“She’s enamored with the idea of spending Christmas at her grandmother’s.”
Jess’s focus sharpened. “At her grandmother’s? Cameron’s mom’s?”
“Cameron decided he wanted her for Christmas this year, so that’s happening.”
“He invited Brioney, too, and offered to get back together with her,” Mercedes volunteered.
Jess dropped back against her seat. “What is happening? Where have I been? Why didn’t I know any of this?”
“There’s not much to know,” Brioney said. “Cameron asked if Joy could spend Christmas in Houston, I got upset, he said I could come too, that we could try to make a go of it. But it was all because Joy has it in her head that she wants us to get back together.”
“Joy wants you together.”
Brioney lifted a shoulder. “She got this idea we should be together and she’s kind of been upset because I said no.”
“Good, I’m glad you said no. Please tell me you didn’t even consider it.”
She wished she could. “I considered going to Houston so I could spend Christmas with my baby, but dealing with Cameron’s family…no. We’ll have Christmas a different day. That might work out better for you, anyway.”
“It might,” Jess said, considering. “I’ll look at my calendar and let you know. Now, tell me about this motel that Fitz has lost his mind over.”
*****
As Brioney guided her sister into Fitz’s room—Fitz and Brandon doubled up during the visit, much to Brandon’s delight, yeah, right—she thought now would be the perfect time to tell her about Blue. The third margarita had done some damage and Jess would never remember. And Brioney could say she had told her sister. The worst would be over.
But no, she owed both Jess and Blue more than that. She’d tell her tomorrow night, after Thanksgiving dinner.
She dropped her sister to the center of the mattress, pulled off her shoes, considered removing the neat buttoned-down top and skirt, but settled for pulling the covers over her. She dragged a trash can near the bed just in case, and backed toward the door.
“Brioney,” Jess called just as Brioney was closing the door.
“Yes? You need to throw up?”
Jess lifted herself on her elbow. “I’ve missed you, Sis.”
Brioney stepped back into the room, smiling, though her stomach twisted with guilt. “I’ve missed you, too.”
Then Jess dropped back to the pillow and passed out.
Okay, then.
*****
Blue was surprised to see Fitz’s truck at the motel on Thanksgiving morning. He walked over against the breeze blowing in from the water and saw the gate standing wide open, and Brandon and Fitz tossing chunks of concrete from the sidewalk into a wheelbarrow. Blue pushed the gate wider, letting it scrape along the sidewalk, announcing his arrival. Brandon staggered back under the weight of the block of concrete in his arms, and glared.
“Hey, Blue,” Fitz said casually, lifting the handles of the wheelbarrow and heading toward the dumpster.
“Didn’t think you’d be out here today.” Blue joined him at the dumpster and started chucking concrete over the ledge.
“You’ve clearly never been in the house with Brioney when she’s cooking. We cleared out. House isn’t big enough for that much stress.”
“Nope. Haven’t.” He halfway wished she would have invited him for dinner, but got that she didn’t want to deal with him and her sister. “Have been wanting to talk to you, though, about this place.”
Fitz straightened. “What about it?”
“Remember how we were talking about investors?”
“Sure, and I said I didn’t know if I wanted any.”
“What about me? I’d like to invest in it.”
“You.” Fitz stared, then laughed. “Right.”
“I’ve invested in several businesses around here. The taco place, the bakery.”
“You need to rethink that one, because it sucks.”
“Yeah, working on it. But I’m serious, Fitz. I can put some money in, and I’ll leave the vision to you.”
“Where do you get that kind of money?”
“Well, I work for it. I don’t have a lot of expenses. And, when my mother started becoming successful, she set up a trust fund for me. So I can take a few risks. I don’t believe this place is a risk, though.”
“You’re serious.” Fitz leaned a shoulder against the dumpster and folded his arms across his chest.
“I am.”
“Are you doing this because of Brioney?”
“Partly.” He wouldn’t have wanted to approach Fitz without being friendly with Brioney. The guy still hated him for leaving Jess in Austin.
“And if that goes south?”
The thought gave Blue a twinge, but Jess was in town, and he knew this could all blow up any minute. “This is separate. This will be good for the island, and we all want that.”
“How much money are we talking?”
Blue named a figure that had Fitz widening his eyes, and Blue could see him doing quick calculations.
“If you had that kind of money lying around, and you wanted to see this happen, why didn’t you buy the motel?”
Blue lifted a shoulder. Truth was he didn’t want to take on such a gargantuan task. “I don’t have the resources you do, in the way of friends who could come help. And I’m spread a little thin with my other endeavors. So when you bought the place, that seemed like the right solution.”
“Are you sure about this? Don’t you want to see my business plan?”
“Probably my lawyer would. And I’d like for part of that money to be used to hire Logan.” When Fitz opened his mouth, Blue reminded him, “You said you had the money to hire me. He needs it more, and I’ll vouch that he’s a hard worker. He’s just on some tough times right now. If he doesn’t work out, that’s one thing. But I promise that he will.”
Fitz reached out a hand to shake on it. “I’ll get you my business plan tonight, if you want.”
“Whenever,” Blue said. “My lawyer won’t be in the office until Monday. We’ll get together this weekend and figure it out.”
Fitz nodded once, shortly, and the two men got back to work.
*****
Brioney and Joy were in the kitchen when Jess dragged herself out of bed late the following morning.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” Jess demanded, crossing to the coffeepot and pouring a giant mug of what was left. “I could have been helping.”
“I sent Joy in there three times before we gave up,” Brioney said. “And Fitz wanted to take you down to see the motel, but you were out of it. At least you didn’t get sick.”
Jess looked at Joy. “No, I’m not sick. Is there anything for breakfast? Hopefully something bread-related?”
“You can make some toast. Then you can peel the sweet potatoes.”
Jess groaned. “I haven’t peeled potatoes in years.”
Brioney did it every year, twice a year, and she hated the task. Maybe it was mean to make her hung-over sister do it, but Jess had slept through most of the rest of the preparation. “I’m sure it will come back to you.”
Jess took her sweet time eating her toast at the counter. “So who all is coming to dinner?”
“Just Mercedes and her mom, and us.”
“So we were so busy talking about me last night, we didn’t talk much about you,” Jess said, settling on the stool with the bowl of potatoes beside her and an empty bowl in front of her.
“Not much to talk about.” Brioney mixed the mushroom soup into the green beans.
“Oh, come on. There has to be something fun going on.”
Brioney considered telling her she’d started surfing again, but then she’d have to tell who she was surfing with, and she didn’t want to go there before dinner. “Just work and hanging out here and helping Fitz cleaning up the motel.”
“Ugh. That sounds like fun.”
“We went to Blue’s parents’ house the other night,” J
oy chimed in from her spot at the counter, where she was rolling crescent rolls from the tube.
Brioney froze absolutely still. She hadn’t even considered telling her daughter to keep quiet about her relationship with Blue. She never thought her daughter would out her.
She turned to look at her sister, who had frozen, as well. “Why were you at Blue’s parents’ house?” Jess asked, her tone falsely bright.
Brioney carried the bowl of green bean casserole to the island and set it down heavily. “We were invited.”
“Well, duh. How did that come about?”
“Ah. Blue. And I.” God, she’d planned this five hundred different ways, so why couldn’t she come up with the words now? “I’ve been seeing Blue.”
“Seeing. Blue.” Jess separated the words as if to clarify. “What does that mean, exactly?”
“It means, we’re...” She glanced at her daughter. “Dating.”
“Dating.” Jess’s voice was flat. “How long?”
“Since Halloween.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me before today. Thanksgiving. Oh, wait. You didn’t tell me. Joy did. Were you going to tell me?”
“I planned to tell you tonight. I wanted to tell you face to face, and I wanted to make sure, well, I wanted to make sure it was going somewhere.” She forced herself to hold Jess’s gaze, but Jess’s expression was unreadable.
“Is it? Going somewhere?”
“We, ah. We went to his parents’ house.” As if that explained everything. She wasn’t ready to tell her sister she loved Blue. She hadn’t told Blue yet, and he should be the first to know. “What happened between you was so long ago.”
“Is that what he says?” Jess folded her arms on the counter.
Brioney set aside the casserole and pulled the potatoes toward her, gingerly retrieving the peeler. She turned her focus onto peeling it. “As a matter of fact.”
“Who started this whole thing? I mean, I know pickings are slim on the island, but was it you who went after him, or him who went after you?”
“It just kind of...happened. I mean, he’d been coming to The Wharf to watch me sing, but...”
“What do you mean, to watch you sing?”
“I sing at The Wharf on Fridays, and he comes in for a couple of beers and watches, and he makes requests to see if I know the songs, and I guess it started like that. We were friends, and then we weren’t.”
Jessamy narrowed her eyes and looked sideways at Joy. “How not are you?”
“Ah. All the way not.”
Jessamy slammed her hands on the counter and stood. “Are you kidding me?”
“Joy, why don’t you go wake up Brandon?” Brioney suggested, nerves jittering. What was Jess going to say?
“He went to the motel with Fitz, remember?”
Right. God. She needed to get her daughter out of the room. At least Jessamy seemed to understand that.
“Can you just go in our room and let me and Jess talk?”
Joy looked from one to the other, and opened her mouth to protest, but Brioney gave her the look, and her mouth snapped shut before she washed her hands and left the room.
“You’re sleeping with him?” Jess demanded, her voice carrying so that it didn’t matter that Brioney had sent her daughter out.
Brioney wished she’d told Joy to put on headphones or something. Instead she just grimaced. “Ah. Yes.”
“What were you thinking?”
“What...” Thinking hadn’t had much to do with it. “He’s a good man, Jess. He’s thoughtful and affectionate and fun. I’ve been surfing again, and he comes to help out with the motel—”
“So Fitz knew, too?” Jess’s voice rose.
“Ah. He left it to me to tell you. I mean, would you have wanted him to tell you?”
“No, I want you to have told me. Jesus, Brioney, this isn’t some guy I slept with once. This is Blue. We were together six years. I’ve never been with anyone even a fraction of that amount of time.”
“And you’ve been broken up more than that time. Did you think he was going to stay alone forever?”
“I never thought he’d go after my sister.”
The bitterness in Jess’s voice took Brioney aback. “He didn’t ‘go after’ me. Why are you making this seem like we did it to hurt you? If anything, thinking about you kept us apart.”
“Until it didn’t anymore.”
Brioney’s shoulders tightened at the truth of that. “It’s been over for years.”
“Just because I sent him away doesn’t mean I stopped loving him.”
“Whoa. Are we here too early?” Mercedes asked from the doorway, where she stood with her mother, holding two pies.
Jess pivoted on Mercedes. “You knew, too, didn’t you?”
“I tried to talk her out of it, but Jesus, if I knew you were still in love with him…”
“I didn’t say I was in love with him. I said I still loved him.”
The confusion on Mercedes’s face echoed Brioney’s own. “Do you want to get back together with him? I mean, have you even seen him since the two of you broke up?”
“No, I haven’t. I wasn’t sure how to deal with him after that.”
Mercedes crossed to the island, where she sat beside Jess and folded her arms in front of her. “Let me ask you this, then. Has Brioney been with anyone since Cameron?”
“Not that I know of.”
“I know, and the answer is no. Blue makes her happy. I’m not saying she’s right and you’re wrong. What you feel is what you feel. But you need to know this isn’t something she just jumped into without thinking of you.”
Brioney appreciated Mercy’s vote of confidence, but her stomach twisted nonetheless. She hadn’t wanted to hurt Jess, had convinced herself enough time had passed that Jess wouldn’t be hurt. She had her own life now in Austin, one she seemed very happy with. She never would have suspected her sister still loved Blue.
“Should we go?” Mercedes’s mother, Marisol, asked Brioney.
“No!” Brioney replied automatically.
“No, stay,” echoed Jess. “Just as long as Blue won’t be showing up. I’m not sure I can deal with that right now.”
“He’s going to his parents’,” Brioney said quietly, feeling guilty for even knowing that.
“You need a hand?” Marisol asked, nudging Brioney aside and picking up the potato peeler. “Mercy, take her for a walk or something.”
Mercedes prodded Jess to her feet and toward the door, and Jess reached back for her cup of coffee before they left the room. Marisol stayed quiet until she heard the front door close.
“If you had to pick between him and your sister, who would you pick?”
“My sister, of course. I swear to you, Marisol, I knew she would care, but I didn’t think she’d be torn up about it.”
“Six years is a long history to overlook.”
“I know, and I was there for most of it. But it’s been almost that long again. He’s a good man, Marisol. He deserves to be happy.”
“Maybe you’re not the person he’s supposed to be happy with.”
The words were not unkind, but the thought knocked the air out of her. She’d been trying so long to keep a distance from him, and now that she was close to him, she didn’t want to keep the distance between them again. She shoved back the resentment at her sister, who had let Blue go, stayed away, and now wanted to tell Brioney she couldn’t be with him. She’d known this wouldn’t be easy, but why hadn’t she known it would be so hard?
*****
Fitz and Brandon came home in time to shower before dinner, and if they noticed the tension in the house, they didn’t mention it. Joy ventured from her room when the guys came home, but Mercedes and Jess hadn’t returned by the time Marisol and Joy were setting the table.
“You want to call them, or should I?” Marisol asked Brioney as she instructed her brothers where to put the food on the table.
“I’ll do it,” Brioney said, already decidi
ng to call Mercy instead of Jess. But before she could get her phone, the door swung open and the two women waltzed in.
“Ready to eat?” Fitz asked, dropping into his seat at the head of the table, clearly not giving a damn what was going on between his sisters.
Brioney waited for Jess to make eye contact, but she didn’t. Instead, she sat where Marisol put her, across the table beside Mercedes. Mercedes sent Brioney an unreadable look, before bowing her head at her mother’s request so Marisol could lead the prayer.
Brioney didn’t have much of an appetite, but spooned some of everything on her plate and Joy’s when each dish came around. She was only peripherally aware that her brothers wolfed everything down.
“How was the motel?” Brioney asked, a little desperate for neutral conversation.
“We’ll be ready for the guys next week,” Fitz said happily. “Blue came by to help for a bit, before he headed to his folks’.”
“That was nice of him,” Brioney said, keeping her voice as noncommittal as possible.
“The guys you’re talking about are your army buddies?” Mercedes asked. “And they’ll be staying at the hotel?”
“Most of them, since Brioney was able to get them a package deal. One always wanted to camp on the beach, so he’s gotten a permit and his gear. I’m thinking he’ll be asking for a room before you know it.”
“So, are any of them single?”
“All of them.”
“Mercy.” Marisol drew out the word.
“What?” Mercy blinked innocently and nudged Jess. “We need some new blood around here.”
“We get new blood every summer, and my friends aren’t your playthings.” Fitz pointed his fork in her direction. “I need their energy focused on the motel.”
“All work and no play makes people into Brioney.”
Brioney shot a look at her friend. Had she been drinking? The two had been gone a while. She looked at her sister, who was focused only on her meal, lifting her fork as if it needed every ounce of concentration. Then she reached for the bottle of wine and filled her glass.
Brioney kicked herself. She should have been the one to go on a walk with her sister. She could have listened to her, reassured her. They might have been able to work this out before dinner.
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