She nods, glancing at the bouquet. “They’re so pretty.”
“Yeah, they are. I’m not sure what game he’s playing. He got me this too.” I look down at the box.
“Game? What do you mean?”
“Like, he’s not usually nice to me, and something terrible happened … last time he was here.”
“Before you tell me about that—which I’m dying to hear about—open the gift!”
I blow out a slow exhale before tearing into the white paper. It’s a plain brown box. When I lift up the lid, I gasp. The row ofpink and white pearls aren’t all the same sizes, each one having a slightly different gleam and shape.
There’s a folded white piece of paper underneath the necklace. I open it up to read it.
Russell had started this collection for Clara years ago. Atlantic Pearl Oysters are rare, but I’ve been taking my boat out to search for them just like he did. I’ve gone every weekend I’ve been back in Coconut Beach, and I was able to find five more to complete his collection. I had a jeweler in New York make it into a necklace. Happy birthday, Cupcake.
I gulp, emotion swirling up inside my throat.
“Oh my.”
Silvie reads the note over my shoulder before running a finger gently over the pearls.
“Now you really have to tell me what happened.”
I exhale, setting the box of pearls down before taking another sip of my drink and continuing, “We kind of hooked up.”
Her jaw drops. “Shit.”
“Yeah. It was the only time I’ve ever finished, like, from … oral.”
She grabs her glass, taking a long swig. “Go on.”
“I just totally freaked out afterward because he’d always been a bully to me, ever since we’d met in high school. I’ve done a lot of healing since my divorce, but I just went through abreakup. My first husband and I had a great sex life until he slept with his secretary. It made me feel like I wasn’t enough for him. Axel, my ex who I broke up with recently, seemed completely disinterested in sex with me. It was almost a chore to him. The combination of the two just makes me … feel like I have to be the problem, you know? The common denominator. I haven’t confessed this to anyone, but the way Dayton makes me feel is just … it’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before. And I feel like shit for having a crush on not only my high-school bully, but also my freaking stepbrother. But now he’s giving a gift like this and …”
Silvie shakes her head. “First off, I just have to say, if you met him in high school and you didn’t grow all the way up together, I think that’s allowed. Stepbrother or not, he’s not actually related to you. It’ll make the holidays so much easier this way!” She’s wrapping my hair around the curling iron.
“Silvie, our parents are all dead.”
“Shit, yeah. Okay, well, you guys can spend Christmas with me! The Montclairs go all out. Plus, I need a new sister. Mine is such a ho-bag.”
“I’ve always wanted a sister. I’m sorry yours is a ho-bag. That sucks.”
She shrugs. “At least I didn’t hook up with my evil stepbrother.”
I shove her playfully, and she throws her head back in a laugh.
“So, what I’m getting here is that he turns you on more than anyone you’ve ever met, but you’re conflicted because your parents got married and you don’t want to disappoint them, especially now that they’re gone?” She looks at the necklace.
I nod. “I can’t dishonor them that way. They wanted us to get along, but after he moved away for college, I refused tocome home at the same time as him. I didn’t even see him again until we were planning the funeral. It had been devastating for my mom that we couldn’t just be a family.”
“I think it’s good that you’re talking through these feelings. But you need to let go of the guilt. You didn’t do anything wrong. If he brought the flowers as an apology, maybe he wants to make amends and start fresh. Has he done anything that’s truly unforgivable? How bad was this bullying?”
I shrug, reaching for the bottle of champagne to refill our glasses. “I mean, no, it wasn’t horribly unforgivable stuff. He started a fight with my prom date and ruined the entire night. He had generally been rude to me from the start. He blacklisted me somehow, so none of the guys would ask me out anymore after that, and I only had a few friends until graduation. One of them was Mia. He would also play the Are You Nervous? game with me, and I feel like he’s started that up again. I just feel like in general, he had no reason for disliking me, and yet he’s never wanted to be my friend. Now, suddenly, he brings me flowers and asks me to dance with him tonight? It’s suspicious.”
Silvie is side-eyeing me in the mirror.
“What?”
“I mean … do you think there’s a teeny-tiny chance maybe he just likes you and he always has and he feels guilty about it too? That would explain everything.”