She turned away and strode across the room, slipping her arm through mine and pulling me with her. I waved to Sunny, who waved back. Piper hurried to catch up to us.

“Thank you so much, Viv,” she cried. “You’re a miracle worker.”

Viv nodded, knowing quite well that she was. “I’m still not coming to your hen.”

“But, Viv,” Piper started to protest.

“No.” And that was that. Viv ushered us through the door and down the hallway.

“That was impressive,” I said as we walked.

“No, it wasn’t,” she argued. “Anyone could have solved that problem if the women had just offered to share their wardrobes. Instead, they had to call me in to terrorize them into doing it. Ridiculous.”

She wasn’t wrong.

“I wonder who the vest belonged to,” I said.

“I suspect it was the woman who looked slightly ill when I handed it to Trisha,” Viv said. “I don’t blame her, Trisha is vile.”

“She was very mean to Sunny,” I said. “A bit of a bully, in fact.”

“More than a bit,” Viv said. “Going after a woman’s weight is unnecessarily vicious. As if we aren’t all hounded enough by society’s ridiculous expectation that we stay thin and pretty until we die. To heck with that, let’s go have some more petit fours.”

I laughed. I did adore my cousin and her sense of self. We turned down the passageway that led to our rooms.

“What’s the most colorful thing in your suitcase?” Viv asked.

“I have my floral cocktail dress,” I said.

“The Jenny Packham with the bright blue morning glory flowers around the hem that wind up across the bodice to the shoulder?”

“That’s the one,” I said. “I didn’t realize drab was the go-to color scheme for the weekend.”

Viv laughed. “Piper really hates her bridesmaids. Let’s make certain we’re not confused with them. You wear the Packham and I have an exotic orange and pink number by Kim Jones that I’m going to wear with a matching hat. I packed one to match your outfit, too.”

“Of course you did.” I grinned. I wasn’t at all surprised that Viv had guessed which dress I was wearing and packed a hat to match. It was my favorite and she knew it. “Piper is not going to be happy with us stealing her limelight.”

“Nonsense, we’re not stealing anything,” Viv said. “We’re simply marketing the business.”

Right.

*   *   *

“You two look like exotic birds that took flight in Bermuda and landed here,” Andre said. He was in his standard black suit with a black shirt and a bold burgundy tie. His earrings winked in the soft light of the wall sconces as he escorted me and Viv down to one of the larger dining rooms for dinner.