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I didn’t know what to say. The tender was pulling up alongside the yacht, and a crew member was operating the electric ramp for me to descend.
Weirdly, the ocean water between us and the tender didn’t seem frightening anymore. Like I’d already survived the worst danger the ocean presented. Who would have thought the greatest danger to me was the man who’d fished me out of it?
I was almost certain there was no one who could keep me from drowning in my pain.
“He gave me this for you.” Lorelei handed me an envelope, then wrapped me in a hug. “Don’t give up on him.”
“Um, I hate to say this, but he’s the one—” I managed to squeak, before Sylvia was hugging me again.
“I’ll text you every day, and we can video chat. We can cook together,” she half-shouted. “And work on our crafting projects and… and…” Lorelei bundled her into her arms, gently escorting her away.
Anne-Marie helped me step onto the tender, and one of the crew carried my luggage on and helped me into a seat. “Have you thought about my offer?” she murmured, as the engine of the smaller boat revved. “Can I be your fairy godmother investor?”
“If I have a pumpkin and any mice left when my parents get done with me, I’d love that.” She pressed a kiss to my cool cheek, then stepped away.
The tender moved away from the yacht quickly. I swiveled in my seat until my neck hurt, looking for him. I saw a few of my friends waving from the second level, kids jumping up and down, but no one else. I knew the yacht was huge, but it seemed to grow smaller so quickly, diminishing the way a dream does when you start to wake up.
Slipping from my grasp.
Had it ever really happened? Had I fallen in love with a tall, dark, handsome stranger? The only things that made it seem real were the sickeningly empty hole in my chest where my heart had been… and the solitary figure on the topmost observation deck, who stood and watched me leave him.
I cried all the way to shore. The crewmembers very politely ignored me, except to press a small packet of tissues into one hand. I almost smiled at the gold lettering on the edge of each tissue, with a tiny, embossed yacht.
“Soleil!” My mom and dad had me in their arms the instant my mismatched sandals hit the pier.
Dad kissed my forehead and turned away, but not before I saw tears streaking down his cheeks. “Okay, okay,” he said. “I’ll go get the car. We’re taking you straight to the hospital.”
“The hospital?” I asked, before I remembered Dr. Rimbolt’s instructions to get a thorough exam.
Mom made a strange hissing noise. “Thatmanwas going to have an ambulance waiting for you. Insisted on it, until we reminded him that what he did was essentially kidnapping, and we would call in the FBI if we needed to. He terrified us, said you almost died. If his darling sister Lorelei hadn’t called, we would have both had heart attacks.”
“Lorelei called you?” I asked, then really took in my mom’s state. She was always put together, her clothing and hair neat, her makeup polished. But now she looked like she’d been on a battlefield somewhere. Her hair was tossed up in a messy bun, her face bare, and her clothing a wreck. The buttons on her blouse were off by one, there was a strange-looking stain that smelled a bit like coffee, and… I clapped a hand over my mouth. She had on two different shoes, one navy and one black pump.
“Yes. She did call, to tell us all about her daughter and all you did for them. And promised to watch you until you were back in our arms. If she hadn’t… I think your dad was going to phone in some sort of mercenary person to go and bring you back.”
“Dad knows a merc?”
She waved a hand in the air, like she was shooing a fly. “He was asking around at the country club. But that’s not important.” She drew a shaky breath, then took both of my hands in a tight but trembling grip. “Why did you go? Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Mom, oh god, I’m so sorry,” I said into her hair as she pulled me in for another bone-crushing hug. “I just… I couldn’t stay and marry Tarquin. And I knew I would. You were so excited, and Dad was already inviting him to tennis, and he smells like gym socks and runny cheese, and I just couldn’t.”
She laughed as we rocked back and forth. “Why didn’t you say something before? We thought you liked Tarquin.”
“I did. I do. He’s a dear friend. But I only said yes because…” I glanced back at the boat. The tender had reached it, and more passengers were loading up. There was no figure on the observation deck now. “Because I didn’t think there would be anyone better.”
“What do you mean by that—” she began, but then Dad was there, escorting us to the waiting car. He and Mom began to bicker about the best way to get to the hospital during the lunch rush.
At the hospital, there was a nurse waiting at the door with a wheelchair, which we all thought was strange. Then she wheeled me right past the Admissions desk and up to a private floor where there were no other patients at all, and it got even stranger.
“What is this?” Mom asked, touching a gorgeous etched glass sculpture inside the examination room. There was a matching chandelier overhead, and the regular exam table was flanked by three gorgeous forest-green leather chairs that complemented the lighter green and cream walls. Dad was in a separate waiting room, drinking some sort of herbal tea that an honest-to-goodness concierge had made for him.
We’d been to this hospital before, but it sure hadn’t been like this.
The nurse had taken my vitals, drawn blood, then had me give a urine sample in the bathroom next door for some reason. She apologized for the doctor running late, and left us here.
“I’ve never seen a hospital room like this,” Mom said, opening a mini-fridge that had chilled bottles of water, organic orange juice, and tiny Dom Perignon champagne bottles. “Did your billionaire set this up for you? Are we expected to make mimosas while we wait?”
“He’s not my billionaire, Mom. But I guess you can if you want? I saved his niece; maybe this is his way of saying thank you.” My throat started to close up just thinking of Giovanni, so I hopped off the examination table and grabbed a pamphlet, thumbing through it to hide the impending tears.
