“Anymore.”
“Bill is Jewish, you know.”
“And they wouldn’t have let him in forty years ago, right?”
Olivia didn’t answer.
“Your silence speaks volumes.”
“I thought you’d decided to be nice to me? You know, to make up for stranding me at sea for eight hours and making me miss my sister’s wedding rehearsal.”And offering to pretend to be my boyfriend, Olivia added. She was certain Zack had been mostly joking, but she couldn’t help but imagine how it’d feel to walk into the rehearsal dinner as part of a couple. Whether Zack had been right about Andrew needing a little competition to catch his attention…
“Sorry, you’re right.” Zack cleared his throat and made of show of offering Olivia his arm. “May I escort you inside, my lady?”
She swatted his arm away and pushed the door open. Warm light and the sound of happy chatter spilled out into the dark lawn, and Olivia froze on the threshold. Everyone who’d witnessed her humiliating show last night would be there, along with all the recent arrivals who’d undoubtedly already heard all about it. Andrew was somewhere cozying up with Emerson. And then, of course, there was Lulu. What had the last few hours been like for her with both her children missing in action?
“It’s going to be okay,” Zack said, dropping his faux-courtly act. “Come on.” He placed a hand on Olivia’s back, and this time, she didn’t shake it off.
Thankfully, the guests had just started serving themselvesfrom the long line of chafing dishes that Olivia knew contained the trademark French-Vietnamese fusion of a famous chef who’d come up from Boston for the evening. Olivia smile-nodded at a few people as she made her way toward Lulu, whom she’d spotted sitting at the table they’d reserved for the family, stopping to say a proper hello to Lulu’s best friend and Olivia’s de facto godmother, Paula, and their family friend Susan, a well-known editor who’d let Olivia intern for her during high school summers, before she’d set her sights on law.
“There you are!” Lulu cried as she approached, rising to her feet to pull Olivia into a tight hug before catching sight of her bandaged foot. “What happened? Are you okay? You weren’t answering your phone.”
“I’m fine. It’s a long story, I…” She trailed off, suddenly realizing that she’d been so focused on finding Marigold, she hadn’t come up with an excuse for her own absence.
“It’s completely my fault.” Zack appeared at her side. “I begged Olivia to take me out on the boat and then, like an idiot, I ended up losing the key. It took us ages to get back, and of course, we didn’t have cell reception. I’m really sorry.”
“Oh my!” Lulu looked from Zack to Olivia. “You poor things. And all that was during the storm? I’m just glad you’re both okay. Zack, you’d better get something to eat before the line grows too long. You’re probably starving.” When he was out of earshot, Lulu lowered her voice. “I assume you know all about Marigold?”
“Yeah…” Olivia said slowly, unsure how much her mother knew or suspected. “Is she…”
“Stranded in New York because of the storm. I spoke to her and she said she’ll be on the first flight tomorrow morning. Shemust be at her wits’ end. I feel just awful for her. For both of you! It doesn’t sound like either of you are having the weekend you imagined.”
Olivia felt a twinge of guilt. Maybe Marigoldhadbeen telling the truth about going home to get her birth certificate. She might’ve misunderstood Bruce’s instructions about the paperwork and panicked. Or, hell, maybe Bruce had given her bad information. It wouldn’t shock Olivia to learn that his knowledge of Maine marriage law had some gaps in it. HerGilligan’s Island–esque outing might’ve been delusional as well as fruitless.
“Honestly. You know Marigold gets overwhelmed by too much attention. She was probably glad to have a little break before the big day. And I’m fine.” She wiggled her foot. “It looks worse than it actually is.”
Lulu seemed to perk up. “Why don’t you go get some food yourself? Before the Paulsons fill the Tupperware you know they’re hiding in their bags?”
Olivia made her way across the room, hoping that a few more people would join the line and serve as a buffer between her and Andrew, but she had no such luck. “Here, you go ahead of me,” Zack said.
“Please, no, I’m fine.”
At the sound of her voice, Andrew spun around. “There you are!” he said brightly. “I haven’t seen you all day. How’d your toast go last night?”
“It was…”
“It wasbrilliant,” Zack cut in. “Everyone laughed, cried, experienced the full spectrum of human emotion.”
“That’s great.” Andrew extended his hand. “I don’t think we officially met yesterday. I’m Andrew.”
“Zack.”
“So where’s Emerson?” Olivia asked in what she hoped was a light, friendly tone.
“She has friends who live on the island, so she’s having drinks with them first. She’ll probably meet me here later.” Andrew turned back to Zack. “You look really familiar—were you at HBS?”
“HBS?” Zack repeated with what Olivia knew was feigned confusion.
“Harvard Business School,” Andrew clarified.
