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He snorted. “Uh, thanks?”
“About time you realized my Amelia was perfect for you.”
His eyes found mine. “I guess it was about time.”
I flushed. “Shush,” I said, pushing Marina. “Don’t be embarrassing.”
“Hey, I’ve always been rooting for y’all.”
“That so?” Ash asked when he reached us.
“Duh. I was the one who told her to kiss you at Miss Georgia forever ago.”
Ash glanced over at me. “I did not know that.”
“Oh my God, let’s not do this,” I said, grabbing my suitcase.
Marina winked at Ash. “Let me show you where y’all are staying.”
I hurried inside her house and found Melanie Bishop trotting down the stairs. “Mel!”
“Ahh,” Melanie cried.
She flung herself into my arms. She’d been best friends with Marina since Melanie’s father had retired from the Air Force. Though they were a few years apart, they’d been on the dance team together, all while growing up together. Melanie had recently graduated a year early from UNC-Chapel Hill. She’d been there with her now ex-husband, who ruined everyone’s fun. That guy still made me cringe.
“I screamed when Rina told me you were coming.” Melanie twirled in a circle. “By the way, do you recognize it?”
“Is that my dress?” I asked in surprise.
“Yes! I ordered it online. I wanted to support you.”
“I love it.”
“You know how I’ve always had expensive taste,” she said with a wink. “My sister says it like it’s a bad thing, but how can she even talk?”
I laughed. Melanie’s sister, Natalie, was married to Upper East Side royalty. I’d never crossed paths with her when I was with Camden, but it had shocked me to find out she’d married Penn Kensington. He was the person that Katherine and Harmony had fought over that one Fashion Week. He was hot, so good for her, but it wasn’t a life that I would be able to handle.
“She has no room,” I agreed. “I’ll send you pieces of the summer collection if you want.”
“I would love it. I adore everything you create.”
Ash stepped inside, and I introduced him to Melanie. After we put our stuff in the guest bedroom, we came down to find Marina bouncing around.
“I thought we’d go down to the docks,” she suggested. “You ready to go?”
“Yeah. I was going to see Mom first.”
“She’s already there!” Marina said. “I checked with Dad.”
Uncle Jacob was Mom’s brother and the whole reason she’d moved to Charleston after the divorce. Having the support of her family here kept her sane. Or so she’d told me.
“All right. Let’s go.”
We left Ash’s Range Rover and dropped into Marina’s Jeep. The top was off, the windows rolled down, and the spring air blew through my hair. Ash slipped an arm across my shoulders in the backseat as we headed toward the water. I’d been so hesitant when he asked me out. It was hard not to worry that it would be like it always had been in the past. But as I leaned against his side, I felt for the first time like we were moving in the right direction.
Marina pulled up to the docks. We hopped out of her Jeep and headed toward Hartage Boating. Marina’s family had had the boating business for generations. There were pictures inside of Uncle Jacob’s house that showed him sitting on this dock with Mom at a young age. Alongside fuzzy black-and-white shots of their grandparents out on the dock. They’d been fishing, giving tours, and enjoying the waters for nearly as long as Charleston had been established.
Unfortunately, the family had hit hard times in the last fifteen years, and what had once been a thriving business dwindled further every year. With all the money grabs by larger corporations, it was harder to make a decent living as a small business on the coast.
Uncle Jacob came out of the Hartage Boating building with a wide smile. He was as tan as his boys from days in the sun with sun-kissed brown hair and a trim physique. Aunt Lisa had passed from cancer after Marina went off to college, and still, it felt like a missing limb on the docks. Like she should have been right there at his side and not a ghost on the water.
“There’re my girls,” Uncle Jacob said.
Marina waved him off. “Hi, Daddy.”
But I pushed forward into his arms. “Hey, Uncle Jacob.”
“Good to see you, baby girl.”
“You too. This is my boyfriend, Ash. You remember him?”
“I do remember him. The kid always running behind Derek.”
Ash held his hand out. “That’s me. Nice to see you again, sir.”
“Well, let’s get you inside. You know how to sail, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
I rolled my eyes as Jacob dragged him along.
Marina looped arms with me. “You knew it was coming.”
“Sure did.”
We followed them inside Hartage Boating, which was decorated with my mom’s paintings of the business over the years. Some of them were from when she had been a kid, all the way up to her latest creations. Every single one was beautiful. I always said that I’d gotten my creativity from my mom.
