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Things don’t get much better once we’re out on the water, either. There’s no table on the boat, so we have to balance our plates and glasses on our laps, the motion of the boat making it impossible to keep everything steady. I immediately spill champagne down my dress, Jack refuses to have any because he has to drive back to the site later, and when Rose produces the samples for the appetizers, one of them turns out to be shrimp, which I’m pretty sure Lexie willalsorun screaming from.
“But you said it waslobstershe didn’t like,” says Rose, pouting.
“It’sallcrustaceans,” I reply. “She hates them. She’ll make a scene if someone puts a shrimp in front of her.”
“I don’t see why we need to plan our entire wedding around stopping Lexie making a scene,” says Jack, still looking at his phone. “We don’t even know if she’s coming yet.”
“That reminds me,” puts in Rose. “The guest list. We need to go over that. Also the seating plan. That can be quite tricky.”
“As long as we don’t put Dylan Fraser anywhere near Jack,” I mutter. “Or McTavish near Jimmy.”
Or Mum anywhere near Kathryn.
“Dylan Fraser’s not coming to our wedding?” interrupts Jack. “Why would we invitehim?”
“Well, because he’s Scarlett’s boyfriend? It would be rude not to. We can’t expect her to come on her own.”
“I wasn’t expecting her to come at all,” says Jack, frowning. “You’re not even that close to her. And there’s no way Fraser’s going to be there. That’s a hard no.”
I sit up a little straighter at this, my defensive posture ever so slightly ruined when the boat gives a sudden lurch and sends me pitching forward to the floor.
“I’m fine,” I mutter, refusing the hand Jack offers to help me up. “But Jack, I can’t believe you’re telling me I can’t invite my friends to my own wedding now. Do I get any say in this at all, or do you want to just drop me off back on shore, and you and Rose can sort it all out between yourselves?”
I know this is a bad time to be starting this discussion (I’m a fisherman’s daughter, after all, and “Never start a fight on a boat,” has been one of Dad’s favorite sayings for as long as I can remember), but I can’t help it. All the petty frustrations and imagined slights of the past few days have built themselves up in my head to something so huge I just can’t get past it. Something that makes me feel that if I don’t speak up now, I might never get the chance. I feel another Mel Gibson moment approaching.
“I’m not the only one being pushed aside,” says Frankie’s voice in my head.“You are, too.”
Before I can do anything about it, though, Jack gets in first.
“Of course, you get a say,” he tells me, his voice dangerously low. “But surely I do, too? And Scarlett and Dylan are not your ‘friends’, Emerald. Neither is Lexie, really, if you’re totally honest with yourself. Which makes it feel like you’re insisting on having them all there just to be difficult.”
“I’mbeing difficult?” I say incredulously. “Your mother basically accused me of being a gold-digger and your sister’s completely taken over our wedding, butI’mbeing difficult? And that’s without even mentioning the way you expect me to completely ignore these messages I’ve been getting, which—”
“And there it is,” says Jack blankly. “Back to those stupid bloody messages, yet again.”
“Well, can you blame me?” I fire back, close to tears. “When you won’t eventalkto me about it?”
“There shouldn’t be anything to talk about, Emerald,” Jack replies testily. “You should trust me. I shouldn’t have to keep on reassuring you that I’m not lying to you, only for you to bring it up again a few minutes later.”
I stare at him sullenly, wishing I could see his eyes behind his sunglasses, but seeing only my own reflection staring back at me. I look like a crazy woman, my hair whipped into knots by the wind and my eyes wild with anger and hurt.
I can’t believe it’s come to this. I can’t believe I’m stuck in the middle of a loch, arguing with the man I’m about to marry; the man who used to be my best friend, but who suddenly seems like a complete stranger to me.
“Maybe we should stop for a bit,” says Rose. At first I think she’s talking about the argument, then I notice how green she’s looking all of a sudden, and realize she’s feeling sick.
She’s not the only one.
Dad bringsDauntlessto a stop not far from the island, and we all sit there looking at each other mutinously, as if we’re trying to decide who should be made to walk the plank first. Over on the far shore, I see someone climb into one of the swan-shaped pedalos that sit there, waiting to be rented out to tourists. I really want to point this out to Jack, and remind him about the time I jumped off one of those things after Mum and Dad’s dog, and Jack had to swim out to rescue us both, but… on second thoughts, it’s probably not a great idea to remind him of yetanothertime I did something unforgivably stupid.
Instead, I just watch silently as the lone figure in the pedalo steers their way out into the loch, wishing I was over there with them — or anywhere, really, other than here in this boat with an atmosphere heavy enough to capsize us.
“Right. Well,” says Rose at last, clearing her throat nervously. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way, who’s ready for the next surprise?”
Dad perks up at this, but Jack has clearly had enough.
“No,” he says firmly, taking his phone out of his pocket and checking for a signal. “No more surprises, Rose. I think you’ve done more than enough for one day. Anyway, I need to get back. Archie, would you mind taking us back to the dock now?”
Rose has turned white rather than green. I’m not sure whether to feel smug about the way Jack’s just put her firmly in her place, or disappointed that he’s clearly planning to bring our so-called “date” to a premature end, and head back to work before we have a chance to try to sort things out.
