“When did you stop dating other people after you met Liam?” she asked, searching Lily’s face, as though Lily had all the answers.
Lily hesitated, remembering when she’d first met Liam—only about a year ago now—and how little she’d trusted their fledgling relationship and him. But she hadn’t bothered to date anyone else back then, maybe because she’d still beenbrokenhearted over her father or perhaps because she’d been too busy with school. To Georgia, she decided to lie, saying, “I kept dating till Liam asked me to commit to him fully. It must have taken about three months.”
Georgia’s eyes glinted. “Was that back when he was also dating Sarah Mason?”
A shiver went down Lily’s spine. Sarah Mason was a beautiful actress and pop singer whose recent track was the summer's top hit. Everywhere Lily and Liam went, they heard Sarah’s bubbly music or saw her in an advertisement, dancing around in a little T-shirt.
“I’m not sure if Sarah and I overlapped at all,” Lily said, forcing a smile. “But I doubt she’ll be invited to the wedding.”
Georgia laughed as Lily got up and said she had to get back to work. They didn’t have a whole lot of time left before their magazine internship was through, and Lily wanted to maximize her time there and set herself up well for a better-paid job after this one. Then again, due in part to artificial intelligence and social media, marketing jobs were drying up left and right. She was never entirely sure she’d be able to make it in her chosen field.
It was more reason to continue her side hustle, she knew.
That night at her birthday dinner with Liam, a few photographers caught wind of their celebration and captured them through the restaurant's window. Embarrassed, Lily blushed, sat up as straight as she could, and adjusted her engagement ring. Liam didn’t seem to notice any of the commotion outside. Romantically, he was talking about his dreams for their wedding and honeymoon, which he saw taking place back in Nantucket the following summer. “Mom says we’ll have to book a venue, like, yesterday.” Liam kissed Lily’s hand. “But you said your aunt’s a wedding planner, right?”
Lily thought of her Aunt Valerie, who’d just been involved in a tragic accident that had resulted in a tragic coma. She’d been pregnant at the time. Her baby had survived and been conscious in a world, very briefly, wherein they hadn’t been sure his mother would survive. When Aunt Valerie had come to, the entire Sutton family had breathed a sigh of relief.
All that to say, Lily wasn’t entirely sure her Aunt Valerie was up to planning her wedding for next summer, especially a wedding of this size and caliber. “I’ll ask her,” she said. “But I know she’s busy with baby August.”
“Show me again,” Liam commanded, his smile widening.
Lily pulled out her family photographs on her phone of Aunt Valerie, Uncle Alex, their baby August, her Grandpa Victor, her Grandma Esme, and the twelve-year-old boy they’d recently taken in named Kade. She watched Liam’s face as he flicked through the photographs, fascinated.
“This is going to be my family, too,” he breathed, mystified as he handed back the phone.
Lily knew that Liam had been lonely as an only child. Unlike her, he’d been born and raised on Nantucket Island, where his mother and father had had him homeschooled so that he could learn multiple languages and travel with them all over the world. When they’d first met last year, Lily’s connection to Nantucket Island had initially boggled his mind. Now, he saw it as a cozy reason they were meant to be. At least, that was what he said.
That night, as they settled into Lily’s bed in her gorgeous apartment so far above the thrumming city, Liam wrapped his strong arms around her, kissed the back of her neck, and said, “Good night, Future Wife. I love you.” Lily said she loved him back. But as Liam went to sleep, she kept her eyes open, staring through the dark. With a jolt, she realized she hadn’t called her mother to tell her about her engagement news yet. Why had shekept it a secret? She wondered if it was proof that something was wrong.
Chapter Two
It was a beautiful morning on Nantucket Island, and Yoko Reynolds was on the beach with her feet in the water and her dark blue dress whipping around her ankles. Behind her was the mighty and ominous-looking house into which she’d moved as a young woman, a house so far from the home where she’d grown up. Back then, she’d been so eager to please her new husband, Kendall. Now, she could feel his eyes upon her back, sizing her up as she gazed at the horizon. For years, she’d wondered what he thought of her, and very recently, she’d gotten her answer. It wasn’t one she liked very much. It wasn’t necessarily a surprise, either.
Kendall was preparing for another business trip to Miami. When Yoko returned to the house, washing her feet of sand before she entered the living room, she found him with two suitcases in hand and an overly tanned face. He’d been spending more and more time in Miami, soaking up that invigorating yet ruthless Florida sunshine. She’d stopped asking what he was up to down there because she hated watching him lie. He wasn’t very good at it.
“I have to go, like, five minutes ago,” Kendall told her. He set the suitcases down with a thud and approached her to say goodbye.
Yoko felt like a frightened animal, eager to escape his grubby hands. Had she started feeling this way only after she’d learned about his other life? Or had she felt this way before? She let him wrap his arms around her and didn’t breathe till it was over. Was it possible that she was the reason for the break between them, and he’d felt forced into his new life? She thrummed with indecision and felt the sharp kiss on her cheek that indicated he’d done his duty as a husband.
Suddenly, the phone rang. It was her cell. She pulled it from her pocket and read: LIAM.
It was their son. Was he the only thing they’d ever done right? Sometimes she didn’t even know if that was true.
“Wait a second,” she called, right before Kendall opened the front door. She answered her son, using her false and bright voice to say, “Hello and good morning!” She knew better than to speak to her son in Japanese, because Kendall had never learned it and didn’t like being reminded that his wife and son had a language all their own.
“Hi, Mom. I have some news,” Liam said. There was sunshine in his voice. “I asked Lily to marry me.”
Yoko nearly collapsed. Sensing something amiss in her face, Kendall abandoned his suitcases and came over to her, mouthing, “What’s going on?”
But what Yoko said aloud was, “That’s incredible news, honey! Wow. Engaged!”
Kendall’s eyes stirred with initial questions before he grabbed the phone and put it on speaker. “Liam, I’m here too. What’s all this about?”
Liam gasped with laughter on the phone. Yoko had never heard him like this before. “I’m engaged! I asked her yesterday on her birthday.”
Kendall rubbed his forehead and tugged his ear. Yoko had never seen him so itchy.“And she said yes?”
“She said yes,” Liam affirmed. Although he was miles away in Manhattan, Yoko could practically see his smile waning. “Why do I get the sense you’re not happy for me?”
