Josh’s face was somber, but she reassured him. The ER doctor wasn’t worried. He gave her a five-day course of prednisone, listened to her lungs and said she sounded like someone with asthma. “It’s probably the exertion coupled with the difference in humidity, but everything else looks good,” he said. “Make sure you drink lots of water and have a good dinner tonight. Your oxygen saturation is ninety-five, which is on the low side of normal. You might be a little anemic, given that you’re a woman who gets her period, which can also cause a drop in O2 sats. You said you’re on your honeymoon, so if you’ve been hitting the mai tais, back off on that, because alcohol can make you dehydrated, which doesn’t help anything.”

“Killjoy,” Lauren said. Mai tais were the new love of her life. Ah, well. There was always tomorrow.

It took Josh a full day to stop checking to see if she’d faint again. She had to admit, she kind of loved being treated like a delicate orchid. The honeymoon progressed with no further incidents . . . just love. And fun. Joshua got a tan. Lauren’s nose sunburned a little. They took an inner tube ride down an old plantation canal through the rainforest. Snorkeled with turtles and brilliant-colored fish. They went jet-skiing, and saw a pod of spinner dolphins who played with them for a few minutes before darting off into the cerulean ocean. One night, they ate at a little shack-like restaurant and heard a Hawaiian singer, and the music was so lovely and happy. Lauren sat with her back against Josh, and the singer dedicated a song to “the young lovers at table four.” So, so romantic.

Best of all was going back to their pretty little rented house each night, giving their food leftovers to the stray cat who had marked them as softies, and watching the sunset, holding hands.

It was hard to leave.

“We’ll come back,” Josh promised. “Every few years, how’s that? This house, every time. Maybe we can even buy it if it ever goes on the market.”

Sometimes she forgot he was wealthy. Well. They were wealthy now. Josh wouldn’t sign a prenup, even when she had said she wouldn’t mind. “That would indicate a lack of faith in our future,” he’d said in his serious way. “And my faith in our future is absolute.” Lauren asked Stephanie what she thought, and Steph smiled and said, “Josh has never once made me question his judgment. I’m not going to start now.”

So yes, a house in Hawaii wasn’t out of the question. And hey, she made a decent living, too. It wasn’t like she brought nothing to the table.