Page 49 of Kiss Me at Midnight
But Jud was certain. What he was feeling for Lily was real and could be love.
All he had to do to pursue the feeling was make sure their break-up was temporary.
Chapter Ten
“Marta, I bet the boat was quiet while we were all in Charleston today.” Lily sat in Marta’s stylist chair in the yacht’s salon.
“And yet, the tension remains.” Marta fiddled with Lily’s hair on one side, drawing it away from her face and twisting the locks. She’d agreed to help Lily dress for dinner. “I can feel it in your shoulders. I heard you spent the day with your sisters.”
“That’s not why I’m tense.” It was the approaching scene to be played in front of Rachel and the loss of Jud from her life.
“You’ll feel so much better when you’re all dressed up.” Marta nodded toward the dress they’d agreed she’d wear. It was a scarlet bodycon dress that made Lily feel like a superhero.
The salon door opened, and Rachel entered, pausing to admire the dress. “What a lovely day. We found our wedding bands and spent the rest of the day at the spa getting massages. I feel marvelous.” She looked it, too, in an unwrinkled white sundress.
Lily, on the other hand, looked wilted and windblown, like a woman who worked a regular job for a living and juggled too many things at once.
Rachel came to stand behind Lily, edging Marta away, and then smoothing her long red hair over one shoulder. “How are you feeling, Lily? It’s been a big day for you, too. Did Jud pass your sisters’ muster?”
“He passes my muster.” Lily tried to look confident in Jud’s affection, meeting Rachel’s gaze in the mirror with a cool smile.
“He’s too hot for you, girl.” Rachel laid her hands on Lily’s shoulders. “Haven’t you ever wondered why he started dating you?”
“No.” Lily’s response carried no conviction.
Rachel reached in a pocket of her dress and produced her cell phone. “I have some video of Jud talking to his agent before we left New York. They spoke about you on the dock. Do you want to see the clip?”
“No.” That, too, was a lie. Lily was desperate to know why Jud’s conversation applied to her, why Paulo could use it to keep Jud from exposing Paulo’s bi-lingual abilities to Rachel. But she didn’t want the truth to comefromRachel. And maybe it was time to come clean about that. “Why are you doing this to me? The leaked photograph? The meme of us wearing the same dress? And now this video. Why do you want to hurt me?”
Rachel almost looked at a loss, blinking false eyelashes in apparent confusion. “Are you hurt?”
“Yes. Is that what you want to hear? Your actions hurt me. Your words and attitude hurt Marta and everyone who works on this boat. I’m sure everyone around you has felt your wrath, including your father. Why can’t you realize that no one is out to get you?”
“I see myself completely differently.” Rachel tossed her hair over her shoulder. “I’m trying to help you, but it’s hard considering you make me feel like dirt.”
“What? How?”
“Because you make me feel guilty for trying to save myself from those cages we were in. When I got home, I told Dad we had to find you. He insisted we call the police instead of going back. Guilt trip number one.” Rachel’s eyes glittered. “But the police told him they’d raided the pop-up party without finding a girl.”
“They found me,” Lily insisted, but for whatever reason, Rachel was having none of it.
“Guilt trip number two,” she said. “Hoping you’d found your way home, Dad called your house, but your mother said you were fine and away visiting Kitty.”
“That’s what they told her when I ran away.”
“Guilt trip number three.” Rachel’s eyes teared up. “I thought you’d been dead or kidnapped and sold into slavery.”
There were tears in Lily’s eyes, too. “I’m sorry. They were trying to protect me.”
“I got shipped off to that jail-like boarding school. No phone. No internet.” Rachel swiped at her nose. “You were my friend, Lily. Or at least, I thought you were. When I came home for Christmas and Dad finally let me have my phone, there was nothing from you. No text message. No missed call. No private message on social media. Nothing. And all I could think of was that you blamed me for what happened. For whatever happened.”
“But…” So much had been assumed by both of them. “I thought you couldn’t face me. I had no messages or phone calls either.”
“No.” Rachel swiped her hand through the air. “This isn’t about you. I came home and asked around about you. Everyone said you were fine. Still going out with Vi. You were fine and I wasn’t. Everything worked out for you, but not me. I’m a reality star that everyone hates and you’re this freaking paragon of virtue!” Her broken voice filled the room.
Lily felt the first stirrings of anger, like a chill, unexpected breeze across her arms. “I thought you said I was repressed.”
“This isn’tyournarrative!” Rachel’s voice cracked and she gasped for breath. “I carried this stupid guilt and you were fine. I thought you hated me and it ate me up inside. And then I realized that it wasn’t on me, not all of it. You’re to blame too. You could have told me running away was dangerous and wouldn’t solve anything. You could have told me that dancing in a pop-up club was too great of a risk. You could have–”
