Thursday evening was the lobster boil on the beach. Normally, Bree would be excited to attend, but under the circumstances, she didn’t want to go. Sure, it might be fun to eat lobster and corn on the cob, amongst other things, beneath the moon and stars and listen to the waves lap against the shore. But Hank’s words had played over and over again in her mind all day, so by the time she was supposed to be heading to the beach, she was sitting on the couch in her room instead, staring out the window at the descending sun, wondering what she should do.
Her ph
“Play a song!” Monica insisted, sitting on a bench set back from the fire. After dinner, everyone had played on the beach until the sun went down, and now the wedding party was roasting marshmallows. It was a warm evening, so the fire was low, and the benches were nowhere close enough for the sticks to reach, so anyone who wanted a treat had to stand and approach the flames. Bree was content to eat the sugary snacks without warming them first.“Do you know ‘Unchained Melody’?” Monica asked as Bree considered whether or not to make a
It took a while for Bree to break free of playing the guitar. When Dwayne asked if he could play something, she gladly handed the instrument over. It seemed to her that he likely wanted her to sit next to him and sing along, but she made an excuse about stretching her legs and headed out after Hank.She found him sitting by the cluster of rocks he’d found her at a few times already that week. He had a beer in his hand--and he was crying.
The next morning, the women were asked to attend a brunch while the men were doing something else. Bree wasn’t sure what it was, but she had a feeling golf was involved. She didn’t even want to go, but Lilly had sent her a text before the brunch started, and she ended up saying she’d be there.The pictures and video on her phone were burning a hole through it. She definitely didn’t want to watch the videos or study the pictures, but she also didn’t know what to do with them. If she told Trent they existed, he’d be so mad at Hank--he
Trent was already there when Bree arrived at the meeting location. She took her time walking over, not because she was puzzled about what she was going to say but because she was studying him. The sun was almost directly overhead. It picked up the golden highlights in his hair and reflected them like a halo around his head. His skin was more bronze now than it had ever been in all the years she’d known him, probably from so much beach time. His eyes were the color of the sea, and the way he worried his hand against his set jaw, he looked so handsome she could hardly handle looking at him, but she also couldn’t pull away.
“Bree, is there something you want to tell me?” Trent asked, his hand on top of hers in the sand.Slowly, Bree nodded and pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. Do you know why Hank was so upset last night?”Trent nodded, and she was surprised. She’d assumed he had no idea. “He still has fe
After Bree left, Trent sat on the beach for at least a half an hour or more staring out at the ocean, thinking about what Bree had said. He’d have to head back to the room and talk to Monica eventually. He had no idea how that conversation was going to go, but he had a feeling she’d deny everything, even with the pictures right in front of her face.He’d had an idea she was sneaking around with someone, but he didn’t know it was Hank. He never would’ve thought Hank could do anything like that to him. Granted, he did meet Monica first. The
Monica opened the door wearing a long, white nightgown made of silk, her dark hair hanging down past her shoulders, her makeup perfect, and her expression innocent. “Hi, babe,” she said, stepping aside so Trent could come in. “What’s going on?”He took a deep breath and crossed into the room, thinking the threshold was a point of no return he couldn’t go back from. “I have something important to talk to you about, Monica, and I need the truth from you, okay?”
Bree kept expecting to get a phone call from someone letting her know that the wedding was off. Either Lilly--or Hank--or if things were really heading the right direction--Trent himself. But the closer it got to the time she was supposed to leave for the rehearsal dinner, the more she began to realize nothing had changed.She’d done everything she could. She’d gone to Trent, proof in hand, showed it to him, poured her heart out, and it hadn’t been enough.