Now he was holding court near the bar, his tailored navy suit impeccable despite the long flight from Tokyo, and the rush to make it here in time for the rehearsal. He gestured animatedly as he described some aspect of the journey to one of her neighbors, his face flushed slightly from the champagne he'd been drinking steadily since his arrival on the island. The jet lag hadn't dampened his energy, though Jess had noticed the slight shadows beneath his eyes when he'd kissed her cheek at the airport earlier.
"Your fiancé certainly knows how to command a room," Sloane observed, materializing at Jess's side with a plate of tiny crab cakes balanced on her champagne flute. Her fiery hair was twisted into an elegant updo that somehow managed to look both effortless and calculated. "Think he practices that laugh in the mirror?"
Jess smiled despite herself. "Be nice. He's just exhausted and trying to hide it."
"Mmm." Sloane selected a crab cake, her gaze knowing. "And you? Also exhausted and hiding it?"
Before Jess could respond, she spotted Nadine near the service entrance. Even from a distance, Jess saw the tension in her friend's posture - the too-straight spine, the rigid set of her shoulders beneath her tailored blazer.
Nadine was deep in conversation with the server, her sleek bob gleamed under the lantern light, and her cream pantsuit was as impeccable as always, but something in her demeanor had changed since last night that Jess thought wasn’t just down to the hangover - more a dimming of her usual vibrant energy, replaced by brittle efficiency.
As Jess approached, she finished her instructions with a sharp nod, dismissing the server who hurried back toward the kitchen, then turned, startled to find her so close.
"Oh! I was just making sure they're using the right wine for the first course. I noticed they almost opened the reserve Sancerre that's meant for the toast." Nadine tapped her phone, her smile not quite reaching her eyes. "Crisis averted."
"My hero," Jess said. "Saving the world one wine bottle at a time.
"Someone has to maintain standards," Nadine replied, her attempt at light banter falling slightly flat. She glanced toward the dining tables. "We should probably start seating people soon. Your mother gets anxious if dinner runs late."
Jess touched her arm, preventing her from moving away. “Not yet. Can we talk for a minute?"
A flicker of vulnerability crossed Nadine's face before her mask slipped back into place. "This isn't the time or place, Jess. It's your rehearsal dinner. You should be enjoying yourself, not playing therapist to me."
"I'm not enjoying myself if my best friend is miserable," Jess countered.
Nadine's composure cracked slightly. She glanced toward the French doors. "Five minutes. Outside."
The terrace was blessedly empty,the evening air several degrees cooler than the dining room. The setting sun hadpainted the horizon in deepening shades of pink and lavender, with stars just beginning to appear in the darkening eastern sky.
Nadine moved to the stone balustrade, standing against it and gripping the edge with both hands. For a moment, she simply breathed, her eyes closed as if drawing strength from the salt air that brushed tendrils of hair across her forehead.
“Tell me what’s going on,” Jess urged, touching her friend’s arm gently. “Everything.”
“Scott and I talked today,” she said, cheeks pinkening with embarrassment, “I confronted him like you said and we’ve decided that to separate.” Her voice was so quiet that Jess had to step closer to hear. "After fifteen years together. After I gave up my career to raise our boys and build a life.” She laughed, a brittle sound that held no humor. “Because of the assistant obviously. But also because he says I'm not the woman he married. Too focused on minutiae, not enough spontaneity. Like keeping our life running smoothly was some kind of character flaw."
Jess moved beside her, placing a hand over her friend's white-knuckled grip on the stone. “Oh honey, why didn't you say something sooner? I hate that you were going through all of this alone.“
"Because this is your wedding," Nadine replied, her face pained. "Your time to be happy. I didn't want to cast a shadow."
"That's ridiculous," Jess cried, aghast. "You've been carrying your own relationship breakdown while orchestrating every detail of someone else’s wedding? That’s torture.”
Nadine's shoulders slumped slightly, the rigid posture finally giving way to genuine exhaustion. "Planning it was... healing, in a strange way actually. When everything in my own life was falling apart, at least I could make sure that someone else’s is perfect."
"At what cost to yourself though?" Jess retorted in disbelief. "You've been running yourself ragged."
"Better than sitting at home thinking about what comes next?” Nadine retorted, her lower lip trembling. "How to tell the kids that me and Daddy aren’t going to live together anymore. Tell my parents that I’m not the perfect Nantucket homemaker my mom trained me to be. How to reconcile to myself that all these years of putting everyone else first, still doesn’t make life … perfect."
Her voice cracked on the final word, and Jess pulled her into a tight hug, feeling Nadine's body stiffen briefly before surrendering to the embrace. They stood like that for a moment, the sounds of the party continuing inside, while the waves rhythmically stroked the shore below.
"I should have seen it coming, you know,” her friend murmured against Jess's shoulder. "We've been drifting for years. Living parallel lives in the same house. But I kept thinking we'd reconnect once the kids didn’t need me so much, once we had time for each other again." Nadine pulled back, wiping carefully at her eyes to preserve her makeup. "I was so busy managing everything that I didn't notice we'd become strangers."
"This isn't your fault," Jess said firmly. "Marriage takes two people to make it work. If Scott wasn't meeting you halfway - "
"It's not that simple," Nadine interrupted, her organizational instincts apparently extending to her own emotions too. "I guess I did become someone else - someone so focused on maintaining control that I forgot how to be spontaneous, how to just exist without a clipboard and a ten-point plan." She gave a watery laugh.
Jess smiled gently. "Your organizational skills have always been legendary. But they're not all you are, you know.”
"Maybe not," Nadine conceded. “But maybe they became a shield. A way to avoid confronting what was really happening between us - or what I gave up.“ She took a deep breath, straightening her shoulders. "Anyway. Enough about my sorry tales and imploding life. We should get back inside before people notice we're missing."
