In Your Dreams (Blue Heron #4)(37)

Jack laughed, angels bless him, and put his arm around her shoulders. “Long flight,” he said, giving her a little squeeze. “We were up before dawn.”

Naomi smirked. “Yeah. Get some rest, Emily. You look exhausted.”

Then, hand in hand, the bride and groom walked the opposite way. Naomi still had the most amazing body she’d ever seen, and Em couldn’t help the flash of envy she felt. Just once, just for one afternoon on the beach, she would’ve liked to have rocked a bathing suit. Okay, fine. She would’ve liked it for a weekend. A month. A few years.

And Kevin... He’d done it. He certainly wasn’t fat anymore. He was the one percent—the perfectly beautiful people with perfectly beautiful bodies.

“You okay?” Jack asked.

“Yep.” She stepped out from the comfort of his arm. “I appreciate the thought, Jack, but I really don’t want to pretend to be a couple.”

He looked at her for a long minute. “You sure?”

“Yeah. But thank you.” She looked away from the kindness in his eyes and headed down the hallway.

Time for a very big glass of wine. Or two. They passed another hallway, and a familiar voice stopped Em in her tracks.

“Emmaline? Sweetheart!” It was Mom. “How are you? Are you crushed? Did you see Kevin? You were very brave to come.”

“Of course you came, Emmaline. You’re very strong, as I raised you to be,” said Dad. There was a brief scramble as each parent tried to be the one to hug her first.

“Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad.” She gave them simultaneous, one-armed hugs so as not to play favorites, then smiled at her sister.

“Emmaline!” Angela said, her eyes growing damp. “How wonderful to see you!”

Her sister managed to extricate her from their parents and gave her a hug. Then Dad had to give her another, extra-long hug to show that he was a better parent than Mom, which meant Mom had to hug her again and kiss her twice on the cheek.

“It’s good to see you guys,” Em said. She meant it, but there was no way she’d ever sound as nice and sincere as her sister. “This is my friend, Jack Holland.”

“Jack, lovely to meet you,” Angela said, shaking his hand warmly. Honestly, those nuns at the orphanage had done a fantastic job raising her.

“Oh! This is Jack?” Mom exclaimed. “What a surprise! I didn’t—well, we didn’t...ah...”

“What, Mom? I told you I was bringing someone.”

“I just assumed this ‘Jack’ person—” Mom made quote marks with her fingers “—was actually ‘Jacqueline.’ Not that there’s anything wrong with you, Jack.”

“Very nice to meet you,” Jack said, smiling at Em. He shook hands with her parents.

“Son, a pleasure,” Dad said, to prove that he was way cooler than Mom.

“We were just going to have some dinner in the restaurant,” Angela said. “It’s very pretty. You have to join us, don’t they, Mama? Papa?”

“Sounds great,” Jack said, damn him. “Give us an hour, why don’t you? We’ll meet you there.”

More hugs were exchanged until, finally, the three other Neals went off. When they were a sufficient distance away, Em looked at Jack. “What did I say about hiding in the room and drinking wine?” she asked. “I thought you were a winemaker. You were supposed to support that plan.”

“They’re your family. They love you.” He picked up her suitcase, ignoring her attempts to grab it back. “You can have wine at dinner.”

* * *

EMMALINE COULDN’T HAVE wine at dinner. No one could.

The resort restaurant—Sea of Tranquility—was beautiful, overlooking the Pacific. It also didn’t serve alcohol. Where had that been on the website, huh? Rather hateful of them, really.

It had gotten chillier. There was a picturesque fire in a glass fireplace in the middle of the room and windows on three sides. Em, Jack and her family had a corner table; she thought Jack might’ve slipped the maître d’ a twenty, but she was a little stupid with fatigue. Strangely beautiful candles, probably made out of wheatgrass and edamame, flickered, and, outside, a whip-poor-will started to sing.

Naomi and Kevin weren’t in the restaurant, thank God. Em thought she recognized one of his cousins, but no one called out a hello or stopped by the table, and she was deeply grateful. She’d see everyone tomorrow and Saturday—they’d been given a program of “Fun and Healthful Activities!” which included the mandatory water sports.

Saturday afternoon was the wedding itself.

She wondered how Kevin had felt, seeing her again. If they might have a real conversation, just the two of them, and maybe...maybe set some old feelings at rest. Maybe they could even manage to be friends again. Surely, somewhere in that beautiful sculpted body, a little bit of Old Kevin existed.

Dinner was a blurry, odd affair. Her parents were both talkers, but because they didn’t speak to each other, it was as if there were two conversations going on at the same time, except for their sharp jabs at each other from time to time. Also, the combination of jet lag and stress was the equivalent to an Ambien and a baseball to the head.

The ranch only served gluten-free, vegan food, and while it wasn’t awful, it also wasn’t identifiable or filling.