Page 86 of Mercy (The Sins Trilogy 3)
Julie shows up just when our food arrives. “Perfect timing,” I say, giving her a hug.
“I try.” She hugs me back. “I’m starving. Mom didn’t feed me.”
“Didn’t you say you were eating with your parents. Doesn’t she love you?”
“Yes, and she does, but she decided to make these no-wheat, gluten-free pancakes, and they tasted like cardboard frisbees. Ugh.”
“I didn’t know she was into that,” I say. Julie and Byron are such foodies that I assumed they got it from their parents.
“She wasn’t, but then a friend said that it’ll help her lose those last ten pounds. I told her of course it’ll help! They taste like crap, so who can eat more than a bite or two? It’s like being forced on a calorie-restricted diet!”
Her stomach growls, and she hurriedly lays out the cartons on the table. Yuna brings plates and utensils, and Bobbi grabs a pitcher of pink lemonade from the fridge. Tony and I put down ice-filled glasses for everyone.
There’s a ton of food—enough to feed at least eight people. We divvy it up quickly, led by Julie. She opts for a fork over chopsticks because she’s not that good with them. Yuna, of course, uses hers with native ease and elegance. She dumps orange chicken, noodles and beef and broccoli and onto her plate, before passing the boxes off to Tony, who serves me first, then himself. Bobbi grabs the rest.
“So when is the wedding?” Julie asks.
“Within six weeks if we can find a good venue,” I say. “Someplace pretty and elegant.”
“Summer’s good,” Yuna says. “But just pretty and elegant? Go for something that makes a statement. And is really hard for people to get to. A private island or something. A super-exotic destination wedding. I saw a wedding special on TV once, and it looked awesome. And romantic. How many people get married on a private island, anyway?”
“How do you manage that in six weeks?” Julie asks, then dumps more pad Thai on her plate. “I’m going to be out of town for a couple of weeks for a trip to Milan, so I won’t be able to help much.” She purses her lips.
“Oh,” I say, surprised. Although I don’t know why I should be. Julie travels all the time. That’s how we met, after all, and how we spent so much time together when Sam made me roam around in Europe and Asia.
“It’s this music event I committed to two months ago. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have.”
“Don’t worry; I’ll be here. Plus, you can manage anything if you have connections and money. And Tony has plenty.” Yuna turns to him. “Don’t you?”
He looks at me. “Is that what you want?”
It isn’t something that crossed my mind, but I’m not against it. “I’m open to more or less anything, but can we get a private island this quickly?”
“Yes,” Yuna says.
At the same time, Julie says, “That’s the biggest problem.”
“Everything can be resolved if you have the will,” Yuna says, then chews on a piece of beef.
“Security may be easier if you stay in SoCal,” Bobbi says.
I bite my lower lip with frustration. The specter of the killer hangs over me. I pray we catch him before the ceremony, but there’s a very real possibility that we won’t.
“Or totally easy in a new location, if you don’t advertise where you’re going,” Yuna says. “What’s wrong with a private island?”
“Like Julie said, hard to come by. And probably won’t have places to host all the guests, banquet or anything afterward. A wedding at a resort works, but again—too many people in and out, hard to check everyone.”
“So? Rent the entire resort. Problem solved.”
I nearly choke on my noodles. I swear it’s the same tone Yuna might use to say, “If you’re hungry and don’t have rice, eat meat, duh.” I manage to swallow without coughing. “Don’t you think that would be a little impractical? Besides, what about all the people who have reservations?”
“Put them up somewhere else. It isn’t that hard.”
Her family’s filthy rich and powerful in Korea, so maybe this is how they get what they want. It’s mind-boggling that she thinks it’s an easy thing to solve.
“Let me think about it,” I say, because if I tell her how I really feel, she’s going to argue until I agree to do as she suggests.
We eat, then talk more details. Yuna is convinced that everything can be done on my schedule, but Julie’s a bit more cautious. “It takes time to pull everything together.”
