Olivia sat in the golf cart with the engine running and absolutely no clue what to do next. Marigold had disappeared. Perhaps she’d gone home to find Lulu, or left to track down Jonathan. Or maybe she just wanted to be alone. Olivia didn’t blame her. As frustrated as she was about her sister’s lies, she knew Marigold didn’t deserve this kind of pain on her wedding day.
Anxious to move in some direction—any direction—Olivia pulled onto the road and began to bump along with no particular destination in mind. She had a mile to decide whether to take the turn for their cottage or keep heading across the island to the yacht club where everyone was gathering for the ceremony.
She moved over to make room for a group of tweens on bikes,some in sandals, others barefoot—their skin protected by their summer calluses—as they pedaled toward the beach. Olivia remembered days like that, leaving the cottage with nothing more than a towel and few dollars for Popsicles, returning after sunset sunburnt and sticky, her limbs heavy with the kind of contented exhaustion she hadn’t felt in a very long time.
Up ahead, a man in a tux caught her eye, and Olivia sighed. It was probably a wedding guest who’d missed the last golf cart shuttle and was trying to walk all the way to the yacht club. The last thing Olivia wanted at the moment was company, but it’d be rude just to drive past. She slowed down as she approached and realized it was Zack.
“Hey,” she called. Her heart lurched as she slammed on the brakes. Or perhaps it would’ve lurched anyway. “What are you doing? Do you need a ride?”
“I’m fine, thank you,” Zack said, sounding oddly formal. “I felt like a walk.”
He doesn’t want to be alone with me, Olivia thought. And who could blame him after the way she’d toyed with his emotions, albeit unknowingly?
“The yacht club is more than three miles away. You’ll never make it in time.”That is, if there’s even a wedding to make it to. “Come on, hop in.”
Zack gave her a meaningful look. “I think we both know this wedding isn’t going to start on time.”
“Oh…” Olivia faltered. “I guess you’ve talked to Jonathan.”
“Yeah, he’s pretty upset.”
“So upset that he had no choice but to kiss Natalie?”
Zack raised his hands. “Hey, I’m not passing judgment here! I’m just reporting the facts.”
“Sorry, I know. What a mess, huh? This is turning out to be the wedding weekend from hell.”
“Oh, it could be alotworse. I read about this wedding that took place on a cruise ship, and everyone got norovirus. You know, the one where you simultaneously—”
“Yeah, I know,” Olivia said, cutting him off. “No need to get into the nitty-gritty.”
Zack shook his head and made atsk, tsksound. “You put on a fancy dress, and suddenly you think you’re too good to talk about diarrhea.”
Olivia laughed. “You’re right, I have some nerve. Now let me give you a ride. I could use the company.”
Though what she meant was,I could useyourcompany.
Zack was the person she wanted by her side as she struggled to sort through the mess she’d made with Marigold. Over the past few days, Zack had been privy to the messy emotions she always tried to hide, and he’d never seemed uncomfortable or overwhelmed. But it felt supremely unfair to lean on him like that now, after he’d already endured so much for her—“fake-dating” the woman he wanted to date in real life, then watching her blithely strike up a flirtation with another man.
As if reading her mind, he said, “It’s probably better if we keep our distance. We worked hard to convince Andrew that we were dating, and then that we broke up. We should try to keep things clean moving forward. That way, you’ll have a better chance of getting what you really want.”
He smiled, but the look in his eyes was nearly as painful as Marigold’s had been. Olivia hadn’t realized she’d had such a talent for causing so much suffering.
She’d been pulled in so many directions this weekend, shedidn’t know which instincts to listen to and which to ignore. She couldn’t let Zack believe that last night hadn’t meant something to her—it had. But she also couldn’t tell him the questions that’d been consuming her all day. She’d put Zack through so much already; she couldn’t keep playing with his feelings before she was positive about her own.
“Zack, listen, I don’t want you think… I mean, I’m not going to lie, I felt something with you too.”
“It’s fine, I swear. You don’t have to spare my feelings. I can take it.”
“I’m serious!” Olivia insisted. “It’s just… It’s been a nutty few days, and I’m not really acting like myself.”
“Olivia, you deserve to be happy. You don’t have to apologize for getting what you want.”
I’m not sure I know what I want, Olivia thought. But those weren’t words she could say aloud, not after everything she’d put Zack through. “I guess I’ll see you over there,” she said.
“See ya.”
Olivia started the engine and pulled back onto the road. She spun around to wave at Zack, but he’d turned to stare at the ocean, a faraway look in his eyes she was sure he hadn’t wanted her to see.
