“Hold up, you’re driving back home now?”

I stare at Julian as the words explode out of his mouth. You’d think I’d just told him I was riding a unicycle back home to visit my sick donkey. This is why I didn’t tell him about Lily. I can only imagine his reaction to that.

“Yes.”

Visiting Mom was the only thing I could think of that I knew he wouldn’t try to talk me out of. Because family always comes first. I feel bad about using Mom as an excuse, but I’ve spent three years building up my relationship with Alberto. I can’t risk Lily, Darcy or Katie messing everything up.

“But why the fuck are you going to drive?” Julian rants. “You’re going to miss the wedding. Why not fly back?”

“If I leave now,” I say. “I’ll have plenty of time. It’s only seventeen hours each way. At worst, I’ll be back Saturday night.”

“Fucking great, you’ll have a few spare hours up your sleeve,” he mutters. “Why don’t you book in a winery tour or a cheese tasting—”

“Julian, it’s my mom.”

He sighs and glares at me. “Fine. Just make sure you’re back in time, or I’ll kill you.”

“I will be,” I assure him.

“And say hi to your mom for me,” he grumbles. “I’m sorry she’s not well.”

“I better get going,” I tell him, ignoring the twinge of guilt his comment causes. “Hey, can I take your car? I don’t want Alberto to know I’m going.”

“You haven’t told him?” he asks, surprised.

“I figure I’ll be back before he notices I’m gone.” I shrug. “If I’m not, just tell him you sent me off to do wedding things.”

“Wedding things?” he repeats.

“Tell him I’m choosing your wedding night lingerie.” I grin at him. “Racy, lacy and revealing, right? What size are you again?”

“You’re a fucking comedian,” he mutters.

The moment he turns around to fetch his keys, I take his phone out of my pocket and slide it onto the table. Just as I’m moving my arm back into place, he turns around, so I awkwardly step forward and hug him.

He stiffens, surprised by my sudden intimate gesture, but then hugs me back. I can think of only two or three occasions in the course of our entire friendship where we’ve hugged like this, but what the hell. The guy is getting married and there’s a chance I won’t be back in time to see it.

“See you soon,” I say.

I step into the elevator and look up, my lips lifting into a smirk when I see Katie. She frowns and stares down at the floor. Anything to avoid looking at me. An awkward silence fills the air as we both just stand there. Well, it’s awkward for her.

“I wanted to ask you something…are there more?”

“More what?” She asks, confused.

“Songs,” I explain patiently. “I thought your songs could be on our playlist.”

She glares at the numbers on the control panel, not acknowledging me at all.

“If you’re trying to work out how to stop this thing, it’s that button right there.” I reach forward, but her hand shoots out and grabs my wrist. She swings me around, narrowing her eyes at me.

“Don’t you dare.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Aggressive. I like it.”

“Let’s get something clear,” she says. “Just because I agree with you, doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it—”

“You’d be shocked how many women have said that to me,” I cut in, winking at her.

“Don’t talk to me,” she mutters, pushing past me as the doors open.

“Come on, Katie,” I say, following her down the hallway. “I was trying to lighten things up.”

“There you are.” Darcy runs up to Katie and takes her hand. “She’s gone.”

“Who’s gone?” Katie frowns. “Lily?”

“What?” I snap, joining them. “Gone where?”

“I’m sorry,” Darcy whispers. “She snuck out. She was in the bathroom and I went outside to make a phone call …” Her voice trails off. “I came back and she was gone.”

“You left her alone?” Katie frowns.

“You left her alone with Darcy?” I growl at Katie.

“Hey, you don’t have to make it sound like I’m incompetent,” Darcy snaps.

“Really?” I laugh. “If you’re not incompetent, then where is she?”

“Hey, calm down,” Katie steps between us. She glares at me. “Leave Darcy alone. If you were that worried about losing Lily, then you should have taken her with you in the first place.”

That would’ve been fun explaining to Julian.

“Fine.” I sigh. “Any ideas on where she might’ve gone?”

“No,” Katie says. “Other than to try and find Julian?”

“He’d call me if she went there,” I say, not convinced.

“You don’t think she’d do anything stupid, do you?” Katie asks anxiously.

“You mean like fly halfway across the country to crash her ex boyfriend’s wedding?” Darcy quips. “No. Not Lily.”

“There’s no need to be sarcastic,” Katie mutters. “Lily’s not spiteful, she’s just—”

“Stupid?” Darcy supplies. Her eyes sparkle. “Why are you defending her after she sent …” Darcy freezes and stares at Katie, who looks like she wants to throttle her. “That thing to that other person …” she murmurs through her half-closed mouth.

I chuckle, disguising it as a cough when Katie shifts her glare to me.

“It’ll be fine, okay?” I soften my tone. “She couldn’t have gone very far.”

Katie closes her eyes and leans against the wall, swaying forward, like she’s having trouble keeping her balance. That means she’s either still hungover, or she’s really fucking tired. Her eyes fly open and narrow when they catch me looking at her.

“I never should’ve agreed to come,” she mutters.

“Oh, come on. And I shouldn’t have suggested we go out, and you shouldn’t have written that song when you were fourteen and Lily shouldn’t have sent it to her entire contact list.” Darcy shrugs. “There are a thousand variables that could’ve stopped this from happening. But maybe the alternative is worse?”

I grin at the mention of the song and glance at Katie, who has turned bright red.

“She’s right,” I say to her. “Don’t beat yourself up over this. Shit happens. You can’t change it, so you deal with it and move on.”

She looks at me, as if she’s waiting for the snide remark, but I don’t have one.

“Is Lola’s family really that bad?” she asks quietly.

“Yes,” I say simply. “They’re definitely people you don’t want to mess with.”

It’s the most honest thing I’ve said in months.

Lying has become second nature for me, to the point where it feels strange to tell the truth. I hate keeping things from the people close to me, but I find myself doing it more and more. I know it’ll be worth it in the end, but the end feels so far away. And is it worth it if the people I care about are going to hate me for lying to them?

Not only that, it’s fucking hard work keeping up with all the lies. I’ve told so many different things to so many people, it’s a wonder it hasn’t backfired on me. I really shouldn’t jinx myself, because there’s still time for me to fuck things up. Especially with these three on my hands.

“But Alberto … he wouldn’t hurt her, would he?” Darcy asks.

“I don’t know,” I admit.

Katie shakes her head. “I can’t imagine Julian getting mixed up in that kind of life.” She narrows her eyes at me. “You, on the other hand, this has Adam Jenkins written all over it.”

“Harsh.” I smirk. “Wait, was that an insult or a compliment?”

“Only you would have trouble discerning that.” Darcy chuckles, flashing him a smile. The she frowns. “Should we be, uh, looking for Lily or something? You know, just an idea.”

“Darcy’s right. But where do we even start?” Katie frowns.

“We start by thinking like Lily,” I say after a moment.

“That sounds dangerous,” Darcy mutters. “Can’t I just do what anyone else would do and look through her phone?”

Katie and I glare at Darcy when she holds up Lily’s phone.

“Are you kidding me?” I growl angrily at her. “Why the fuck would you wait until now to mention you have her phone?”

“Sorry, I was distracted,” she says defensively.

Katie’s eyes meet mine. She shakes her head and turns around, pacing back and forth around us while Darcy goes through her phone. I’m just about to yell at Darcy to hurry up, when Katie’s head snaps up. She stares at me with wide eyes.

“I think I know where she is,” Katie says excitedly.

I control my expression, but inside, I’m relieved as fuck.

I nod. “Then let’s go.”

I’ve never been so happy to find someone completely trashing a chapel.

Katie hurries up the aisle and grabs hold of her cousin’s arm, while I try not to laugh at the sight of Lily hurling eggs against the wall. It’s hard though, when Darcy is on her knees next to me, laughing herself so hard she’s in tears.

“Where did she get eggs from?” Darcy gasps, wiping her eyes. “Oh my God, this is epic. Julian is going to blow his lid.”

“No, I imagine the lovely little Swedish couple getting married here on Saturday will be blowing their lids,” I say with a wry smile.

I spot the broken window to the side of the arch and stiffen. Anyone could have heard that smash and called the cops. Katie looks up at me and follows my gaze to the window.

“We need to get her out of here now,” I mutter. “Or we can add the police to the list of people she’s running from.”

“I’m trying,” she says hotly. “What do you want me to do? Throw her over my shoulder and haul her to your car?”

“It’s a step up from this,” I say, nodding at Lily, who is hunched over, sobbing loudly.

Katie wraps her arm around her and tries to calm her down. She’s so unsteady on her feet that it doesn’t take much for Katie to lower her down onto the ground and disarm her. I catch sight of an empty bottle of vodka discarded under the first row of seats and I groan.

Fuck. Just what we need. I catch Darcy’s eye and point at the bottle.

“Shh, you’re okay,” Katie whispers.

“Okay?” Darcy laughs. “She drank a whole bottle of Vodka. She’s lucky she’s not dead.” Katie eyes the bottle, alarmed. “We really do need to get her to the car,” Darcy adds. “And probably the hospital.”

“No. I’m fine,” Lily mumbles. “Half of it is coating the walls.”

“Coat …” I shake my head. “What were you planning on doing, setting it alight?” Katie gives me a look.

Oh Lord. That’s exactly what she was planning.

“For Christ’s sake, hurry up,” I snap at Lily, losing what little patience I have left.

Lily stops wailing long enough to glance at Katie, who looks over at me in annoyance. I laugh. How am I the bad guy? I stalk outside to unlock the car, then pace the front of the chapel, waiting for them. If I go back in there, I’ll say or do something that I’ll regret. Lily’s a handful at the best of times, but right now, she’s a fucking nightmare.

I turn around when the door swings open to see Katie and Darcy walking Lily out. It’s a slow process, because every few steps, Lily stops and wobbles, turns green, then starts walking again.

“Here,” I mutter, walking over to help.

I take most of her weight and when we’re close enough to the car, I nod at Katie to open the door. Grunting, I sprawl Lily out on the back seat. Darcy dives in next to her and slams the door shut, then grins at Lily through the window.

“Guess I’m sitting in the front.”

“If the radio cuts out, you can be the entertainment,” I quip, smirking at Katie.

“Glad you’re finding this funny.” She gives me a death stare. “Now can we please just get out of here?”

She gets in the front and slams the door shut. I shake my head and smile. That last comment might have been unnecessarily cruel, but she’s so much fun to wind up. I glance around, stiffening when I see Marco approaching me out of nowhere. I turn around and wave at him, pasting a smile onto my face.

“Frederick,” he says, giving me a smile. “You’re out and about early.”

“One of the downfalls of always being on call are the drunk pickup requests I get from my friends the morning after,” I say with a laugh. “What about you? Early riser or jetlag?” Considering how chatty his is, I’m going with the former.

“Both?” he says, chuckling. “Anyway, Alberto is waiting for me.” He glances at the car. “Good luck with that. It sounds like you might need it.”

My heart thumps as he walks away. I rest my palms against the doorframe and wait until he’s out of sight. Then I take a deep breath, composing myself before I even think about getting in the car. If they heard him call me Frederick, I’ll need to diffuse the situation and fast. The only thing is, I’m not sure how.

One thing I do know is that was way too close.