15 Shades Of Pink (22 page)

“You betcha we’re going to sell loads of these this week, because I’ve got one for each of us!”

Dead silence greeted that idea, but Dad started passing out the hats, while Mom distributed goodies to insert.

“These are really bright,” Tina said, squinting at the hat she held at arm’s length.

Dad snapped his fingers, then pointed them like a gun. “That’s the idea! No one will miss you in one of these.” Dad gave them each a handful of business cards. “I’ve got hundreds ready to go, and thousands at home in the garage. Take a bunch to sell when you’re down on the beach. Fifteen dollars each or two for twenty-five dollars.” He rubbed his hands together. “With all of you involved, I can write the whole trip off my taxes.”

Mom squeezed his arm. “You’re so smart, honey. Isn’t he kids?”

They nodded and congratulated him on his latest venture, while Heather thought of a more appropriate title for her trip:
Stay Away From My Vacay!
She slid sodas into the holders and her brothers and sisters and their spouses did the same. Even her nieces and nephews had kid-sized caps. There was no arguing this, not with the way Dad was beaming.

But the darn seagulls circling overhead certainly seemed to be cackling at them.

“I don’t believe it.” Mom shaded her eyes under the brim of the hat and pointed to a couple walking on the beach. “Yoo-hoo! Tilly? Walter? Is that you?” She waved madly while Heather’s stomach did a freefall.

The Hicks, her ex-in-laws-to-be, spotted her mother and rushed toward her.

Mom and Dad hurried down to meet them. They’d become best friends during Heather and Nick’s relationship. They took the break-up almost as hard as Heather had. She’d dated Nick since junior year in high school, and that was a long time for their folks to bond over games of Bridge and Canasta played while waiting for the two of them to meet their midnight curfew. Often, Heather had fallen asleep on the couch waiting for them to finish visiting.

They’d got on so well, they started going out for dinner and dancing. They’d become best friends in the seven years Nick and Heather had dated. Their two families had even spent a week together in Maine one summer, and many weekends camping throughout New England . Then of course there was the business venture with the doorbell answering machine. The two families had so many plans for the future. Getting married just seemed like a formality. When the wedding was called off, her parents had lost not only a future son-in-law, but their best friends, too.

She watched her parents hugging the Hicks, then Dad took off his hat, probably launching into the sales pitch. Soon enough, the rest of the Hicks’ clan came walking down the beach.

Even though they were fifty yards away, Heather didn’t need to squint to know Nick was down there, too. At six foot four, he towered over the rest of the group, and his red hair was unmistakable.

Heather pulled the brim of her hat over her eyes and stomped inside.

Her ex was on the beach—during her forget-my-ex vacation. How perfectly rotten was that?

Tina followed her into the house. “You’re kidding me, right? You’re going to hide? Let him ruin your vacation?”

Heather crossed her arms. “No. Not at all. I just have no desire to talk to him.”

Sighing, Tina patted Heather’s arm. “We were all upset for you, but he’s not a bad guy. The breakup was amicable, right?” She paused, scrunching her eyebrows. “Well, you did throw a shoe at him. But it just didn’t work out. He didn’t cheat, he wasn’t leaving you for another woman.”

Heather nodded. “Right. He left me for a pack of birds. Not mortifying at all. Why should I get worked up?” Her chest heaved and she clenched her fists.

“But it was some important graduate study thing.”

“Why are you defending him? We dated for seven years and he suddenly decides a month before the wedding that he wants to spend the summer on a rock in the Atlantic studying puffins instead of marrying me?” Her voice hit a high pitch and she started laughing. There really was no way to tell the story
without
laughing.

Even baby Nora grinned as she chewed on her fist. Tina switched her from one hip to the other. “Would you really have wanted to be Mrs. Nick Hicks? He saved you from a lifetime with an embarrassing name. Every time you made an appointment, you’d hear giggling on the other end of the line.”

But Mrs. Nicholas Hicks sounds awfully nice
, she thought to herself. However, there was no room in her heart for hoping or reminiscing. “Right. Good point. He did me an enormous favor.”
I didn’t want to wear that beautiful ivory Vera Wang dress, anyway. It looks fab hanging in the back of my closet
.

“You should thank him. Go down there and show him what he’s missed while he was on that rock, researching. See him, get it over with, and get on with your vacation. And your life.” She nodded like a commander sending a foot soldier off to battle.

Heather straightened her shoulders. “You know, I will.” She patted Nora’s head for good luck. Then, sliding the patio door closed much harder than she meant to, she marched down to the beach where her parents were chatting with Nick’s family.

She kicked an inflatable raft out of the way and almost tripped over a pair of flippers. But maintaining her grace wasn’t the biggest concern with a bag of chips flapping against her ear. Hazard orange turned out to be a good color for the hat, after all. It was a good warning for Nick to duck and cover; it was about to rain the wrath of Heather. And that was never a pretty thing.

Her mother’s lips were pressed into a painful smile as she walked over. “Heather, look who’s vacationing on our beach this week?” Her smiled wavered.

Mrs. Hicks gave her mom a playful tap on the arm. “Now, now. It’s not your beach. You talked so often about how much you loved it here, we simply had to check it out.” Mrs. Hicks held out her hands in a welcoming hug for Heather. “How are you darling? The hat looks lovely with your…” Her eyes swept Heather from head to toe “With your, uh, complexion.”

“Thank you.” Heather let herself be hugged. “And I’m fine. I’m incredibly great, really. I just don’t even know where to start with how fantastic everything is. It’s the best year of my life. The best.”

Mrs. Hicks nodded like she was indulging a child who’d insisted they’d just spotted the tooth fairy doing cartwheels across the back yard.

“Hi, Heather.” Nick lifted his gaze to meet hers, but she looked away, furious to feel a spark explode inside of her instead of a jolt of disgust. Where was the boiling pit of rage in her stomach? She should be carving his heart out with the packaged silverware poking her neck. Instead, her insides were humming and her hormones buzzing. Oh, lust was such an irresponsible fiend.

She planted her fists on her hips. “Taking a break from the pelicans?”

He rubbed the back of his head like he always did when he was nervous.

Go ahead, rub yourself a bald spot, baby
.

“They were puffins. And the research project is finished. I’m back home now.”

She rocked back on her heels. “Well, good. I’m glad it worked out for you. Hope they didn’t crap on you too often.” Although, she did. She really did.

Everyone in the group seemed to be holding their breath as the two of them chatted. Did they think she was going to slap him? Tell him off again? Or worse—cry?

He ignored her verbal barbs; he’d always handled her temper well and usually had her giggling her way out of a tantrum, like the time she’d spent three hours picking out clothes to buy with a twenty-percent off coupon at Macy’s, only to find out the clothes weren’t eligible for the discount. That had not been a good day, but he had made it better with jokes and promises of a banana split at Dairy Queen—after putting the clothes back in all the wrong places throughout the store. She’d been laughing by the time they left the store. He knew her well.

Nick linked his hands behind him. “You look good; I like your father’s hats.” Nick had been a big supporter of Dad’s ideas, even his weight-loss snack gums. “It really almost does taste like I’m eating potato chips,” Nick had managed to say with a big grin—before he’d spit it out when her father left the room.

Heather touched the brim of the cap. “You know my Dad. Always juggling five great ideas.” She remembered the skateboard-for-two she and Nick had been forced to try and fought back a smile. At least her father had come up with his designer band-aids after that failure. “We think this will be his greatest invention yet,” she said, adjusting her cap.

Several people exhaled. No blood will be shed today, they must be thinking.

Her dad clapped his hands. “I tell you what. I’m going to suit up your whole clan with your own hats. We can use a Sharpie to write your names on them.”

“Oh, what a generous offer,” Mrs. Hicks said, tightening the knot of the crisp white shirt tied around her waist. “But really, it’s too much! There’s no need.”

“Speak for yourself, Virginia,” Mr. Hicks said, hiking up his swim trunks over his round belly. “I’d like a hat.”

“Come on up to the house,” her mother said. “The kids’ll be thrilled to see everyone. Just like old times.”

“Not exactly,” Heather said under her breath. She hung back and let the crowd flow up to the house. It would be easier for everyone to visit without her and her hurt feelings underfoot. She walked toward the shore, dodging a crab scuttling past, and realized Nick was following her.

She looked over her shoulder at him. “I was actually trying to get away from you, not lure you out here to drown you.” She took off her hat now that Dad was out of sight, and then slowed down her pace, knowing they needed to have this conversation at some point. Might as well be in public with witnesses who’d report if she strangled him—or at least call for medical assistance.

“I figured you weren’t exactly hanging out waiting for me. But we should talk. My folks have really missed your parents. I’d like it if they could still be friends.” He shoved his hands in his pockets.

She really wished he’d been wearing a shirt; his abs were an absolute distraction. Wrapping her arms around herself, she tried to forget how nicely she had fit in his embrace up against those abs. “And our parents can’t be friends unless we’re friends, right?”

He sighed. “Right. But I’d like us to be friends, too. I’ve missed you, Heather.”

She snorted. “Okay, friend. So what do you want to talk about? What we’d be doing now if we were married? If we’d be expecting a baby? Or if we’d have enough money yet to buy a house?” She knew she sounded like a scorned lover spouting off on a talk show, but she couldn’t hold back the anger any easier than she could keep the tide from rolling in. And the tide usually hauled in a stinking mess of seaweed and garbage.

He nodded, saying nothing. “I never meant to hurt you.”

A wave sloshed over her feet, wetting the bottom of her jeans. “Why didn’t it occur to you sooner that your career was more important than me? Say, sometime before we’d sent out three-hundred wedding invitations and settled on the red-velvet ganache cake?” Which had been obscenely divine.

He stopped and stared at the ocean. She thought about tossing him in, but that would ruin two family vacations.

“Tookie, I have to tell you something—”

She cut him off. “Don’t you dare call me that.” He’d come up with her nickname freshman year in college, when she’d fallen off her bike, broken her nose, and suddenly become convinced it was too big. He’d jokingly called her toucan, or Tookie for short. After a bird, of course.

“I’m sorry. Old habits.”

She stomped her foot as the anger she’d been holding back rushed over her. “I’m a habit you got over pretty fast.” All those plans and preparations for the wedding—all the dreams they’d shared had disappeared like a summer sun shower.

And she couldn’t handle the fact that the feelings for him were still there, flitting around her heart. It was a whole lot easier to be mad than admit
that
. “I’m sorry. I can be friendly when I’m around you for the sake of our folks, but I just can’t be friends.”

And besides, there was the matter of her own personal revenge she’d carried out after the wedding was called off. If he found out, he’d never forgive her. She still was trying to forgive herself. No, it was well and truly over. So why waste time with useless chitchat when there was a perfectly good blueberry pie to be eaten up at the rental?

She put her hat back on and left him standing there as she hurried back to the house. Then she remembered he’d wanted to tell her something. But what? She shrugged.
Doesn’t matter now
.

Laughter drifted from the back deck as she neared the house. Nothing like knowing you’d be the buzzkill to ruin all the fun. She sat on the edge of the property by the fire pit, not ready to bust up the party.

A few minutes later, her sister, Tina, wandered down the stone path and sat next to her. She pulled a candy bar out of her Port-A-Party. “You need this more than me.”

Heather took it, chuckling. “Thanks. I could use a few more. Chased with vodka, maybe.”

“I bet. How you holding up?”

“I’m okay.” She looked up at Tina, then shook her head. “No, I’m not.”

Tina patted her hand. “You still love him?”

Heather squeezed her eyes shut and nodded. “But what does it matter now?”

“Couldn’t the two of you try again?”

Heather stared at a broken clamshell stuck in the sand. “It wouldn’t work. I’ll just have to suck it up and get through this vacation.”

“You’re going to be seeing a lot of him, I’m afraid,” Tina said. “After the folks saw the two of you walking and talking—without any shouting or punching—they made plans for a cookout tonight. And a clambake tomorrow.”

Heather groaned.

“And cards over at the Hicks’ the night after.”

“This was supposed to be our family reunion. Not a Parker-Hicks reunion.”

Tina tucked her hair behind her ears. “Your breakup devastated everyone. We were all close with the Hicks. His sister was one of my bridesmaids, for crying out loud.”

“I know.” Heather forced a smile. “I’ll learn to live with it.”