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"So we have a free day. Reception tonight and bachelor and bachelorette parties. The girls invited me to tag along. I said no, but Camila insisted she’d rather have me there than take a couple of Aiden’s cousins she barely knows. I was thinking we could rent some bikes and go to Edgartown and enjoy the day? The lighthouses arebeautiful.”
“Sure.”
So after breakfast, we set outtogether.
“Why don’t you do this more often?” she asks me as we pedal our pale blue and green bikes down the road. “You travel all the time, but you don’t enjoy the sights when you’rethere.”
I shrug. “I send you pics ofJet.”
“But that’s for my benefit. What would you do for yourself if no one waswatching?”
I turn over her question. “I’d pretend to be someoneelse.”
“Someone who rides a bike?” sheteases.
I steer closer to her and swipe at her, but she ducks away,laughing.
We browse stores, and Daisy lingers on a rack ofpostcards.
“Never pegged you as the postcard type,” Icomment.
“Vi sends them to me once in awhile.”
Lily’s words come back to me, but I don’t let on. “You never saidanything.”
She flips one over, studying the back. “She’s all over the place. I don’t even know what her life is like, but I miss her and envy her all atonce.”
“Why do you envyher?”
Daisy sets the card back, sucking in a breath and avoiding my gaze. “Because she does what she wants when she wants. She alwayshas.”
“You think you’d feel better if you did thattoo?”
Her gaze meets mine. “No, Idon’t.”
Once we’re strolling back toward our bikes outside, I ask, “What do you want to do after you have Richard singing yourpraises?”
“Grow this business. Get Lil throughschool.”
“Date Wall Street.” My words have an edge that contrasts with the warm sunshine and colorfulstores.
She cuts me a look. “He seems smart and reliable. He has sisters. Supports a number ofcharities.”
“Thank God. The tax deductions will keep you warm atnight.”
Her eyes spark as she pulls up next to our bikes, holding down the edge of her sundress as it’s caught by a breeze. “I’m not Lily’s age, or holding out for something wild and reckless. I know that when I walk into a room, I’m clever, articulate, reasonably attractive. Not the most clever, or the most articulate, or the most attractive. That was always Vi, and she was the first to point itout.”
The hairs on my neck lift. “Vi gave you a hardtime?”
I’d sensed there was shit between them, but didn’t hear about it outright. Daisy never talked about her sister with me, even after her twinleft.
She takes a breath, shielding her eyes from the sun as she squints up at me. “Siblings have their issues. I thought we were exempt from that, because we were so close for so long. Looking back, maybe things weren’t as perfect as they seemed. Even when we were kids, guys would pretend to like me to get an invite to our house to get close to her. She liked the attention, the games. In high school, I figured out it wasn’t worth my time competing with her. Men bend over backward for women like my sister. Not forme.”
The idea that her twin or anyone else—including her—made her feel that way has my hands clenching the handlebars. “That’s first-class bullshit. You are exquisite. Not your sister, not anyone else. If you need someone to prove it to you, I will yell it through the streets ofEdgartown.”
She presses her lips together, hiding a smile. “Because that’s what a good boyfrienddoes?”
“Because it’s true. Get on thehandlebars.”
