Liz Prescott came to the conclusion nothing caused more chaos than a bride dumping her fiancé at the altar and falling into another man’s arms. Unless, of course, that other man was her fiance’s brother, who’d flown fifteen hundred miles to stop the wedding and steal the bride.

Now, that was pandemonium.

Liz didn’t care that she was out the cost of a bridesmaid’s dress and a trip to Jamaica for a wedding that never happened. True love had finally prevailed, and wasn’t that the most important thing?

Now, hours after the wedding that wasn’t, she sat with Kelsey Morrison, Sarah's other bridesmaid, at the edge of the Caribbean Sea, sipping a tropical drink and watching a full moon rise over the ocean. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, savoring her last night in paradise before returning to her regularly scheduled life in Miami.

“Sarah's so lucky,” Liz said. “Nick is crazy about her. I’d kill to have a man fly thousands of miles to stop my wedding and get me back."

"Please," Kelsey said. "Sarah barely knows him. Wait till she finds out he watches TV in his underwear and clips his toenails in bed. There goes the romance."

Liz frowned. ”Well, that's heartwarming."

"It’s realistic.”

"It was love at first sight when she met Nick year ago,” Liz said. “Don’t you think that means something?”

“So why didn’t she stay with him instead of getting engaged to his brother?”

“It took her a while to come to her senses. I’m just glad she did.”

Kelsey continued to frown disapprovingly, as if true love was a concept only the most starry-eyed idiots would believe in. Maybe it was because she was a cop, which meant she probably broke up a lot of domestic disputes. That would give just about anyone a bad attitude about love and marriage, wouldn’t it?

Sarah had actually tried to send a little luck Kelsey’s way by throwing her bridal bouquet directly at her so she had no choice but to catch it. Then that horrible woman had come out of nowhere and snagged it before Kelsey could, giving her an elbow to the eye at the same time.

Kelsey pulled the nearly-melted ice pack away from her face, where a multicolored bruise was forming beneath her eye.

“Yep,” Liz said. “There it is. You definitely have a black eye.”

“Of course I do,” Kelsey muttered. “That woman was lethal.”

“You're a cop, and she was lethal?”

“You have to watch out for the crazy ones. Sometimes they have superhuman strength.” Kelsey shook her head. "I can't believe Sarah threw the damned thing in the first place. Don't you have to say 'I do' before it counts?”

Liz grinned. "She thinks you should get married, so she figured it was worth a shot. If only you'd caught it—"

“That’s nothing but superstition. Why does every woman on earth believe that stuff?"

"Because most women want to get married.”

"I don't. Half of all marriages end in divorce."

"And half don't."

"Is it really worth all that trouble for a fifty-fifty shot?"

"That's kinda cynical, isn’t it?” Liz said.

Kelsey just shrugged and drained her glass.

Okay, so it appeared that not only did Kelsey not believe in love at first sight, she didn’t believe in love at all. Liz couldn’t fathom that. She hadn’t had the best luck in the world herself when it came to men, but she was never without hope. She had no doubt that someday she’d have the same kind of happiness Sarah had found with Nick. She only hoped it happened before she was too old to enjoy it.

“Will you ladies be needin' anything else?”

Liz turned to see a waitress walking through the sand toward them. She wore a tropical print shirt and a black skirt, the uniform of the resort staff. She wasn't the petite waitress who'd taken their original order. This woman was tall and statuesque with heavy black dreadlocks spilling down her back. According to the tag she wore, her name was “Kiki.”

“Nothing more for me,” Kelsey said.

Liz said she’d had enough, too, but instead of walking away, Kiki said, “You ladies looked lovely at the wedding today."

"You mean the wedding that never happened?” Kelsey said.

Kiki gave them a knowing smile. "There'll be one soon enough. It's just a shame you ladies are alone in this romantic place without your own men to share it with.”

“I don't have a man,” Liz said. “I haven't had much luck in the relationship department lately.”

“I can do without a relationship altogether,” Kelsey said. “Men are just too much trouble.”

“Oh, no!” Kiki said. “You should never give up on love! Wonderful men are out there just waitin’ for you.”

Kelsey gave her a suspicious look. “Yeah? So where are we supposed to meet these wonderful men?”

Kiki laughed softly, those long dreadlocks swaying in the Caribbean breeze. “Oh, there's no meetin' anybody, sweetness. You know 'em already.”

Kelsey made a scoffing noise. “Well, that does it. If it has to be a man I already know, I’m going to be alone forever.”

“Men we already know?” Liz said. “How would you know that?”

Kiki gave her a sly smile. “I know a lot of things, milady.”

"I'm a bartender,” Liz went on, “so I know a lot of men. But most of them aren't my type." She considered that for a moment. "Actually, none of them are my type."

She wasn’t joking about that. Most of the men who came into Simon’s Bar and Grill were Wall Street types who had high-stress jobs, drove Beemers and Jags, and were looking for woman who spent more every month on makeup and clothes than Liz did on her apartment rent.

“The only single men I know are cops,” Kelsey said, “and I'm not going there.”

“Are you sure they’re going to be men we already know?” Liz said.

Kiki gave her that sly smile again. “Whatever Fate decides.”

Fate? Liz sighed. If Fate thought she was going to hook her up with one of the stressed-out, Scotch-drinking, suit-wearing men who never missed happy hour at Simon’s, she needed to think again.

“Keep your eyes open, ladies,” Kiki said, looking up at the sky. “You see the full moon tonight? By the time the next one rises, you'll be in the arms of those wonderful men who’ll love you with all their hearts.”

A little tingle of excitement ran down Liz’s spine. Just as quickly, though, she brushed it off, telling herself it was nothing more than her natural optimism oozing out. Nobody in their right mind would believe what this woman was saying.

“That’s right,” Kiki said. “The next full moon belongs to both of you. This one,” she said, nodding toward the sky, “is Sarah’s.”

Liz felt another tingle, one she just couldn’t quell. After all, Kiki was right. Tonight of all nights, there was a full moon, the very night when Sarah was finally in the arms of the man who really loved her. So that meant that next month—

No! That was crazy. All that natural optimism of hers that was oozing out? She needed to stuff it back in. She was definitely a positive person, but even she wasn’t buying this.

“Walk good, sweeties,” Kiki said as she swished away, her dreadlocks swaying in the night breeze. “Walk good, now.”

Walk good. Jamaican slang for Take care. Be happy. Have a nice life.

“Okay, she was kinda weird,” Liz said.

Kelsey made a scoffing noise. “No kidding.”

“But what if she's right? What if our soul mates are right under our noses?”

“Not a chance.”

Liz finished the last of her drink, then checked the time. It was still early. Maybe one more after all? She turned toward the beach bar, intending to call out to Kiki.

She wasn’t there.

Confused, Liz looked left and right to see if she was serving other customers on the beach, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Hmm. Very weird.

Finally Liz decided the two drinks she’d had must have been stronger than she realized, so more time had passed than she thought before she looked toward the beach bar. And if her mind was already that messed up, the last thing she needed was one more drink.

“I have an idea,” she said. “The night of the next full moon, we’ll text each other. Just one word. If Kiki was right and you found the love of your life, text YES. If she was wrong, text NO.”

Kelsey played along and exchanged phone numbers, even as Liz knew she thought it was pointless. And it probably was. Liz thought about Sarah and Nick and felt a bittersweet tug of envy. When was it going to be her turn?

According to Kiki, by the next full moon.

For a moment Liz gave in to the dreamy, optimistic feeling that overcame her as she imagined what it would feel like to turn around and find the man of her dreams standing right behind her. In her heart she knew the likelihood of meeting that perfect man in the next thirty days when it hadn’t happened in the past ten years was almost nonexistent.

But still a girl could hope, couldn’t she?

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