“Oh,” he said and there was a bit of color rising in his face. “I see. Singing? Dancing? Champagne?”
“So now you’re remembering?”
“Yes, I do remember evenings like that.” He looked at Toby. “Perhaps you and I should rehearse before the ceremony?”
Lexie looked from one to the other. Toby might not like him, but he certainly seemed attracted to her. “I think that’s a great idea,” Lexie said. “Start at that end of the tent and walk slowly to the other end and back.”
He held out his arm to Toby and she took it, but she kept her body as far from his as possible.
When a waiter came into the tent and took Lexie’s attention, Graydon said to Toby, “Did I offend you last night?”
“The man who came to our table was quite unpleasant,” Toby said. “He seemed to think that we had gone there for him.”
“I do apologize,” he said. “I didn’t mean to give offense. Perhaps tomorrow I could have the pleasure of your company at dinner. I don’t know anyone here and—”
“You hate to eat alone?” Toby said, her tone disdainful of the unspoken cliché. She stopped walking and pulled her arm from his. “Look, I don’t know what your game is, but that wasn’t you last night and I have no idea why you’re trying to make us think it was. I don’t like liars, so the answer is no, I won’t go out with you. Now, please leave until they call for us.”
He looked shocked, as though no one had ever said such a thing to him before. Without a word, he turned and left the tent.
Just outside, he saw his aunt Jilly standing beside the bride’s father and talking quietly. Ken looked quite glum.
Graydon would never tell his aunt, but a family meeting had been called to discuss their beloved Jilly’s sudden involvement with a man they didn’t know. After what had happened with her late husband, they were quite worried about this new man. All that they’d found via the Internet was good, but they’d wanted to learn about him on a more personal level. When Jilly called with her request for a groomsman, everyone had looked at Graydon.
“I don’t think that would be appropriate,” he’d said at first, but then the idea had begun to appeal to him. Why not? Three hours later he was packed and on a plane to Nantucket.
He’d started asking questions about Ken as soon as he got into the ratty old pickup some man named Wes had met him at the airport in. As far as Graydon could tell, no one on the island had the least bad thing to say about Kenneth Madsen. And when they were introduced, Graydon had liked him.
“There you are,” Jilly said when she saw Graydon coming out of the tent, and Ken stepped away. “Everything settled?” she asked. “Did you get to rehearse walking down the aisle?”
“I did, but …” He glanced at Ken, who was standing close by, but he didn’t seem to be listening to them.
“Is something wrong?” Jilly asked.
“No, nothing,” Graydon said. “It’s just that …” He smiled a bit. “Something rather odd happened. The young woman I’m to escort down the aisle … Toby, is that her name?”
“I believe it’s a nickname, but what about her?”
“She and her friends saw Rory last night—I didn’t even know he was here—and the other woman …”
“Lexie?”
“Yes. Lexie said they saw me.”
“That’s understandable given that you and Rory are identical.”
“Yes,” Graydon said. “We are, except that Toby got rather angry because she said I was lying, that it was not me they saw.”
“Oh, my goodness!” Jilly said, her hand to her mouth.
The alarm in her voice made Ken come out of his reverie. “Is something wrong?”
“No,” Jilly said, but her eyes were wide and fastened on Graydon’s. “But surely this has happened to you before.”
“Never. Not even once.”
“Oh,” Jilly said. “What are you going to do?”
“I think I might arrange to stay here on this island for a while. Lexie and Toby are roommates, are they not?”