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“How?”
Realizing she didn’t have a good answer, Ellie pushed out a breath. “Okay, maybe it’s not different, but I could never date someone who would willingly defend the man who hurt you, Lexi.”
Alexis sighed. “That’s his job, Elle. It doesn’t mean he agrees with his client’s actions.” She paused and looked toward her husband, who was deep in conversation with Zak and Donovan on the other side of the dance floor. “Besides, he defended Shane, too. And, if local rumor is to be believed, Donovan.”
Ellie opened her mouth to retort but closed it again because she didn’t have a counterpoint. Shane had once lived off the grid on the mountain, and because he looked the way he did, he’d been branded a criminal, wrongly accused of crimes he didn’t commit. Cal had fought for him, proved his innocence, and got him released. She didn’t know all the details of Donovan’s story since that happened before she arrived in town, but she imagined it was similar.
Cal was a good man.
But then he’d gone and defended the man who actually committed the crimes that Shane had been accused of. The man who sliced open Alexis’s throat and left her for dead.
She just couldn’t forgive him for it, even if Alexis could.
She glanced toward Cal again, watching as he laughed at something Sawyer said while he bent down to slip Zelda a treat from the charcuterie board. There was an ease about him that made people trust him, a warmth that reached out and embraced those around him. Yet underneath all that charm lay a tenacity that was formidable.
Was it any wonder he was the one to finally find Hope?
“…want you to fall in love,” Alexis was saying, and Ellie snapped back to the conversation.
“You’re just saying that because you have little cartoon hearts circling your head.” She took her sister’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “And I will find love. Someday. But not with Callum Holden.”
“God, you’re stubborn.”
“Learned from the best.”
“Mom?”
That made them both laugh because, yes, all three sisters had received an oversized dose of the stubborn gene from Amy Summers.
“Okay, c’mon,” Alexis said after a moment and tugged her toward the winery. “We need to find the bathroom so you can help me fix my makeup. It’s all streaky from crying during the ceremony.”
Her makeup was perfect, but Ellie didn’t say so and followed her sister inside.
chapter
five
“I can’t believe you’re married.”
Seated at the vanity in the winery’s restroom, Alexis sparkled. There was no other word for it. “I know. It’s crazy, right? I swore marriage wasn’t for me, and now…” She finished touching up her mascara and sighed. “I’m so happy, Elle.”
Ellie wrapped her arms around her shoulders and gave her a light squeeze. “You deserve it, sis. It was perfect. Like a fairytale.”
Whatever reservations Ellie once had about Shane Trevisano were long gone. She couldn’t have asked for a better man for Alexis. Her heart ached with happiness for her sister. And maybe her heart also ached with deep yearning, but she wasn’t about to explore that because it would inevitably lead her back to Callum Holden, and she did not want to think about him anymore tonight. “But I have to say I’m surprised you talked Shane into a traditional wedding.”
“I didn’t! It was what he wanted—the pomp and circumstance and me walking down the aisle in a gown to him in his dress whites. I was afraid it would be too much for him and would’ve been perfectly happy just going to the courthouse and calling it done.” Alexis’s smile dimmed a fraction. “I wish Hope could’ve been here. She would’ve loved the ceremony of it all.”
Hope.
She seemed to be on everyone’s minds lately.
Ellie considered mentioning the girl, but Cal was right. This wasn’t the time or place for it. Not on Lexi’s wedding day. It could wait until she got back from her honeymoon.
“I wish I could remember more about her.” Ellie had only been six when Hope disappeared, but she recalled the way Hope’s laughter used to ring through the house. She also remembered the intense shouting matches between Hope and their mother.
Alexis turned away from the mirror. “She loved you. Loved us both so much. I don’t remember much about her anymore, but I know that for a fact.”
“Did Mom ever tell you—” She broke off as the door opened and, as if on cue, their mother came into the room.
