Luke finished checking his props and peeked through the curtain that had been rigged at one end of the gazebo to create a backstage area for those queuing up to perform. He was surprised to see almost every seat filled. Aside from the guests not participating in the talent show, he recognized many of the resort staff as well as a large group of people he wasn’t sure about.
“Showtime in ten,” Penelope announced, coming up behind him and tapping him on the shoulder. “All set?”
“Almost.” He peeked through the curtain again. “Who are those people?” He pointed to the cluster of guests he hadn’t seen before.
Jay moved to join them. “Oh. That’s the rest of the party for tomorrow’s wedding. They’ve been arriving all day.”
“Why are they here?”
“For. The. Wedding.” Jay looked at Luke like one of his mental files had been corrupted.
“That’s not what I meant. Why are they here? In. The. Audience.”
“You’ll see.” Penelope grinned.
“You two know I hate surprises.”
“It’s nothing to worry about.” Penelope shook her head in exasperation. “The bride had a special request for her bonus activity, and we’re making that happen.”
“Listen to your sister,” Jay said, munching from a bag of popcorn.
“Where did you get that?” Luke wondered.
“I had the popcorn machine brought down from the lobby.” Jay tossed a kernel up in the air and caught it in his mouth. “Thought it would be a nice treat for the audience.”
“A nice treat for you, you mean,” Penelope scoffed.
Luke was pleased to note that his sister sounded just as exasperated with his friend as she had been with him. “Yeah, Jay.”
Vijay threw a piece of popcorn at his head. Luke opened his mouth and caught it.
“No throwing food backstage,” Penelope ordered. She nudged Jay through the curtain. “Stop acting like a child and go manage the guests for the wedding; make sure everyone is settled.” She turned to Luke. “Showtime in five.” She pushed him toward the roped-off section of the audience that had been reserved for performers. “Go.”
Luke grumbled, but he went. He owed his sister for yesterday. When Julia had put together that he and Pen were siblings, he’d thought that was the end of any chance he had with her. Pen had stepped in and saved the day. His sister might have stretched the truth, but nothing she’d said had technically been dishonest. And when Julia had asked him point-blank if he was one of the actors and he’d said no, technically that also had been the truth.
But “technically” wasn’t making his conscience feel much better. It had been eating at him all day. He’d spent most of the afternoon practicing the magic act with Julia. On the surface, they’d had a great time together, laughing and talking and generally enjoying each other’s company. But an elephant-size shadow of doubt had lurked in the room.
He’d hoped to smooth things over with her last night, to spend time convincing her of the very real nature of his feelings … but that plan had been a bust once her friend the reviewer had been caught in flagrante delicto with Zach.
Perhaps it was for the best. Considering what Luke had been doing with Julia—what he still wanted to do—he was far from a place to judge. But it wasn’t like he was getting paid to be with her. Another technicality his conscience wasn’t buying.
Luke slid into the chair Julia had saved for him. She smiled and his heart lurched sideways. He didn’t deserve her. Didn’t deserve her forgiveness for hiding things. Wasn’t worthy of the affection shining in her beautiful hazel eyes. But he was discovering that when it came to Julia, he was greedy and unprincipled and would take whatever he could get. Whatever she was willing to give.
“Nice cape,” Julia whispered.
“Like it?” Luke adjusted the bright red satin monstrosity over his shoulders. “I borrowed it from Mrs. W.”
“Are you a magician or a vampire?” Andie asked.
Julia and her friends snorted with laughter.
“Maybe he’s a vampire magician,” Kat suggested, leading to more giggles.
“Maybe,” Luke agreed. He leaned closer to Kat. “Sorry you don’t get to perform tonight,” he told her. “Julia mentioned you’d been looking forward to doing that dance.”
“Thanks.” Kat sighed.
“I’m still willing to be your Swayze,” Andie offered. “I’ll even try not to drop you this time.”
“I appreciate it, but I’ll pass.” She sighed again. “It’s just not the same.”
Kat was clearly disappointed. Luke didn’t know how much last night’s debacle with Zach might affect her review, but at this point he couldn’t make himself care. However it might impact the success of this opening week and consequently affect Mrs. W.’s decision regarding the bonus, it didn’t seem to matter as much anymore. Had mattered less and less since this game started … since he met Julia.
Luke frowned. He was far from joining the Zach Brennan fan club, but it was too bad Mrs. W. had to fire the guy. Kat really seemed to like him. An observation that also made him wonder whether Zach leaving might be for the best. It was clear she was forming an attachment to the actor. But was that necessarily a bad thing? How was it any different than what was happening between him and Julia?
The lights over the audience dimmed, and conversations died away as Mrs. W. took center stage. Dressed in a rhinestone-studded gown, she needed no spotlight. Hundreds of small bits of reflected light turned her into a human disco ball.
“Good evening, my fellow romantics,” the resort owner welcomed her audience. “Love is in the air tonight. I can feel it. As I stand here, I can’t help but think of tomorrow, and the two souls who will be joined together in this very spot. Before the vows are taken, before bread is broken, before the deed is done, the bride and groom have one last night. And per the bride’s request, they’ve decided to share it with you. Kicking off our talent show this evening, I am pleased to introduce soon-to-be newlyweds Jack and Diane and their entire bridal party!”
As the audience broke into applause, a line of people dressed in long, puffy white gowns and veils appeared from behind the curtain and made their way down the aisle to the dais.
“I knew it!” Kat whispered in triumph.
Luke glanced at Julia, confused.
“Kat was betting they were planning a group dance number,” she explained.
The music started, and everyone turned their attention to the stage. Eighties fan that he was, Luke immediately recognized the opening keyboard notes of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.” The dancers weren’t professional by any means, but they were committed, and it was obvious they’d been practicing. The moves were well timed and in sync.
It wasn’t until the song got to the chorus and all the “brides” lifted their veils that Luke realized when Mrs. W. had said the entire bridal party, she meant everyone … bride, bridesmaids, groom, and groomsmen too. Based on the reaction from the audience, he wasn’t the only one taken by surprise. Hoots, hollers, and whistles zinged around the gazebo as the dance continued, everyone onstage giving it their all as they writhed and thrusted in wedding gowns. Frankly, he was impressed by how committed they were to the source material.
As the song wrapped and the audience clapped, Andie fanned herself. “Is it just me, or did it suddenly get hotter in here?” she wondered.
A moment later, Curt appeared, veil askew. He made his way toward them, struggling with the frothy layers of his dress. He landed on a chair next to Andie in an explosive puff of white tulle. “Did you see me up there?”
“You were amazing!” Andie laughed, adjusting Curt’s veil and giving him a kiss. She turned to Kat and declared, “For the record, this future maid of honor’s answer remains the same. Hell no.”
“Spoil sport.” Kat pouted.
Mrs. W. had returned to center stage and had just begun to introduce the next act when a shout from the front entrance of the gazebo caught everyone’s attention. Along with the rest of the audience, Luke shielded his eyes from the stage lights and watched as Zach Brennan strolled down the aisle.
What the hell was he doing here?
“I thought he was fired,” Julia said quietly to Kat.
“He was…” Kat replied, her voice fading away as Zach moved to stand in front of her.
Dressed head to toe in Johnny Castle black, the actor held out his hand.
“Oh my God, you have to say the line,” Andie demanded. “Kat, make him say the line.”
Zach cocked a smile. “Nobody puts Baby in a corner.”
Andie laughed in triumph as Kat beamed and took Zach’s hand, letting him lead her to the stage.
“He certainly knows how to make an entrance,” Luke grumbled. But he had to admit, the guy could really dance. After hoisting Kat high in the air for the iconic lift, the actor swung her into an elegant bow before sweeping her off the stage in a flurry of thunderous applause. “And apparently, an exit,” Luke added, when the pair didn’t return to their seats.
“I think I know what they’re doing,” Julia said in a teasing singsong voice.
“Well, let’s hope they make it to a room first this time.”
Julia laughed.
“We’re up soon,” Luke said, standing. “We should probably get ready.”
During the next transition between acts, Luke and Julia quickly made their way to the backstage area. Behind the curtain, the last of the performers milled about nervously.
On stage, Mrs. W. was addressing the crowd again. “I hope everyone has enjoyed their stay at Notting Hill this week. I appreciate you being here. After this next act, there’ll be a brief intermission. But stick around for our last performance, because I promise it’s going to be magical!”
“Ugh,” Luke groaned. “I didn’t know we were the grand finale.”
Penelope shushed him. As the polite clapping signaling the end of the current act began to fade, she fiddled with a panel of switches. The lights on the stage dimmed. “You’ve got five minutes to set up,” she ordered. “Go!” she barked, sliding the curtain aside and waving them out.
Luke glanced at Julia and she followed him, helping lift the little table of props and carry it down the aisle and onto the stage. He almost tripped on the cape a few times, and it was a damn good thing he was so tall, otherwise he would have fallen on his ass or face for sure.
They’d barely managed to get the tablecloth settled into place when Mrs. W. hustled over, pet parade in tow. “I’m excited to see you in action.”
“Don’t expect too much,” he warned, suddenly apprehensive under his boss’s avid scrutiny. Luke maneuvered his cape around the corgi obstacle course and handed Julia a deck of cards, then focused on laying out the rest of the props.
“Always so modest.” His boss chuckled and turned to Julia. “I have this man to thank for bringing the magic of rom-coms to my resort.”
Julia glanced between Luke and Mrs. W., confusion knitting her brow. “Because of his sister?”
“Penelope has been a godsend, no question.” Mrs. W. patted Luke on the shoulder. “But he’s the brains that made everything work.”
Beside him, Julia stilled. Luke’s heart leaped into his throat.
“I see.” She was staring at him now, hazel eyes frosty as the woods on a winter morning.
“Listen to me, chattering away,” Mrs. W. tittered. “Intermission is almost over, I better let you two finish setting up.” Oblivious to the bomb she’d just dropped, his boss herded her squad of corgis to a row of cushions lined up in the front of the audience.
“Julia, I can explain,” Luke began, his hushed voice vibrating with urgency.
Spine straight, her entire body stiff and cold as a mannequin, she refused to look at him. “Better make it fast,” she bit out, mouth barely moving, wooden smile frozen in place like some creepy ventriloquist’s dummy.
He glanced at the crowd as they began to return to their seats. What could he say? “None of this was planned … not at first.”
Mrs. W. finished settling her brood and held up a finger.
They had one minute. How the hell was he supposed to explain the clusterfuck of events that had led them to this moment in less than sixty seconds? “When I met you on the beach, I mean. I didn’t know.” Luke licked his lips. “And then I found out about the reviewer—”
She jerked her head toward him. “You know I’m the reviewer?”
“You’re the reviewer?”
Her façade cracked. He could see a dozen thoughts flash across her face in a nanosecond.
Luke’s heart beat faster as the pieces fell into place. It made sense. The way she’d always been more interested than her friend in how the game worked, the questions she asked the other guests. That fucking notepad she always carries around.
He was an idiot.
To Julia’s credit, though, she didn’t treat him like one. She didn’t try to weasel out of her accidental admission or backtrack from the truth. She simply nodded. She glanced down at her hands, and a sad, wry smile crept across her face. “Cards on the table.” She set the deck down and met his gaze. “I guess we both were pretending after all.”
He reached for her, but she backed up, shaking her head.
“I don’t want to play this game anymore.” She took another step away from him, and then another. She turned, stepping off the dais and running down the aisle, disappearing into the shadows.
Luke cleared his throat and sketched a quick, embarrassed bow before rushing off the stage. His instinct was to chase after her. He knew she was furious. He needed to find her. To talk to her. To try to make her understand. But understand what? He wasn’t sure he understood everything that had happened.
Distraught, Luke shifted direction. Maybe he should talk to Pen first. She could help him make sense of things before he tracked Julia down and ended up making the situation worse. As he slipped behind the curtain, he plowed into Vijay and Penelope. Luke was so befuddled that it took his brain a moment to register what he was seeing.
His best friend and his sister backstage. Alone in the dark. Kissing.
And not just any kiss. Not an Oh, you’re so cute and I love you like a friend kiss.
It was a kiss kiss. An I hear music when you touch me kiss.
“What the hell is going on?” he demanded.
Jay jumped back, shielding Penelope with one arm.
Did Jay think she needed protection? From him? Hurt and anger clawed at Luke’s chest as he stared at them, stunned into silence.
“Luke.” Jay held up a hand. “Let me explain.”
“Explain why you’re sneaking around behind my back and taking advantage of my sister?” Luke snarled.
“He is not taking advantage of me!” Penelope protested. “For once, mind your own business and stay out of mine.”
“How long has this been going on?” Luke asked, chest heaving with the effort to breathe, as everything seemed to be crumbling around him, burying him under the rubble. “How long?”
His sister notched her chin up, stubborn jaw he knew so well clenching in defiance. “None of your business.”
He flinched as if she’d slapped him. When he turned to Jay, his friend—his best friend, who was more like a brother to him—refused to look him in the eye. Luke stood motionless, staring at two of the most important people in his world, wondering how they’d suddenly become strangers. He turned back to his sister. “Where’s Julia?”
“What?” Penelope blinked at him in confusion. “She’s gone?”
“You didn’t see her leave, did you,” he bit out. An accusation, not a question. “Too busy letting my best friend shove his tongue down your throat.”
“That’s enough.” Jay seemed to have finally found his voice.
Luke glared at them, simmering with a rage he recognized was out of proportion to the current situation. His nerves were already frayed, and unexpectedly discovering the two of them together like that, he’d snapped.
Beyond the muffled quiet behind the curtain, he could hear Mrs. W. apologizing for the sudden cancellation of the final act of the evening. In a moment, the show would be over. The audience would be cheering, the gazebo filling with the happy buzz of people preparing to celebrate. Luke couldn’t handle that now. He couldn’t handle any of this. On impulse, and more to be spiteful than anything else, he grabbed Jay’s bag of popcorn and fled.
His mind a muddled mess, Luke let his feet take over, muscle memory and habit leading him down the path to the beach. This time of year, sunset was late, but since the resort was along the west coast of Lake Michigan, the sun rose in the east, over the lake, and set beyond the hotel, in the west. Which meant that although it was barely twilight, the beach was already shrouded in deep purples and dark blues of the coming night, the sky over the lake bruised.
Luke felt bruised. He kept walking, waiting for the waves to weave their spell, for the rhythmic pull of the tide to loosen the knots in his thoughts. Eventually, his pathetic legs demanded a rest and he hunkered down.
The evening air had turned chilly. Luckily, he was still wearing the ridiculous cape. He tucked it tighter around himself, laughing at the picture he must have made. Tall, awkward, skinny guy, glittery bloodred cape flapping in the wind as he roamed the empty beach. Maybe Kat was right. He was a vampire magician. Though that character sounded more like something from an angsty teen drama than a rom-com.
Tension inside him relaxing the tiniest bit, Luke opened the popcorn bag he’d stolen from Jay. He’d just reached into the bag when a familiar screeching sound brought him up short.
“You have got to be kidding me.” He turned, and sure enough, to his left stood his thieving feathered foe. “Isn’t it past your bedtime, Clyde?”
The gull cocked its head at Luke and hopped forward a few steps, leaving a trail of hash marks in the sand behind him.
“Coming to steal my snack?” Luke asked. “Guess what. I stole it first.” It had been juvenile of him, but better than punching Jay, which Luke had felt a sudden urge to do as well. “Here.” He tossed a few pieces of popcorn in the seagull’s direction. “Let me save you the trouble.”
Clyde scooped the popcorn up in his beak and hopped closer. Luke tossed out a few more kernels for the bird before scooping a handful for himself. For a few minutes, they watched the waves, munching in companionable silence.
“This is nice, Clyde,” Luke said, nodding to the bird. “I’m glad I ran into you this evening.”
Good lord, he’d gone off the deep end. Thinking about sharing companionable silence with a seagull? He was becoming more eccentric than his boss. Ugh, his boss. That was another situation Luke needed to figure out. He’d royally screwed up tonight. Julia had waved goodbye to him, and he might as well wave goodbye to that bonus.
How the hell was he supposed to demonstrate he’d successfully proven the fantasy of a romantic comedy can feel real when he couldn’t even convince himself?
The thing was, it had felt real. In the middle of this charade, where everyone was pretending, Luke had believed he’d found someone, had even started to think he had a chance at a happily ever after. And that might be the most painfully ironic thing about this entire messed up situation.
Luke shook his head and set the popcorn bag aside. He leaned back, palms pressing into the cool sand as he watched the horizon blur, the sky over the lake turning ever darker. He thought about Julia, about the walk they’d taken on this beach.
At the time, they’d both been hiding things, but what they shared that day had been honest. They’d opened up to each other, revealed parts of themselves. And there was no denying there was something special between them. He knew that much was true.
But he also knew she’d lied to him. Right to his face. Luke understood why Julia didn’t tell him who she was at first. Hell, he’d been doing much the same. And they’d both had their reasons. What he couldn’t understand was why she’d kept up the deception.
A flurry of movement startled him, and his hands slipped. His back smacked into the ground. “Clyde.” Luke gritted his teeth. While he’d been distracted, the asshole had swooped in and snatched the popcorn bag.
“I was sharing that with you,” Luke called after the bird, who was scampering up a grassy hill, contraband clamped in his beak. “I thought we had a truce!”
Clyde’s abrupt abandonment hurt more than Luke cared to admit. He stood up, brushing sand from his palms, and hurried after the kleptomaniac seagull. “You have a problem, Clyde. You know that? I swear, you’ll steal anything that isn’t nailed down.”
Luke topped the hill and realized it was the same spot he and Julia had ended up the other afternoon, when the little thief had taken off with her bathing suit top. Clyde was dragging his loot to the rocky outcrop where his nest was hidden. The gull released the bag and flew to the nest where the other gull—Bonnie, Luke assumed—sat perched.
It was like watching a tag team in action. As soon as Clyde had settled himself in the nest, Bonnie made the short flight to the popcorn bag. Luke chuckled. “You sly devil. She really is your partner in crime.”
Careful not to startle the bird, Luke reached out and turned the bag over, dumping out the remaining popcorn. Then he crept closer to the nest, a hunch forming. At Luke’s approach, Clyde stood, wings spreading in warning. “Easy buddy. Easy,” he said soothingly.
Glancing down at the nest, his suspicions were confirmed. Secured within the cozy hodgepodge of beach debris were three speckled seagull eggs. “Congratulations,” he said, lifting his hand in a mock toast and backing away slowly. After a moment, the bird relaxed, resettling himself over his brood.
Luke realized that Clyde had brought the popcorn back to the nest for Bonnie and had taken over egg-sitting duties while his partner enjoyed her snack. “I owe you an apology.” Staying a safe distance from the nest, Luke eased down. “You are quite the gentleman,” he commended Clyde. “At least somebody around here gets to have a happy ending.”
The bird let out a low squawk.
“That sounded awfully judgy, Clyde.” Luke stared at the gull, whose beady black eyes stared right back. “But you make a good point. I should have been more of a gentleman myself. Not just with Julia, but with my sister, too.”
Another squawk.
“You’re right. I do owe them both an apology.” He sighed. “I need to fix things with Penelope first; maybe she can help me figure out what to do about Julia.” If anyone asked Luke why he was talking to a bird, he’d probably deny it. But it felt good to work through things with someone … even if that someone happened to be a seagull.
Bonnie finished off the last of the popcorn and ambled casually past Luke on her way back to the nest. As his partner settled in beside him, Clyde flapped his wings and squawked dismissively.
“Rude!” Luke declared. “I got the hint. I’m going.” He stood, the ostentatious fabric unfurling around him. A noise that sounded disturbingly like a bird laughing drifted from the nest. He whirled around, cape flying. “This isn’t even mine, I’ll have you know.”
Feeling completely absurd and strangely comforted at the same time, Luke bade Clyde and Bonnie and their growing little family good night. He smiled to himself. The sweet picture they made, cuddled up in the nest together, fortified his resolve to make things right in his own life.