Page 73 of Always You (A Lilac Bay Novel)

“The producer liked it,” I said. I considered telling him what Gina had told me about work, but changed my mind at the last second. I didn’t know him well enough to be confiding something like that. It felt too personal—the thing that I had dreamt of doing since I was a kid.

“Did you have fun?” I asked instead.

“I did. I’ve never been in a flash mob before.”

“Well, you can cross that one off your bucket list.” He laughed, the sound low and velvety. Definitely yummy.

“What about you?” he asked. “Did you have fun?”

“I did eventually,” I said. “It was pretty stressful at first.”

“Well, you handled it really well. I was surprised not to see you dance.”

I snorted. “I don’t dance.”

“You’re dancing right now.”

I looked up into his dark eyes, so different from Andrew’s blue ones. “You’re right.”

It wasn’t just his eyes that were different from Andrew. Hefeltdifferent, too. Andrew was a little shorter than Chase, but a lot broader across the chest. And his hair was different, of course, Andrew had that distinct auburn hair that I had been jealous of since we were little kids. I had a sudden memory of him letting me cut his hair when we were eight. I had wanted to play beauty salon, and Andrew let me, and then we both got into so much trouble, and—

“What’s so funny?” Chase asked, and I realized, belatedly, that I was giggling under my breath.

“Nothing,” I said quickly, feeling stupid. Why was I thinking about childhood antics when I had a guy this cute in my arms?

“I had fun on our date the other night,” he was saying, and I forced myself to pay attention. Chase had taken me to the mainland for Italian food and a movie. It was a nice date. He was interesting, and clearly interested in me, and he’d held my hand in the movie theater. Plus he'd bought me popcorn, and you really can’t beat that.

“I had fun too,” I told him.

“We should do it again,” he said. “Maybe this week? There’s a really good restaurant here on the island, I’m sure you know it—Rose’s? Have you eaten there?”

The thought of going to Rose’s with Chase made me feel strangely uncomfortable.Probably because he’s not from the island, I told myself, trying to quell the nausea that was growing in my stomach. And Andrew’s grandmother was so much about loyalty and being true to this community.

So why are you even with him?A voice in the back of my head wondered.He’s not a part of this community. Can you seriously date someone that you wouldn’t feel comfortable introducing to Rose Powell?

“What’s wrong?” Chase asked, pulling back to look down at me. “Riley, are you okay?”

“You know, I don’t feel great,” I said, putting a hand to his chest to steady myself. “Probably overdid it on the wine.”

“Why don’t you sit,” he said, looking concerned. “I’ll go get you some water.”

I nodded in agreement, more to get rid of him than anything else. I didn’t know what my problem was tonight. Why was I getting so damn out of sorts about a restaurant? And why was I thinking that I should make my relationship decisions based on Andrew’s grandmother? That was just ridiculous and—

A flash of blond across the lawn caught my attention. It looked an awful lot like Rebecca, but I knew that she was currently sitting under the maple tree with Jake and the kids, eating cookies, because I had just seen them, and—

Oh my God.

The blond woman turned, and I saw that it wasn’t Rebecca. It was my mother.

And she was stumbling towards the tent. Shit.

I jumped up, visions of her crashing into a food table flashing through my mind, and took off across the grass. I don’t know how I got to her so quickly, feeling pretty damn tipsy myself, but I managed to reach her side before she got to the table and did any damage.

“Mom,” I said carefully. It was so hard to judge her moods in times like this. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

She peered up at me, her red eyes narrowing. She smelled like stale beer and whiskey and I knew, just like that, that this was going to be a disaster.

“Because you didn’t invite me, did you?” she slurred. “Why would I come when my own kid doesn’t invite me?”