“Cynthia doesn’t…do weddings,” I said with a smirk.

Jared pulled his sister’s hand from his eyes and smiled at me. “You like that one?”

“Well, I’d have to try it on.”

“Oh my, you will look so beautiful in that dress, Nina.” Lillian said as she hugged me to her, kissing the top of my head.

“Does it go with a small white chapel on a tiny island off Nicaragua?” Jared asked.

I looked up at him, trying to keep the corners of my mouth from turning up. “I think so.”

“What?” Lillian asked, looking at Jared with a confused half-smile.

“When we went to Little Corn during Spring Break, we found a little chapel on the island. That’s where the ceremony—the very small ceremony—will be. It only seats about fifty...possibly less.”

Lillian looked at me with surprise.

Claire gasped and then laughed, her mouth formed into an ‘O’. “You are so dead, Jared!”

“A Nicaraguan island?” Lillian said softly. “Okay…we’ll make it work,” she said with a sweet smile.

“You have to take a boat to get there, Mom,” Jared added.

Lillian looked at Jared and then at me, trying to find words. “Wedding guests taking a plane to Nicaragua, and then a boat to a tiny island with huts for accommodations,” she thought aloud.

I shut the magazine as Jared walked over to his mother, patting her shoulder. “It gives us a good excuse to keep the guest list to a minimum.”

Lillian’s eyes brightened. “There’s always the reception,” she chirped, thumbing through another magazine.

Jared laughed at his mother’s unfailing optimism.

Lillian hugged me again and stood up, hooking her arm around the shoulders of her youngest son. “Bex has an early training session in the morning. Let me know if you need anything, Nina. I love you both,” she smiled.

Claire shook her head at her mother with amused affection and then looked at me. “She lives for this stuff.”

“Don’t think you’re going to get away with anything like this, young lady,” Lillian called to Claire. “Plan on a ridiculously lavish church wedding, now.”

Claire waved to her mother, and I could see her expression turn to unease as I looked down to flip through more pages of the magazine.

“What is it, Claire?” Jared asked.

“We left a few loose ends at the restaurant. Those men are loyal to Grahm, Jared.”

After several moments of silence, I looked up. Jared’s expression was impatient. “This could have waited.”

“I disagree,” Claire said in a concerned tone. “Bex will be watching Ryan for me. I won’t let them come after Nina again.” She looked at me with a maternal softness.

“What do you plan to do?” I asked, feeling a twinge in my chest.