“—He laughed,” Antonia finished. Her face flushed as she evoked the memory of Derek’s chuckling. “He called it a ‘cute idea.’”

“He said that if everything worked out at his firm, you wouldn’t have to work at all,” Octavia reminded her. “His mother didn’t have to work, why should you?”

She’d been thoroughly embarrassed by his remark. Antonia came from a family of hard-working women. After their father died, Diane had worked three jobs so that Antonia and her sister could continue attending a private Catholic school. When Octavia graduated from high school, she’d been determined to get into the University of Chicago. She’d worked as a waitress and depended on her scholarships while commuting from their old Southside neighborhood. Even Antonia had worked as a bartender throughout her graduate degree. The Harper women knew how to hustle.

“I think I ignored more than that,” Antonia said.

“I think you might be right. The struggle with his mother over these wedding plans may have been another sign. Did you really want a wedding at Shedd Aquarium or were you just being stubborn?”

Antonia detected laughter in her sister’s eyes. Her heart lifted as she let out a startled laugh. “What are you talking about? I love the ocean.”

“The underexplored bastion of our world?”

Antonia wiped tears from her face while she giggled. “I didn’t say it like that.”

“Yeah, well, I saw Vivian Rogers’s face when you said it. I thought she would fall off her chair.”

“I was serious about the aquarium, though,” Antonia said. “It would have been a nice ceremony.”

“And were you serious about your honeymoon?” Octavia asked, arching a brow. “Where on earth were you guys going?”

Antonia tried to stifle her disappointment. “Derek wanted to go to Bali or something. I wanted us to go to Ireland.”

“What’s in Ireland?”

“I don’t know,” Antonia admitted. “I’ve always wanted to go there. I booked a place on the west coast, right on the ocean. Oh my god, you should see the pictures.” She scooted off the couch to retrieve her laptop. “I found this little town called Clifden. It’s got these beautiful green grass hills dotted white with sheep. Craggy gray cliffs that kind of tumble into the Atlantic. There, look at that B&B, isn’t it adorable?”

Octavia peered at the screen. “Are those three pubs sitting right next to one another?”

“Romantic, huh?”

“This is the whitest thing I’ve ever heard of.”

Antonia frowned. “I thought it would be nice. Not that it matters...”

Octavia went quiet, her eyes darting between the computer screen and her sister. “Mmh.”

“What?” She knew the wheels were turning rapidly in her sister’s brain.

“It’s just that...well, what if you could still kiss your Blarney Stone?”

“What do you mean?”

“How much money have you saved?”

Antonia shook her head. “Octavia, I just lost my job. I have a million wedding things I need to cancel. Even then, I’ll have to pay for the cancellations.”

“Yes, but how much have you saved? Enough for a rainy day?”