Based on the expressions of shock and thrill on the faces of Matt’s cousins, who clapped wildly as Hannah and Eric danced in front of them, it was possible that there had been a public kiss or worse.

Vicki stood up quickly, her eyes horrified. She grabbed her clutch from under her chair as Bee tugged at Joe’s elbow. “We have to get her out of here. Can you help me get her back to the room?”

“Let me just run and get her stuff,” Vicki offered. “Her bag with her wallet is in the tower. I’ll get it, and then we’ll take her straight back to the inn.”

Joe beamed with pride at Vicki’s organized response, the way she took charge of the situation. In that moment she reminded him of Sarah, his girlfriend, who often kept playing concierge long after she was home from work.

“Joe, I’ll be right back,” Vicki said. “Bee, can you pull Hannah off your brother and get her ready to go?”

Joe and Bee nodded. Joe squeezed Vicki’s forearm, reassuring her that it would all be okay, and then dipped into his pocket for his keys, wondering how long it would take to put Hannah to bed so he and Vicki could return to his room together.

Vicki

Vicki was galloping as quickly as she could in heels, which wasn’t much faster than she could walk. She escaped, past Tom, through the back of the tent, avoiding eye contact with him as he attempted to flag her down, most likely to discuss the flailing Hannah and what should be done with her. Once outside, Vicki let her eyes adjust to the dark so she could find the tower from which Bee and her bridesmaids had emerged hours earlier.

She’d promised Hannah that no matter how much either of them had to drink during the night, she’d make sure to grab the small suitcase and purse that held Hannah’s change of clothes, driver’s license, cell phone, and wallet. Hannah wouldn’t have time before her morning train to New York to return to Tower Gardens for anything she’d left behind.

The cylindrical staircase leading up to the tower’s top room was scarily narrow and empty enough to remind Vicki of a horror film or, more appropriately, the setting of a V. C. Andrews book. She paused after reaching the top of the steps and surveyed the empty penthouse, a two-room space with big velvety couches surrounded by suitcases, which presumably belonged to the bridesmaids. It wasn’t exactly reminiscent of Flowers in the Attic up there, despite the fact that it was an attic. Vicki had always imagined Cathy and Chris living in tighter quarters than the tower’s top floor, which was larger than most studio apartments in New York.

The tower’s penthouse was more in line with how Vicki had imagined the boarding house in Secrets of the Morning, the second book in V. C. Andrews’s series about a dancer who finds out that her grandfather is actually her father. Vicki shivered remembering the sex scene with Dawn and the handsome Michael Sutton. Before she could start dwelling on his fire hydrant, she shook her head and remembered her mission. Hannah’s bags. Taking Hannah back to the hotel with Joe.