Chapter Seven

The first thing Jocelyn heard when the elevator doors opened to the Ritz lobby was the ring of Zoe’s laughter echoing through the cavern of marble and glass. The sound made her realize how much fun she’d missed the night before. Still, no amount of fun was worth the risk of seeing… someone she did not want to see. She’d stay here for Lacey as long as she could, but nothing could make her venture south on Mimosa Key.

Which is why she loved that Zoe, Tessa, and Ashley had sweetly agreed to come to the Ritz for lunch today while Lacey met with her architect. Of course, without Lacey to run interference, they might press her a little about coming over to the island, but she could always manufacture a client crisis. Considering she’d just spent the last half hour on the phone with a weeping Coco Kirkman, there wouldn’t be too much manufacturing involved.

The three of them stood outside a high-end boutique, Zoe’s arm draped over Ashley’s shoulder, their heads close as they discussed the bathing-suited mannequin in the window. As she approached, Tessa turned and brightened at the sight of Jocelyn.

“I never thought I’d utter these words to you, Jocelyn Bloom: You’re late.”

“Client crisis.”

“We were forced to window-shop at the overpriced hotel stores.” Zoe tugged Ashley closer. “And decided you might have to buy us all one of those adorable bikinis in different colors.”

Jocelyn hugged them all, an extra squeeze for Ashley. “I just might do that after lunch. Ashley, you’re a doll to give up your day and hang out with us.”

“It’s cool,” Ashley said, her eyes dancing with youthful happiness. Had Jocelyn’s eyes ever danced at that age, she wondered idly. No. Not once. Not ever. Which was why she had to stand her ground and stay off the south end of Mimosa Key.

“I’m really having fun,” Ashley added.

“Mom’s ignoring our texts while she makes out with the smokin’-hot architect boy,” Zoe added. “So we can do whatever we want, including buy skimpy bikinis. Right, Ash?”

The light in Ashley’s eyes dimmed. “She’s not making out with him.”

“A figure of speech,” Zoe assured her, leaning behind Ashley to share a secret look with Jocelyn. “She almost did last night,” she mouthed.

As they crossed the lobby to the terrace restaurant, Ashley fell a few steps behind, reading her phone.

“C’mon, Ash,” Jocelyn prodded, waiting for her.

Ashley quickly covered her phone.

“I’m not going to read your texts,” Jocelyn teased.

“I know, but it’s private.”

“A boy?” Jocelyn asked in a whisper.

Color burst on her cheeks. “No.”

Her tone was indignant enough for Jocelyn to let it ride. They followed a maitre d’ to a window table with a perfect view of the pool and beach. As soon as they were settled in with iced tea and sodas, Tessa gestured toward the vista.

“I could get used to this,” she said. “It beats planting organic gardens in Sri Lanka.”

“You love planting,” Jocelyn said.

“Not in Sri Lanka.”

Out of the corner of her eye Jocelyn noticed Ashley pulling out her phone, but she kept her focus on Tessa. “I thought you loved globe-trotting.”

Tessa lifted a shoulder. “My ex-husband loved it more than I did.”

Next to Zoe, Ashley flicked her finger across the screen and Tessa reached over and put her hand on the phone. “Hey, no texting at the table,” she chided.

“I’m not texting,” Ashley shot back.

“Then no e-mail at the table.”

Ashley rolled her eyes. “E-mail is so last century, Aunt Tessa.”

“Then no doing whatever the heck you’re doing. It’s rude.”

“Facebooking. Sorry.”

Just the thought of what would have happened to her if she’d used that tone at the table put an ache in Jocelyn’s stomach. “Let her go, Tess. It’s no big deal.”

“But she’s right, Ash,” Zoe chimed in. “Cell phones are not cool at the table. Especially in zee Ritz-Carlton, dahling.”

Instead of joining the joke Ashley narrowed her eyes at Zoe. “I’m not your daughter.”

Whoa. Something inside Jocelyn twisted. Instantly, she put a gentle hand on Ashley’s arm. “But you’re our goddaughter, honey, and we don’t see you that often. So what do you think of your mom’s idea for a B and B?”

Ashley shrugged, obviously unhappy about putting down the phone. “’It’s cool if she really does it. She’s been talking about it forever.”

“This time is different,” Tessa said. “I think she can really make it happen.”

Ashley’s phone vibrated and she sneaked a peek, then let out a soft cry. “Oh, he wrote back.”

He. Tessa started to say something, but Jocelyn shook her head quickly, sensing that they had to let go of this one.

“So, have you ever stayed at this hotel, Ashley?” she asked. “Maybe you could spend a night here at the hotel with me sometime. Maybe you all could.”

That earned her a big, bright smile. “That’d be cool.”

“Perfect timing, too,” Zoe said. “We could give Lacey a night alone to play with Clay.” She grinned. “He’ll be putty in her hands. Hah! I’m so punny.”

Ashley’s tell-all expression shifted right back to the other side of the pendulum. “That’s just gross, Aunt Zoe. The guy’s not much older than me.”

“Oh, yes he is,” Tessa corrected. “I’m guessing thirty, which makes him perfectly acceptable as a builder, architect, contractor, and anything else your mother wants.”

Ashley squished up her face. “She doesn’t date.”

“So you’ve said.” Zoe pulled her straw out of her iced tea and tapped it, then used it to point at Ashley. “And that might be half her problem.”

“She doesn’t have a problem.” Ashley sneaked a peek at the phone.

“You have an issue with her dating, Ash?” Tessa asked.

“No, no, of course not.”

“You don’t sound too convincing,” Zoe prodded. “She’s gone out with a few guys. Did you not like any of them?”

She shrugged. “Nobody was right for her.”

“Maybe she ought to be the one to decide that,” Jocelyn suggested.

“Well, what if my dad wanted to get back with her?”

The question silenced all of them. Jocelyn knew that Lacey did her best not to paint a negative picture of the absentee father, and it sure wasn’t her place, or any of their places, to hit Ashley with the truth. Her dad was a thrill-seeking, adrenaline-junkie, trust-funded, part-time cook. He wasn’t ever getting “back” with Lacey.

But Jocelyn took a deep breath and went for a technique that worked with some of the more stubborn clients who hired her as a life coach. “Ashley, do you really think that’s possible?”

“Of course I do. They don’t… hate each other. They’re not divorced; they never even got married.” Her voice rose, along with a little color on her cheeks. “Things happen like that, you know.”

“In books and movies,” Tessa said. “Not so much in real life.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Jocelyn agreed, sensing that Ashley was harboring some serious delusions. “There’s a lot of water under that bridge.”

“And then he burned that bridge,” Tessa added.

“After he bungee jumped off it.” Zoe grinned at their surprised faces. “You know I’m right.”

But every ray of light disappeared from Ashley’s face as teenage frustration pulled at her brows. “None of you know what you’re talking about.”

“Actually,” Jocelyn replied, keeping her voice calm. “We do know what we’re talking about, Ashley. But you know what? That’s not what’s important. What matters is that your mom is happy, right?”

“Well, some creepy guy with a tattoo isn’t going to make her happy.”

“You told me you thought he was cute,” Zoe said.

“And your mom thinks he might be the right architect for her project,” Tessa added. “You do know how important this dream is to her, Ashley, don’t you?”

“She ought to be building a house,” Ashley muttered.

“Excuse me?” Tessa leaned closer.

“I said she ought to be building a place for us to live, not for people to come and have us wait on them.”

Is that how she viewed her mother’s plans? “Honey, you’re not going to wait on them, and I’m sure you’ll have a place to live.”

“Really? In a bedroom in some inn where strangers are walking around in their bathrobes?” Her voice hitched a little. “Isn’t it bad enough I’ve lived in a dump up in Barefoot Bay for all these years while my friends are, like, normal? And now…” She shook her head, fighting to control her emotions.

“I hate to break the news to you,” Jocelyn said. “But some of those so-called normal people aren’t nearly as happy as you are. They don’t all have moms who dote on them.”

“But they have dads.”

“Oh, honey, sometimes no father is better than—” The words trapped in her throat and she felt all eyes boring through her. Jesus. Now what? “Than a father who—”

Ashley’s phone rang with a rap tune. “I have a text.”

Thank God.

“It’s Mom.” She tapped the phone, letting her hair fall over her face to cover her expression.

They all looked at each other, this time with well-deserved guilt. They’d ganged up on her. While Ashley read, the salads were served, giving the three women a chance to exchange a silent agreement to lay off and give Ashley space.

“So, what did she say?” Zoe asked when the waiter left.

“She said we can meet her at the beach later, in a few hours when she’s done with her meeting,” Ashley said.

Jocelyn stabbed a cherry tomato. “Can’t. Sorry.”

“She just wants us to bring a cooler and suits and stuff to Barefoot Bay,” Ashley said. “She thought you’d be okay with that, Aunt Jocelyn.”

Was she? If she didn’t have to go too far south, she’d love a day at the beach. “I guess I could do that.”

“We just have to go back to Lacey’s and get suits and stuff,” Tessa said.

“Hey, I have a better idea.” The words were out before Jocelyn could stop herself, and even before she really did have a better idea. But she needed one, fast, because there was no way she was driving to Lacey’s parents’ house. It was too close for comfort.

“Yeah?”

“We…” She snapped her fingers and pointed to Zoe, who’d be all over this idea. “We shop for everything we need, including new bathing suits, even one for Lacey, right here at the hotel. My treat.”

Ashley and Zoe gave each other high fives and whoops, the tension of the last few minutes forgotten. Money might not be able to buy happiness, but sometimes it bought distance.

An hour and a half later they left the Ritz dressed in new suits and cover-ups. The girls had driven up in Lacey’s father’s van, which they’d parked in the lot, but while they waited for the valet to bring the rented Rubicon for Jocelyn to drive, the discussion was all about the logistics of who was going in which car.

“I want to go in that car,” Zoe joked to Jocelyn, pointing to a gorgeous red Porsche that pulled up to the hotel. As a man climbed out of the driver’s seat, though, Zoe’s expression froze.

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

“What is it?” Jocelyn asked.

Zoe didn’t speak. In fact, she didn’t breathe.

“Someone you know?”

“It can’t be him.”

Jocelyn squinted at the man as he gave his hand to a beautiful brunette gliding out of the car with preternatural grace and poise. “It can’t be who?”

“He’s a doctor. In Chicago.”

“There’s an oncology conference here this week,” Jocelyn said, eyeing the man, who was as good looking as his woman and his car. He looked to be six-two or -three, with clipped dark hair, great features, and an even better build. “Is whoever he is an oncologist?”

“Maybe.” Zoe suddenly looked left and right. “But I don’t want to see him. I don’t want to talk to him.”

“Why?” Tessa asked, stepping closer to Zoe when she sensed something was up. “How do you know him?”

Jocelyn stepped right in front of Zoe to block her from his view, the instinct to help her friend overriding any questions. Just at that moment the valet drove the giant white Jeep Rubicon up to where they waited.

“Get in,” Jocelyn ordered Zoe, ending the discussion.

Muttering thanks, Zoe climbed up to the passenger seat the second the valet opened her door. The man and woman walked right in front of the Jeep as another man approached them.

“Oliver!” the second man exclaimed, reaching out a hand to the man Zoe was avoiding. “So happy you could make it.”

Jocelyn slowed her step to hear his response.

“Happy to be here, Michael. You remember my wife, Adele.”

“Of course.”

Jocelyn missed the rest of the conversation when the valet ushered her into the Jeep.

In the passenger seat, Zoe bent over as though she were getting something off the floor, hiding completely. In all their years of friendship Jocelyn had never seen Zoe shy away from anyone.

Jocelyn pulled away, waving to Tessa as she and Ashley got into the van behind them. “Coast is clear, hon.”

Zoe rose and took one more look as the man walked toward the hotel.

Jocelyn waited, but Zoe was uncharacteristically quiet. No jokes, no snide remarks.

“You okay, Zoe?” Jocelyn asked, putting a gentle hand on her friend’s leg. “Who was he?”

“Don’t ask.”

“But I never—”

Zoe turned to her, her green eyes narrowed to slits, all humor and joy and Zoe-ness gone. “We’re not asking you about certain things, so… please. Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

She couldn’t argue with that philosophy, Jocelyn thought as she drove toward Mimosa Key. But she had to wonder: How many secrets should there be between best friends?