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Surprisingly, the first thing that happened as the group invaded the hotel that held their reservations was that Anne bumped into somebody as she attempted to get her rolling suitcase over the metal divider the sliding doors moved over.
“Oh!” she gasped, feeling her body slam into the stranger. “I’m sorry!”
“It’s my fault,” the slightly familiar voice said. “I’m sorry,” he apologized as he reached for her suitcase and righted it, maneuvering it over the troublesome spot for her. “I wasn’t watching where I was going,” he explained, holding up his phone as evidence.
“It’s fine,” she mumbled, giving him a slight smile before heading over towards the check-in desk. A second later, she turned around and scrutinized the stranger’s back.
He looked so familiar...
“Who was that?” Derek whispered, aware that Mary was frozen in place and looking back at the stranger with a confused expression that matched Anne’s.
Tilting her head, Anne shook it for a moment. “I’d almost want to say that he was my cousin Will... but that can’t be right. He’s supposed to be in Florida, according to Elizabeth’s sources.”
“And people can’t go on vacations?” Derek laughed, urging Anne towards the check-in desk. “Come on before Etta and Isa claim the room next to mine.”
“I don’t know what you think is going to happen.”
“I know that we have two singles and two doubles booked and I’d rather not have a room next to Isa.”
Sighing, “Whatever,” Anne replied with an eye roll that was more out of habit than anything else.
“Anne!” Mary called her sister over. “Who was that?”
“I don’t know, Mary,” Anne sighed. “We didn’t exchange names, numbers, and insurance information.”
“Why would you exchange insurance information?”
“Because he bumped into me...” Anne pointed out. “You know what? Never mind. Let’s get our room assignments.”
By the time they had joined Charles and Derek at the desk, the guys already had the room situation in order. “Isa, I don’t know why you think I would let you and Etta have a room with an adjoining door to Derek’s room,” they overheard him saying.
“But...”
“No buts,” he interrupted. “Mom told me to watch out for you and I’m going to watch out for you.” Turning to Derek, he added, “Not that I don’t trust you...”
“You don’t trust me!” Isa exclaimed.
Turning to his sister, Charles stated, “When it comes to Derek, no, I don’t trust you.” Looking at Derek, he added, “She’ll be knocking on your door at all hours trying to get in on the pretext of Etta snoring.”
“I don’t snore!” Etta protested.
“We know,” Anne assured Etta. “Charles was being polite by not saying what he really meant.” Catching Etta’s confused expression, Anne leaned forward and whispered what Charles really meant in the girl’s ear.
“Ohhh,” Etta drawled out, understanding washing over her face. Glancing over at Isa, she nodded her head. “Yeah, Isa would try to steal Derek’s virtue.”
Nobody noticed that Derek and Anne both flushed.
“It would be much better if Derek and Anne shared a door,” Etta concluded. “Nothing would ever happen between the two of them!”
Anne felt her cheeks heating up even more than before. Looking at him, she shook her head, the memory of one New Year’s Eve party flashing though her mind.
With Mary opting to take a nap in the hotel room, the group piled into the SUV as Derek gave directions towards the Harville’s house.
It didn’t take long for them to navigate the route; which Anne was thankful for as she was squished between Etta and Isa in the backseat. By all rights, the much thinner Isa should have sat in that weird half-ish seat in the middle, but she had insisted on getting the seat behind Derek.
Although she quickly realized that Anne had much better access to Derek than her own seat directly behind his. She started pouting, even as the others ignored her.
It got worse when Derek exited the SUV without opening her door for her as he went up to the front door and rang the doorbell. He had texted both Frank and James before they had left the hotel that they were on their way, but nobody had come outside to greet them.
Laughter coming from the backyard caught Anne’s attention. Joining him at the door, she nudged him and nodded her head towards the side of the house. “I think they are in the backyard playing.”
“Frank and Bianca do have several kids,” he stated. Turning towards the others, he told him that he would be right back. “If somebody does answer the door, tell them I went to the backyard.”
“Okay,” Isa piped up even though Derek had been talking to Anne.
Etta, standing to the side, crinkled her brows as she started to think. She saw Derek had been talking to Anne directly. He wasn’t even looking at Isa, even though Isa assumed that he had been.
Thinking back on it, she had seen several one-on-one exchanges between the pair that excluded the others, sometimes more by accident than by design.
A minute later, he emerged from the side of the house. Frank and James were following him.
“Everybody!” he called out, drawing their attention back to the driveway. “This is Frank Harville and my good friend, James Benson. James helped save my knee after my accident in Italy.”
Dismissing Derek’s phrase, James grinned, “All I did was stabilize it.”
“Guys, this is...” and Derek started to introduce everybody, starting with Anne and ending with the Musgraves sisters. “Charles’ wife had a headache and decided to take a nap,” he concluded.
Laughing, Frank pointed out that it might be a good idea. “My children can be loud when they want to be.”
“I understand,” Charles commiserated. “My own two can burst your eardrums if you get too close.”
The two fathers went off to talk about their children as the group headed towards the back.
Isa, leaning towards Etta, commented, “He introduced me last.”
“Yeah? So?”
“So, did he save the best for last or was I an afterthought?”
Etta, her suspicions beginning to form, simply said, “I don’t know.” She didn’t want to tell his sister her real suspicions.
They were interrupted by the sound of children playing on an outdoor swing set – one of the good ones with the swings, slide, and treehouse-designed platform structure for them to climb on. Charles, still off with Frank, started to wonder if he should get his boys one of them when they were older.
Frank, attempting to point, started naming off the children that played on the swings and in the sandbox underneath the platform. “Some of these aren’t mine, but I can’t refuse the neighborhood kids when they want to play with mine.”
Pointing at the back patio, he introduced them to his wife. She lifted a glass of lemonade in her hands and gestured for everybody to join her. It would have been impossible for Bianca to clearly hear them over the sounds of about five children playing, only two of them hers.
Once they were closer, she stood up and held out a hand towards Anne. “I’m Bianca, but everybody calls me Bee.”
“Anne,” she replied, holding out a hand.
Bee looked at Anne curiously, glanced over at where Derek and Frank were chatting, and then back at Anne. “Elliot?”
“Yes?” Anne replied, tilting her head in confusion. “How did you know that?” Looking over at Derek, she wondered if he had been talking to them about her.
“It was a good guess,” Bee dismissed, waving her hand in the air as if actually dismissing the question. “Derek told us who all was coming, last names included just in case.” Turning towards the sisters, she added, “And you must be Etta and Isa Musgraves.” She recognized the girls based on the general description Derek had given her, even though he’d talked more about Anne to her and Frank.
“Were you in Italy too?”
“Oh goodness no,” Bee dismissed. “I work as a nurse stateside. James was married to Francine while they were stationed over there and when Derek got sent to Walter Reed in D.C. – I was working there then – James told me to seek his friend out. Derek met Frank and me there. I was there for most of Derek’s P.T.”
She knew about a certain photograph that Derek would never admit existed. Anne hadn’t changed that much since the picture had been taken.
“Why are you here if you work at Walter Reed?”
“I work at the VA hospital now. Frank has family in the area and once he was discharged, I requested a transfer and we moved here.”
“I used to come down here every summer with my Aunt,” Anne sighed.
“It’s a small world,” Bee smiled at the younger girl. “I know Derek’s brother used to live about ten minutes from here, closer to the beach.”
“Really?” Isa asked, distracted as she looked in James’ direction.
Etta recognized that look.
