Shaking, she pulled her phone from her bag while the girls’ usual chatter rose behind her. Their voices had turned into a kind of buzz, melting into the deafening ring now overtaking her head. Everything felt simultaneously slow-motion and much too fast, spinning with an uncaring velocity as she tried to get her bearings. She had barely tapped her phone’s screen before she saw the seventeen missed messages from Paul, only the last of which was visible. In all caps, using every urgent emoji he could find on his keyboard, were just two words:

ABORT MISSION.

14. Taormina, Sicily

14

TAORMINA, SICILY

Now

“Does this look okay?” Sophie asked Bee, turning slightly on the aft deck to show off the floral maxi dress she’d picked up in town that afternoon. The sun was beginning to slip behind the cliffs of Taormina, casting the surrounding water in shimmering gold.

“You asked me at the store,” Bee responded, looking up from her phone. “I liked it then, and I like it now.”

Sophie sat herself down on the tufted built-in bench, grabbing a flute of champagne from a crew member’s tray. “It wasn’t styled in the store.”

“You need to calm down,” Bee instructed, sounding more like a mother than she had the whole trip. “You look great, and Gabriel is going to love the dress.”

Alex smiled, sipping her spritz. It was sort of charming to see Sophie nervous about anything, let alone a man. And they had all heard plenty about Gabriel, the handsome and wealthy Frenchman she had been seeing in Paris. He was a consultant whose family owned a boutique hotel, and he looked like a J. Crew model, with wavy blond hair and blue eyes. Basically, he ticked all the boxes required for Sophie to stress over what she was wearing for the first time since they’d set sail.

“You really do look great,” Alex affirmed, grabbing an olive from the spread in front of them.

“Thanks,” Sophie said, looking down at her dress. “And don’t make fun.” She turned to Bee. “I really like this guy, okay?”

“We know you do,” Bee deadpanned. “When does he get here?”

“He should be here any minute,” Sophie answered, looking surreptitiously down at the dock for the fifth time in ten minutes.

“And what about you?” Bee asked, unexpectedly turning to Alex.

“Me? What about me?”

“Are you seeing anyone?”

It was surprising how Bee still made Alex a little nervous, even after all these years. It probably had something to do with the height of her cheekbones.

“No, not really.” Instinctually, Alex crossed her legs and brought her arms in close, a change in physicality Bee noticed immediately. She paused, looking her up and down before speaking again.

“I see those Cancer defense mechanisms are still hard at work.” She smiled, taking a sip of her drink.