“You’ve still got the career and the apartment,” her mother pointed out.
“Which is exactly why you don’t actually need the fiancé,” Eris said.
She stabbed her fork through a piece of chicken and then pointed the whole thing at Kallie, her expression stern.
“What was he doing for you that you can’t do for yourself?”
Honestly? Marrying him would have made sure she never had to worry about money again. But that had never been Kallie’s sole reason for choosing James, and she wasn’t going to make it one now. She did just fine on her own salary and had worked hard for the career she had chosen for her life.
But outside of that?
“Nothing,” she agreed finally.
Kallie took a deep breath and let it out again slowly. There were worse places she could be. Her family and her best friend were standing by her. Her other two bridesmaids were fielding questions and phone calls and keeping to the background so they didn’t overwhelm her. She had her life. Her apartment. A safe place to call home. James had been just a piece of the puzzle. And not a very important one. Her need to step back and reassess wasn’t failure. It was opportunity for something better.
Kallie picked up the wineglass sitting in front of her and lifted it.
“Here’s to new doors opening when the old ones close,” she said.
“To car accidents and mimes that embarrass the hell out of shitheads,” Eris said.
“To men who are deserving of women like my daughter,” her mother said.
“And to bridesmaids who are quickly working behind the scenes on stuff I’ll take care of later,” Kallie said a little too loudly.
She stunned her other two wonderful friends into the present and they scrambled to put away their phones. They picked up their sodas and raised them high in the air, then Kallie let out another sigh.
Only this time, it was one of relief.
Glass clinked against glass, and they all drank. To the future. To the trip. To a life that hadn’t panned out the way anyone had planned but could still shine as brightly as the sun. They ate the rest of their Indian food as everyone talked around her, but Kallie’s mind was elsewhere.
Her mind was already drenched in sun and her toes were already buried in the sand.
She was going to St. Barts.
And when she came back, she promised she would be a different person.
Chapter 3
Kallie
The flight from New York to St. Barts was long and grueling, with a terrible layover of almost three hours. Kallie couldn’t nap because the seats in the airport were uncomfortable and she was once again too sick to her stomach to eat. Eris’s idea of taking the honeymoon by herself was proving to be an idiotic idea. All Kallie did was look over at the seat next to her and think about how someone should be there with her. About how her cheating fiancé should’ve been there at her side to enjoy everything with her.
Kallie felt humiliated all over again.
At least, until she flew over the blue water and white sand beaches of the island.
She looked out the airplane window and was struck by its beauty. The crashing of the waves and the joyousness of the people walking and riding about on their bikes. A small spark of excitement settled in the pit of her stomach as the plane began its descent. It was beautiful, and Kallie could already smell the sea breeze filte
ring through the cabin air. Her heart was still broken and her soul was still angry, but she gave her best friend a bit of credit as the plane touched down onto the runway. Maybe a change of scenery was what she needed to help her out of the slump James had tossed her into.
Or at least keep it at bay for a couple of weeks.
Kallie switched her phone off of airplane mode and a flood of text messages came through. Messages from Eris asking her how things were going and poking fun at her for needing to find an island boy to cure her woes with. She had several voice messages from people at the wedding, probably wanting to say they were sorry and to tell her to keep the wedding gifts, she figured.
But she didn’t want to keep any of them. She would’ve rather burned them.
There were messages, however, from James. Voice messages that rolled through and forced his name to the screen of her phone. Kallie scoffed and ignored all of them. She couldn’t handle something like that at the moment. All she wanted to focus on was the decadent vacation before her that she knew James couldn’t cancel.