I forced a smile. She would hate knowing how uncomfortable I was. “Sure. You ready?”
We headed up the neatly manicured pathway to the front steps. We’d left our overnight bags in the car—best not to look too presumptuous when first arriving—so my hands were free. Free, and trembling. Before I could shove them into my pockets, Dani reached out and took one, squeezing it gently, before lacing her fingers with mine.
I glanced at her, catching her eye, and she smiled, just slightly. “You look like you could use a little steadying.”
Without dropping Dani’s hand, I rang the front bell. A long moment later, it swung open.
“Deliveries for the wedding are to be taken to the—Oh.” Alicio’s long-time housekeeper Elaine shot me a dour look. “Alexander. I didn’t expect you,” she said.
“Hello, Elaine.” I offered her my best smile. She’d always liked me, but there was no telling how much the family’s overall discontent with me had trickled down to those in their employ. “Can we come in?”
She backed up and opened the door wide, motioning us into the entryway.
“This is my girlfriend, Dani,” I said, proud that I hadn’t hesitated on the word girlfriend.
Dani reached out and shook Elaine’s hand. “Hello,” she said.
“How are you?” I asked. “I hope everything is going well for you.”
She shrugged, crossing her arms across her chest. “Things are fine.”
So I was on her bad list. Might as well get right to it then. “Right. Well, I was hoping we could use my old rooms tonight. Will that be a problem?”
She furrowed her brow. “You’re staying? For the wedding?”
“Yes, of course,” I said. “I did RSVP that I was coming. And I ran into the family last week in New York. They know to expect me.”
“Oh. I saw that, but, well, it’s just that Victor told me not to expect you.”
“Because I didn’t think he’d actually show.” Victor descended the stairs and stopped in front of me, narrowing his eyes as he looked from me to Dani. Instinctively, I pulled her closer, putting an arm around her waist.
“You remember Dani,” I said pointedly.
Victor looked her up and down in a way that made me uncomfortable. I could only imagine how it made Dani feel. “Right. So, an ex-employee, and an ex-stepbrother. Tell me why you’re here again?”
“My mother didn’t divorce Alicio, Victor, she died. It’s not the same thing.”
A shadow passed over Victor’s eyes at the mention of my mother and he looked to the floor. When he looked back up, his face had softened somehow. “I don’t understand why you would even want to be here,” he said. “Because of Mom. After what Sasha—” He shook his head.
“I’m not here for Sasha,” I said. “But the rest of you are the only family I have. I came to support Alicio.” It was the truth, though not in the way I’d implied. I did want to support Alicio. And telling him of Sasha’s deceit was the very best way I could think to do it.
Elaine cleared her throat. “The pool house is free.”
Victor nodded. “Fine. But you better not cause a scene. There are a lot of important people coming to this wedding.”
“Should I add two more for the rehearsal dinner?” Elaine asked, her question aimed at Victor.
“That won’t be necessary,” I said before he had the chance to answer. “We’ve been traveling all day and don’t want to impose on plans already made. We’ll be fine seeing everyone at the wedding tomorrow.” Traveling all day was a stretch. But attending the rehearsal dinner would be too dangerous for Dani. The less Sasha saw of her the better. At least until Dani was ready to make her move.
We were silent as I led Dani through the house and out the rear door, just beyond the kitchen. The back lawn and patio had been transformed into a wedding wonderland. Several large tents filled the space, their sides open and tied back. It looked as though the ceremony would take place in the smallest tent, while the other two were set up for the dinner and reception. Several workers were busy constructing the centerpieces on the tables. They looked like giant, leafless trees draped with cascading flowers and what looked, from a distance, like peacock feathers.
“Wow,” I muttered under my breath.
“Oh, just wait,” Dani said. “There’s an actual peacock here somewhere.”
I paused and looked her way. “Are you serious?”
“Absolutely serious. For the photographs. I had no idea there were people who rented out peacocks until Sasha asked me to find her one.”
“Did you do a lot of the wedding planning?”
“Not too much. She had an actual wedding planner, Roberto somebody, so I just ended up with the overflow stuff. When she would get wild ideas and wanted to prove to Roberto they were possible.”
“Like renting peacocks.”
“Or having a pod of dolphins swimming in the cove behind the house.”
“She didn’t really ask for that,” I said.
“Oh, she did,” Dani responded. “I mean, it isn’t happening. I called every Aquarium in Florida, the local university’s marine biology program, and the coast guard and they all laughed at the request. Sasha sent me home early that day. Said I was too incompetent to spend another minute in her presence.”
“Ouch.”
Dani shrugged. “She apologized the next day and took me to lunch at The Vine. Which is generally how she operated. Impossible one minute, then incredibly nice the next. It was exhausting, trying to keep up.”
“I’m surprised you made it as long as you did.”
“In retrospect, I am too. Though I was so blinded by my own stupid ambition, maybe I’m not really surprised.”
We reached the door to the pool house, nestled over on the left side of the grounds beyond a grove of palm trees. I paused, my hand resting on the knob. I thought about Dani’s collection of LeFranc purses I’d seen in her garage. “I’m sorry you had to lose that.”
Her expression softened. “Thanks, but I don’t know that I am sorry anymore. In my head, LeFranc embodied everything I thought high fashion should be. It was above reproach. I think I let that blind devotion influence me too much. I spent all my time only thinking about what kind of designer LeFranc would want me to be.”
“But that makes sense if you were trying to get a job designing for LeFranc.”
“True.” She hesitated, like she was afraid to say what came next.
I opened the door to the pool house and motioned her inside.
“But what if I don’t want to design for somebody else? What if I want to design as me?” She paused and looked around, surprise filling her eyes. “Wow. This is the pool house? It’s amazing.”
“Wait until you see the view.” I walked across the living room and opened the patio doors. The pool was a sparkling blue in the sunshine; just beyond it, the open water of the ocean shone a bright, brilliant turquoise.
Dani stared, her eyes wide. “This place is magical,” she said. “You spent every summer here?”
The sea breeze lifted a strand of her blonde hair and tossed it across her cheek. I barely resisted the urge to brush it away before she reached up and tucked it behind her ear. “We spent more time in Manhattan,” I said. “But yes. We were always here for at least a few weeks, maybe a month or so, every summer. Christmas was always here, and Thanksgiving when I came for that.”