I stumble through a goodbye and leave him. I’m not an intuitive person, but for some reason, I feel it in my bones that those two will end up back together and Savannah will come back home. I try to shake off the guilt from that conversation and wander around until I find Bianca, Max, and Hailey standing in a circle amidst the chaos.
Bianca holds some sparkling water in her hand and seems to hold herself together well despite this party environment. I’m only a couple of years older than her, but I feel a motherly-sort of pride overwhelm me because of her sobriety, and I give her a big hug.
“Hey,” she laughs, placing a strand of her platinum-blonde hair behind her ear.
“I missed you so much.”
“Me too. And now that you and Alessandro are in love.” There’s a layer of sarcasm around the words ‘in love.’ No one fully believes everything is fine between the two of us. “I was thinking of spending part of the summer here if that’s okay with…”
“Yes! That is absolutely happening!”
Hailey groans. “If I weren’t taking summer classes, I’d come too.”
“Well, I’ll be flying in to help with your wedding before you know it.”
She groans again, Max giving her an exaggerated look of offense followed by her playfully rolling her eyes at him. “You know that I’m excited, but it seems like so much work with everything else going on in my life right now.”
“I told you,” Max says. “We’ll hire a good wedding planner.”
“But she still needs to make all the decisions,” I argue on Hailey’s behalf.
Max holds his hands up in surrender and then walks away. “I’m going to go try to cheer Nick up.”
“Good luck with that,” Bianca says, and she means it sincerely. I am really getting worried about Nick. Damn men and their inability to open up. I’m dying to know what happened with him and Savannah.
“Has anyone tried calling her?” I ask, changing the subject.
“I have, but she always flips the conversation back to me,” Hailey says. “We’re taking care of her dog while we get him all the vaccines so he can travel with her but something tells me if it weren’t for Teddy, she would have left her phone in the States and went no-contact with all of us.”
“That is so weird.”
Hailey is good at hiding her emotions, but I can see a bit of anger and betrayal beneath her stoic mask. She had an upbringing that involved her growing up in an isolated cult, and Savannah was her first friend outside of that horrible place. I’m pissed off on her behalf. This is unusual for Savannah.
The three of us talk and talk and talk until a couple of hours roll by. Bianca chats about all the clubs she joined her senior year of college and the new friends she’s made now that most of her nights aren’t spent partying.
Hailey talks about how Max is teaching her how to cook, a skill she never picked up with how she was raised. Apparently, most of her meals were from a cafeteria. She never opens up fully about her past, but the tidbits of information I get always shock me.
Mom joins our circle, giving me a side hug and then rubbing the back of my head. “Can I talk to you before I go to bed?”
“Of course.” I lead us to a spare sitting room where we can get some privacy—I assumed that if she just wanted to casually spend time with me, she would have joined all of us and talked.
I move a couple of boxes from a couch since we haven’t decided what to do with this room yet; it’s mostly been used for storage. We take a seat on the antique furniture, and I run my hands on its velvety surface. This room desperately needs a touch-up, but there are so many rooms in this place it’s been exhausting making it our own.
“So.” Mom takes a sip of wine, narrowing her eyes playfully. “You like him?”
I groan. “For the millionth time, yes.”
“Why?”
“I… just do. Why do I need to get interrogated at this party?”
“Because I need receipts. Otherwise, I’m moving in until I am satisfied with how he treats you.”
I laugh atneeding receipts. She clearly stole that line from Bianca.
“I’m serious, Soph!” She sets her glass down and leans forward. “It has been a living hell ever since that damn ceremony.”
“Okay, okay.” I hold my hands up and then ponder where to even start with this. “At first he was miserable to be around. Absolutely miserable, and I can’t think of any adjective to describe him better in the beginning. He wanted to be alone constantly. He didn’t want me to talk or do anything, really. Then…”
