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“I am happy for you,” I objected, placing my hands on my hips as I stood next to Rhys. “I can’t believe after all we’ve been through, you’d even think that, Sadie.”
“Don’t make this about you,” Sadie snapped. “You just couldn’t let me be the happy one.”
“Sadie?” I heard our mom’s voice in the hall and Sadie quickly turned to her, creating her own vivid tale about the two seconds she saw of Rhys and me together. “Mia! How could you do this to your sister? It’s her wedding night!”
Sadie squinted like she was trying to kill me through her fake eyelashes while she spoke to Rhys. “Enjoy your time with her tonight, Rhys, because she couldn’t make a man happy and keep him if God paid her to.”
Falling into our mom’s arms, Sadie erupted into a fit of crying, and mom shook her head at me while pulling Sadie away from the doorway.
“They’re horrible,” Rhys uttered, reaching for my hand as we stood together. I hated how I flinched, but I pulled away and crossed my arms, shaking my head in disagreement with him.
“She’s right.” Fighting tears, I stared at the ceiling and counted the number of wooden beams that spread across it. Rhys’s fingers gently pinched my jaw, pulling my gaze back to glowering stare.
“We’re not done,” he warned me before storming out of the room and leaving me to cry tears of humiliation. I could hear his voice above the music and celebration, the hum now an intimidating roar that caught my attention. Wiping away my tears, I tried not to focus on Sadie’s insult as I held my ear to the door.
“You don’t know her,” Sadie grumbled between coughs.
“I know her better than either of you,” Rhys scoffed. “And I know you better than your own mum, Deedee, and to accuse your sister of doing anything wrong here is absolutely ridiculous. How does her not being married have anything to do with what you think you just saw? Do you want to tell your mum about all the things you and your husband did with other people while you were together?”
“Stop doing this to me,” Sadie protested. I rolled my eyes so hard, I almost fainted. Placing my hand on the doorknob, I turned it to stop their fight when Rhys’s accusation left me frozen.
“Are you even sure that baby is Matthew’s?”
“Sadie!” I heard mom shriek and gasp for air. I imagined she’d taken to her knees and was praying for the disaster of that moment to end, but I knew she’d still side with Sadie. “Nobody knows my daughters better than me, Rhys.”
Rhys’s deep laughter filled the hallway, almost as though he found mom’s inaccuracy as absurd as me. “Forgive me, Mrs. Valentino, but you’re wrong. One daughter lives with an ocean between you and you’ve no clue what she’s done with her life in the last month, let alone the last year. Your other daughter lives with a bridge between you and you do nothing but treat her callously, like she’s a burden for you. Let me take her off your hands,” he scolded, “because I can assure you I won’t arrange pathetic blind dates for my vanity, or hold her accountable for her sibling’s errors, and I sure as hell will treat her with the respect you’ve neglected since I met her.”
The door flew open in my face, causing me to stumble backward while I continued to find my balance in that suffocating room. Rhys slammed it behind him and rushed toward me, his brows furrowed and eyes wild.
“I didn’t need you to do that,” I mumbled, unable to look at him.
“I needed to do it, Mia. It’s you and me here.” Rhys took my face in his palms, lifting my stare to meet his. “We have a plane to catch.” His thumb tugged on my bottom lip, getting my attention once more. “How about we start that weekend in bed tonight? Once we get to Italy.”
Lifting on my tiptoes, I reached for him, cupping his jaw as I bit his bottom lip after a kiss. “Right now,” I demanded.
He complied, running out of the reception with me and losing his tie on the way to a taxi. His safety pin held the torn lace through all of it, even the rush to get it off again inside my hotel room, where I stuffed everything I could into my suitcase before meeting Rhys in the lobby.
I watched him from behind when the elevator doors opened, giving me an extra second to catch my breath before leaving the past behind.
“I’m ready,” I announced, receiving his wide smile in return. Rhys took our luggage, and I followed him to the taxi waiting for us outside the hotel.
“Heathrow,” he directed the driver, who tossed our suitcases into the trunk.
The man nodded and started the engine as we climbed into the back. I didn’t know what time it was, but I really didn’t care. Everything seemed to wait for us as I curled against Rhys in the backseat.
We spent the three-hour plane ride laughing and talking about whatever we could without addressing the wedding or what happened before getting to Heathrow. It wasn’t avoidance, but maybe not wanting to rush such an important conversation until there was space to talk about it.
It was almost midnight by the time we got settled in our hotel outside of Florence. The plan, which I trusted Rhys to concoct, was to stay there one night and drive to the coast the following afternoon so we could catch a ferry to Portoferraio.
The air was stagnant and warm, nothing like early spring in New York or the weekend in London. Its difference from where we’d come was refreshing and helped me switch my mindset from back there to right now.
“It’ll do for the night.” Rhys shrugged while opening the door to our hotel room. “I promise being in Portoferraio will make you forget about our families, if only for a few days.”
Offering him a smile, I walked onto the balcony. A new day on the horizon and the city was still alive below us. Tugging my sweatshirt off and dropping it on the chair behind me, I stretched my arms before spreading my hands along the balcony railing.
“We don’t need to leave Florence,” I suggested when Rhys joined me. He placed two glasses on the wide railing and chuckled while pouring some water into each. The thirsty air hanging heavily around us immediately absorbed any drops that splashed over the rim.
“You’ll be saying the same thing about Portoferraio tomorrow, Mia,” Rhys promised, handing me a glass.
