Harmony walked over and sat down in the lounge chair on the other side of me, her pixie short chestnut hair glistened in the sun. She shook the salt water out of it, making it feather out. “The water is so warm!” she said, pushing up her oversize sunglasses. “There is a guy over there teaching kids how to windsurf. He’s stupid hot.”

“Maybe you can talk him into being our stripper later?” America said, straight-faced.

Kara frowned. “America, no. Travis would be livid. Abby isn’t actually a bachelorette, remember?”

America shrugged, letting her eyes close behind her sunglasses. Although Kara and I had grown very close since I moved out, she and America still weren’t on the best of terms. Probably because both of them said exactly what they thought.

“We’ll blame it on Harmony,” America said. “Travis can’t get mad at her. He’s forever indebted to her for letting him into Morgan Hall that night you were fighting.”

“Doesn’t mean I want to be on the wrong end of a Maddox rage,” Harmony said, shuddering.

I scoffed. “You know he hasn’t lashed out in a long time. He’s got a handle on his anger now.”

Harmony and I had shared two classes that semester, and when I invited her to the apartment to study, Travis recognized her as the girl who’d let him into our dorm. Like Travis, her brother was also a member of Sigma Tau fraternity, so she was one of the few pretty girls on campus that Travis hadn’t slept with.

“Travis and Shepley will be here tomorrow afternoon,” America said. “We have to get our partying in tonight. You don’t think Travis is sitting at home doing nothing, do you? We’re going out and we’re going to have a damn good time whether you like it or not.”

“That’s fine,” I said. “Just no strippers. And not too late. This wedding will actually have an audience. I don’t want to look hungover.”

Harmony lifted the flag next to her chair, and almost immediately a waiter came over.

“How may I help you, miss?”

“A piña colada, please?”

“Of course,” he said, backing away.

“This place is swank,” America said.

“And you wonder why it took us a year to save up for this. ”

“You’re right. I shouldn’t have said anything. Trav wanted you to have the best. I get it. And it was nice of Mom and Dad to pay my way. I sure as hell wouldn’t have been able to come otherwise.”

I giggled.

“You promised me I could be a bridesmaid and do everything you made me miss last year. I see them paying as a wedding present and an anniversary present to you, and a birthday present to me all rolled into one. If you ask me, they got off cheap.”

“It’s still too much.”

“Abby, they love you like a daughter. Daddy is very excited about walking you down the aisle. Let them do this without ruining the spirit of it,” America said.