wedding details, remember? You said you’d marry me in Antarctica if I wanted.”
Kyle’s seething. “I’d rather do that than have Lucien motherfucking Beaumont in our wedding photos.”
“Well, you want your kid-diddling stepbrother in our photos, so I get to have my sister and her fiancé.”
“Holy shit,” Talia whispers.
“Real nice, announcing that about Greg to everyone.” Kyle wipes his bleeding cheek with his hand.
Audra holds his gaze, her steeliness reminding me of Talia. “Fuck kid diddlers, Kyle. Everyone should know he’s a perv who hid cameras in a dance studio bathroom.”
“Jesus,” Kayla says. “Is he allowed to be at this wedding? Will there be kids?”
“No kids,” Audra seethes. “I had to tell all my friends and family no kids, all because of Kyle’s registered sex offender cousin.”
Things are spiraling even further out of control than I hoped for.
“Fine,” Kyle grinds out. “Talia’s boy toy can be in the goddamn pictures.”
“Good!” Audra brightens, her smile a little scary. “Then it’s settled. And you two are going to be brothers-in-law, so you’d better find a way to get along. Now let’s finish this scavenger hunt. The photographer will be waiting for us at the end.”
Talia and I linger, letting the others resume the hike. As soon as they’re out of earshot, she throws herself at me in a hug, burying her face in my shoulder to muffle her laughter.
“You’re an evil genius,” she says in my ear. “I thought this trip would be hell, but instead we’re making core memories I’ll love for the rest of my life.”
“I thought your sister was gonna lose it,” I say in her ear.
“She gets stressed out about things being perfect.”
I chuckle softly. “Then she’s in for a lifetime of disappointment with Macintire.”
“You’re the best, Lucien.” She pulls back and meets my eyes, her gaze warm. “I mean it. You’ve been the most amazing friend to me on this trip. I’ll never forget it.”
A friend. After all this, she still thinks of me as just a friend. I don’t let my disappointment show.
“We should catch up,” I say.
She falls into step beside me and we return to our hike, the view of a black sand beach like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
I thought we were both feeling something, but now I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me.
Chapter Fifteen
Talia
* * *
Something wakes me up from a deep sleep. I shift and sit up, Lucien getting out of bed.
“When is it?” I ask, groggy from sleeping so deeply at last.
He grins at me, his left eye black and swollen. “It’s morning. Someone’s at the door.”
Shit. It’s Kyle and Audra’s wedding day. I’m not dreading it as much as I was before we got here, but I still want to get it behind me.
Lucien’s been sleeping in lightweight blue cotton pants, and I enjoy the last few seconds of his bare chest as he pulls on a white T-shirt.
“Are you answering it?” I panic, pulling the covers up to my neck.
