Page 6

For a moment, I considered just leaving. I could be on a plane headed back to the East Coast within two hours. By tonight, I could be home, wrapped in a weighted blanket and binge-watching episodes of The Great British Bake Off until I forgot my own name.

Nobody on that show cheated.

They just occasionally sabotaged each other's baked goods.

Much more civilized.

But then, as if summoned by my panic, I heard the unmistakable warble of my cousin’s voice.

“Mikayla!”

Julissa came barreling toward me at full speed, arms outstretched, smile so wide her cheeks nearly split. I braced myself for impact; she hugged like she’d been trained by professional wrestlers and had a point to prove. I was sure that she’d fit right in with her new in-laws.

Still holding me in an aggressive bear embrace, she spoke against my ear, “You were supposed to text me.”

“I did, you didn’t answer,” I relayed flatly.

She pulled back, holding my arms and giving me a once-over. “You look amazing. Like, you’re actually glowing. Are you using a new serum or⁠—”

“Why is he here?” I demanded, cutting right to the point.

“Okay, let me explain.” Julissa held her hands up.

I waited, arms folded as she scrambled to regain her composure.

When I didn’t say anything, Julissa blinked. “Oh, you’re gonna let me talk. Okay, good.” My cousin took a deep breath and started speaking. “It’s not what it looks like. Last month, Rob’s college roommate bailed as a groomsman because of some international surf trip, so Rob reached out to one of his old football buddies as a replacement. Apparently he ran into Kenny about a year ago. And I didn’t realize it was that Kenny until today. And Annie showed up as his plus one. Rob had no clue that Kenny was dating Annie, I swear.” She said this all in a single breathless sentence, punctuated by nervous hand flaps.

My brain processed the information in slow motion: My cheating ex-boyfriend was now my cousin’s fiancé’s groomsman, and my ex-best friend was his date. Both here, a stone’s throw from me, because Julissa had the situational awareness of a golden retriever at a tennis ball convention.

“I’m sorry, Kayla. I didn’t want you to find out this way. If you want, I can tell them to leave or poison their potato salad. Whatever you need.”

Despite the tidal wave of anxiety and anger, I forced myself to smile and chuckle as if this newest development had barely even registered. “No need for a murder plot, Jules. I can handle it.”

Julissa eyed me skeptically. “You don’t have to be so brave about it. You look like you’ve just seen a ghost and are about to pass out.”

I straightened my posture, channeling every CEO-in-the-boardroom atom in my body. “I’m fine.”

Pity was one emotion I’d avoided at all costs. After a life spent in boarding schools with rich, privileged kids who not only had both parents in their lives, they also typically had more than one house, when I lived in a ten floor walkup, in a one bedroom apartment I shared with my mom, who lived paycheck to paycheck. I’d always thought the reason we were broke was because of my education. I didn’t find out until years later that my mom’s old boss, Mr. St. Claire, owner and CEO of St. Claire Global financed every school I’d attended.

My mother worked for the “happily married, family man,” and they’d had an affair. The reason I got hired out of college was to dissuade some guilt. He gave his illegitimate kid a job, as if that made up for all the years he hadn’t been in my life.

In a plot twist for the ages, after he passed away in a car accident, my mom confessed Mr. St. Claire was not my biological father at all, she’d told him that I was because she knew he’d give me advantages. The truth was, my biological father was a man who spent his life in and out of jail for petty crimes until he died during one of his stints in a prison riot when I was fifteen.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Julissa, sweet Julissa, asked.

“Of course,” I assured my cousin. “I've completely moved on.”

“Really?” Julissa’s entire face lit up. “You're seeing someone?”

That wasn’t what I’d meant, but seeing how relieved my cousin was, I went along with it. “I am, he’s…the best.”

“Hey, stranger.” A very deep, very familiar voice sounded behind me, and my gut twisted.

I turned. Kenny stood just out of arm’s reach, wearing the same cocky grin that had gotten him out of at least three cheating accusations in high school alone.

Annie hovered beside him, her smile polite but paper-thin.

“It’s been a long time,” he said, as if he didn’t remember the last time we’d spoken I’d told him to lose my number forever and blocked him from every social media site.