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“Uh…” Alec glanced at the screen again, then back at the women. “Okay.”
Smiling, Jojo leaned toward Audra, her manner conspiratorial. “He’s got that bitches-be-crazy look on his face.”
Alec frowned. “I’ve never—”
“But what does he know? Maybe it’s part of the Heartbreak Hotel recipe for happiness,” his sister went on. “Bleak TV leading to—”
“Heartbreak Hotel?” Audra asked, her expression bewildered.
“You didn’t know?” Jojo helped herself to a seat on the nearby sofa. “The resort doesn’t publically acknowledge it in their own marketing materials, but it’s known as the place to go to get over romance gone wrong. Maybe it’s the ocean, the meditation classes—”
Audra blinked. “I haven’t left our rooms.”
Jojo threw up her hands. “Well, there you go. Perhaps you have to get out to get the cure. And speaking of getting out…”
His sister was a pro, Alec decided. She could talk her way into anything. Audra was struggling to keep up with the fast chatter and even faster changes of topic and even if she’d been ordered by Lilly to keep Alec at bay, lively and garrulous Jojo would make her forget any such directive.
“Getting out…” Audra repeated.
“Yes.” Jojo beamed. “We were hoping we could persuade Lilly to join us today to—”
“Lilly?”
Shit, something in Audra’s expression made Alec go on alert. “Yes,” he said, not able to help himself. “Lilly—”
“The two of us had so much fun together yesterday,” Jojo said, stepping over him with another warning in her eyes. “I thought she might like to…uh, go on a pub crawl with some of us tonight.”
Audra’s brows drew together. “Oh, I’m sorry, but Lilly can’t—”
A preemptory knock on the door had them all turning in that direction. Audra crossed the floor then turned the knob to reveal a tall man, tight-end sized, whose shoulders nearly filled the space. Fog must have been settling in, because wisps of it curled around him. Alec thought he looked vaguely familiar.
“Con!” Audra called out, moving in to hug the man. “I didn’t expect you until tonight.”
That’s who it was, Alec thought. Con Montgomery, Audra’s brother. They’d met briefly at the rehearsal dinner. Now the other man stepped into the bungalow and dropped a leather duffel to the floor. As his gaze swept the area, his brows rose at the sight of Alec, then it settled on Jojo.
His sister appeared stunned, staring too, then her eyes dropped to her lap. Her shoulders hunched as if she was hoping to hide.
Concerned, Alec started for his sister, but he was interrupted by Audra who introduced her brother to him again. The two men shook hands. Connor shot a second glance at Jojo, who seemed to have wandered to some inner distant land, and when Audra made that introduction as well, Jojo barely acknowledged it with distracted murmur.
Con Montgomery didn’t seem affected by the near-slight, but he didn’t approach Jojo either, standing very still on his side of the room.
Alec didn’t have time to figure out the electric undercurrents, not when Lilly remained out of sight and out of reach. From the ensuing small talk between the newcomer and Audra, he figured the other man had come to stay for the weekend. Good. Lilly could use the help uplifting her best friend. But why wasn’t she emerging from her room to greet the man?
Looking toward Jojo, he tried urging her to retrieve the conversational ball. She’d been talking about a pub crawl, hadn’t she? When she remained lost in her own head, Alec cleared his throat.
Only Audra looked his way.
To hell with it. “I’m here for Lilly,” he said. “I want—”
“That’s right.” Audra nodded. “A pub crawl tonight. But I’m afraid Lilly won’t be able to join you.”
Damn. Audra had indeed been ordered to play defense. “Look—”
“She’s going back to LA,” the blonde said, and there might be sympathy in her expression. “This afternoon.”
Lilly sat in a chair on the other side of the car reservations desk in the resort lobby, her jean-clad right knee jumping. Placing her palm there, she forced it to still and glanced toward the portico, willing her rental to appear.
