Nate got out of Jack’s car, shut the door and waved to his boss. He’d admired Jack from a distance throughout high school. And he wasn’t the only one. Everyone in Bayside knew the Hamiltons—the owners of the amusement park that put the whole area on the map and provided jobs for any local teenager willing to work.
When Nate had realized he’d have to come home to Bayside, he knew Starlight Point was the best and only place he could use his public relations experience.
As he dashed through the entrance of the hotel, he slid his hand into the pocket of his suit jacket to keep his smartphone from flying out. Cell phone pictures weren’t the best, but his first project for the coming week was to add some life to Starlight Point’s utilitarian website, so he couldn’t wait for the wedding photographer’s images.
The special events page needed pictures to go with the list of packages available. He glanced around the rotunda as he entered from the back of the hotel. This couple had gone all out. And he knew from studying the wedding packages available that it was just as expensive as it looked.
Whatever makes people happy. He was in the business of making things look good, and whether or not this bride and groom made it to their first anniversary was none of his concern. For today, it was perfection, and the company website would reflect that image like sunshine off a glass window.
He got ready with his cell phone, focusing on the door where everyone seemed to be waiting for the bride and groom to make a splashy entrance. June Hamilton was talking with an auburn-haired woman whose back was to him. She must be the wedding planner. Good. He needed to make friends fast if he wanted to impress the Hamiltons and make them glad they’d created a new position.
Realizing they had a better vantage point for viewing the arriving couple, Nate approached June and the other woman. He stepped behind them and said, “Hello, June. I’m glad I made it in time to get a picture. Wow, this place is—”
The red-haired woman turned around and his words disappeared. He sucked in a breath.
Alice Birmingham.
He dropped his phone and the glass screen cracked into an expensive spiderweb. While bending to pick it up, he completely missed the grand entrance of the couple and straightened in time to see Alice looking at the picture on her phone with a satisfied smile.
June leaned over to look at Alice’s phone. “You got a good one,” she commented. “Hi, Nate. I’m sure Alice will share it with you. She’s just as invested in special events here as you are.”
Alice stared at Nate and raised her eyebrow. It was only a slight consolation to notice her flushed cheeks. Was she as shocked as he was?
“Sorry,” June said. “I should introduce you two. Alice Birmingham, I’d like you to meet Nate Graham. You’ll be working together a lot now that Starlight Point is going big on PR and special events.”
Nate extended his hand automatically and tried to play it cool in front of his new employer. He always played it cool, just as expected from a public relations expert.
While they shook hands, Nate was aware of June’s interested stare. The Hamiltons were all smart, perceptive people, and it wouldn’t be easy to fake a cordial relationship with Alice for long. Why, in the midst of a full-blown wedding and on his second day of a job he needed did Alice have to walk back into his life? He’d been prepared to see people from his past when he came home to Bayside. In most cases, it would be a welcome benefit to returning home so he could be the son his dad needed right now. But Alice?
“Have you two met before?” June asked.
“Yes,” Alice said.
“No,” Nate said at the same time.
June crossed her arms and glanced from one to the other. “Okay, so maybe.”
“Bayside is a small town,” Alice said.
Nate couldn’t help noticing that five years had hardly changed Alice. She still had cream-colored skin and auburn hair that waved away from her face. Petite and slender, she looked as if she could be twenty, not the twenty-seven he knew her to be. Despite her delicate beauty, there was steel underneath. He’d learned that the hard way.
“When I stopped by the wedding,” June said, “I was on my way to wardrobe. I’m checking on the costumes for the fall festival. I hope our head seamstress, Gloria, is still talking to me after all I’ve asked her to do. Maybe I can meet with both of you on Monday to talk about fall festival details.” June wrinkled her nose and tilted her head. “Even if you two only maybe know each other.”
Nate nodded and Alice did the same.
“Those weekends are coming up fast and we have a lot to discuss,” June added. She stayed a moment more as if she had something else to say, but then she turned and left the rotunda. Nate was relieved to see her go, but his nerves still trembled, his pulse on high alert.
The orchestra played “Pachelbel’s Canon in D” as the bride and groom made a sweep of the room arm in arm, greeting their guests. Everything smelled like flowers and cake, but Nate felt nothing but sick misery. Each wedding he’d attended over the past five years, as his friends had gotten married one by one, had helped toughen his defenses when it came to weddings, but he still worked to shape his expression into PR neutral.
Alice pointed toward the cracked phone in his hand. “That’s not a great beginning.”
“You’re not exactly in a position to lecture me about beginnings.”
“I’m not lecturing you,” Alice said. “June wasn’t kidding when she said we’d be working together. My office is right across the hall from yours.”
“You’re not serious.”
Alice looked away and then returned her gaze to him. She bit her lip. “I’m serious about a lot of things.”
“But not marriage.”
“Weddings are my business now. It goes with the special events territory at Starlight Point.”
Nate laughed heartlessly, but there was so much chatter and music echoing in the room that only Alice would hear it. “Oh, the irony.”
Her cheeks colored deeper, and Nate felt a tiny stab of guilt for being so harsh. Not to mention the fact that harassing a beautiful woman at a fairy-tale wedding would not look good for him or Starlight Point.
“It’s not as ironic as you think,” she protested. “I guess you could consider it a way to atone for what—”
“For what you did,” he said bitterly.
Alice shook her head. “For what I didn’t do.”
Nate wished he was anywhere else. He’d often wondered what he would say if he ever saw Alice again. There was no worse time and place for this reunion than the present. He should shut his mouth and leave if he wanted to keep his emotions together and keep his job. He’d be no good to himself or his dad if he got fired on his second day working for Starlight Point.
He just had to ask one question.
“Have you ever wondered what would have happened if you hadn’t walked out on our wedding?”
Alice’s shoulders dropped and she looked at the floor. “Every day for the last five years.”
Without another word, Nate spun and retreated through the lobby, walking as fast as he could without running and making a spectacle of himself.
IN THE FIVE workdays since the glorious wedding on the beach, Alice had refreshed the special events webpage ten times a day, hoping to see the pictures she had emailed to Nate Graham from her phone. She vaguely wondered if he had replaced his phone