Page 62 of Blue Hawaiian
Chapter 23
Jess shuddered at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Even with her newly acquired tan, the bags under her eyes stood out.
Serves you right for getting five hours of sleep last night. What were you thinking?
Since last night’s bachelorette party had ended at two, she’d gone to bed at a semi-decent hour. But she’d waited for Connor to come back from his party. Then they stayed up for another two hours, indulging their naughtiest fantasies. Exhausting, to be sure. But totally worth it.
Though she desperately needed a shower, she planned to wait until Connor returned from picking up coffee. He’d promised her another round of shower sex, and she didnotwant to miss out. Especially since the resort appeared to have an unlimited supply of hot water.
After that, they both had the day free until the rehearsal at 4:00 p.m. Bliss.
When a knock sounded at the door, she was tempted to greet Connor naked, but she restrained herself, in case anyone else was out in the hallway. She grabbed one of the leopard-print robes and put it on. But when she opened the door, she came face-to-face with her mom.
“Mama. Hi! What…what are you doing here?”
“Do you have a minute?”
Jess stole a quick glance down the hall. No sign of Connor. She hoped she could deal with her mom before he got back. “Come in. Is everything okay?”
“I wanted to see if you needed any more pictures.” Her mom pulled a zip drive out of her purse. “If not, I loaded a bunch onto this drive before I left home. There are more in the cloud, but these are my favorites.”
Pictures?Jess stared at her in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
Her mom strode over to the desk, where Jess had left her laptop open. She’d brought it with her, thinking she’d use her downtime to work on her novel. So far, all she’d done was look up places on Gabi’s list of recommendations.
“Is the video on your laptop?” her mom asked.
“What video?”
“The video for the rehearsal dinner.” Her mom frowned again, deeper this time. “Carly told me about it before she left for Nepal. Haven’t you been working on it?”
In all of Jess’s conversations with Gabi, both in person and via text, her sister hadnevermentioned a video. Other than the videographer she’d hired to film the wedding ceremony. But that didn’t involve Jess.
She grabbed the wedding binder from her tote bag and flipped through it until she came to the section entitled “MOH Duties.” She’d reviewed it when Carly had first handed off the binder, but she didn’t remember anything about a video. Maybe Carly had forgotten to make note of it.
No. There, taped to the second-to-last page of the binder, was a handwritten note.
Jess,
This isn’t in the list of duties, but don’t forget to put together a video for the rehearsal dinner. One of those photo-montage things, with pictures of Gabi and Marc and their favorite songs playing in the background. Gabi never asked me to do it, but I know she’d love it! You’ll need to pick out 5 or 6 songs, then edit them down to smaller snippets. Give yourself lots of time to pick out the photos, because you’ll need around 120 for a 6-minute video.
Carly
Jess stared at the page,speechless. She’d watched similar videos at various weddings, family parties, and graduations. Of course Gabi would adore having a video tribute, complete with meaningful music. Why hadn’t Jess thought of it earlier?
And how was it possible she’d screwed up again? Yesterday, she’d been on her A game. She visited eight different stores to find shells for Gabi. She enthusiastically praised the cacao farm tour, even when Darren and Melanie deemed it boring. And she only imbibed two cocktails during the bachelorette party.
But today? She was back at square one.
“You haven’t started it, have you?” Her mom’s voice was like ice.
“I’m sorry.” Shame twisted her stomach into knots. She’d considered reviewing the binder again to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, but she’d been too preoccupied with Connor.
Her mom let out a huffy breath. “You should have asked me to help. I would have been happy to pick out all the photos myself.”
But I messed up. Big-time.
Jess booted up her laptop. No way was she letting her sister down. “I can do this. The rehearsal’s at four, so I have until then to get it done.” She turned to her mom. “Your zip drive has pictures, right?”
