Page 12

“Hugging.” She winked.
Skylar’s mouth fell open. “Ewww, Merritt! That’s my brother!” She eyed her sister-in-law. “Also, I thought you said you wanted to wait until you said your real vows.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I did. And I tried. I really did. But I failed.”
Adelia burst out laughing, and Skylar’s face screwed up.
“Honestly, it’s been really difficult. We’ve been apart a lot with him traveling here to Michigan so often for work and me traveling to London for my company. At one point, we didn’t see each other for almost a month, and let’s just say, when we saw each other again, we made up for lost time.” Merritt’s mouth tilted to one side in a sweet smile. “What can I say? He’s my husband, and I love him.”
“Well, I’m happy for you,” Adelia said. “Nothing wrong with showing your husband some loving.”
Skylar visibly shuddered. “Next subject.”
They passed out the food and dug in.
“Guess who Franky and I ran into at the Downtown Market this morning,” Skylar said.
Adelia and Merritt both shrugged their shoulders as they enjoyed their fish tacos.
“Milton.”
The girls groaned. Milton Hanley was Skylar’s ex-boyfriend and had caused all sorts of problems for the Schultz family since their breakup, including suing Gus after an altercation in a bar.
“He saw my ring and wished us good luck in the most sarcastic tone ever.”
Adelia rolled her eyes. “If I ever come face to face with that guy, I’ll knock him out cold for all the crap he’s put your family through.”
Skylar chuckled. “I would love to see that. But he’d probably sue you for it.”
The girls laughed.
“It’s probably best you never met.”
“I’m glad I never had the misfortune.” Adelia screwed up her face in disgust.
“I would actually like to thank him,” Merritt said, which got her a couple of blank stares. “Gus being sued by Milton led to him coming to California. If he hadn’t, I never would’ve met him.”
“Aw, you’re so sweet, Merritt,” Adelia said. “I love that you see the good in the situation.”
“When you put it that way …” Skylar dabbed at her eye with the corner of her napkin. “I guess it was all worth it.”
The girls chatted through lunch, and Adelia was thankful for the distraction.
Once they had gone, her mind returned to her father, and she rang the landline at the house in England.
“Hello?”
She was so relieved to hear his voice. “Daddy, it’s me.”
“How are you, my darling girl?”
“I’m okay, but I want to know how you are.”
“Been better,” he replied. “Trying to distract myself with work, but that’s all so tied up with your mother too that it’s hard to concentrate.”
Her parents had signed on to star in a movie together next year. It was the first time they would work together on a film in nearly ten years. Their fans were excited and already talking about it all over the internet. It was highly anticipated. But would it even happen now? Would Mom go through with it? They were both professionals and had never backed out of a project before, but this was another situation entirely. Who could have anticipated when they’d been sitting at the dinner table, excitedly discussing the script, that it would all fall apart less than a year later?
“I’m so sorry, Dad.”