Naomi was the one person she hadn’t heard from all morning. And she hadn’t necessarily been forthcoming lately. Chances were she’d give her a glossy smile and tell her everything was going great.
‘I’m so lost. How do you expect me to fix this? I don’t have enough information.’
‘We know enough to get the ball rolling.’ Roman laid out the plan. ‘Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll work on getting Lucy to apologize.’
‘That’s Anthony’s mother, right?’
He nodded. ‘Mrs Scott.’
She tried to focus. Hunger had its claws in her now. She thought fondly of the fruit bowl she’d left behind. Maya had probably eaten it.
‘Work on getting Naomi to accept the apology,’ Roman continued. ‘We’ll move forward from there.’
Samantha didn’t know what Lucy had said, but it had to be vile to cause all this drama. ‘Naomi is not one to forgive and forget very easily.’
‘You’re missing the point,’ he said.
‘Oh?’ She raised her chin, defiant. ‘What am I missing?’
His answer surprised her. ‘I want to dance with you tonight. For that to happen there has to be a wedding. We’re going to make it work.’
Samantha’s salty mood dissolved instantly. ‘And here I thought your intentions were pure.’
‘Eye on the prize, babe.’
His cocky smile made his brown eyes dance. To think she’d dreaded this wedding. Now she couldn’t wait.
He took one of her limp locks and curled it round his finger. ‘By the way, your hair is still wet.’
She smacked his hand away. ‘And whose fault is that? I didn’t get a chance to dry it this morning. I have a whole routine and it takes forever.’
‘Sure,’ he said. ‘Blame it all on me. If I remember right, there were two people in that shower.’
If she remembered right, those two people were doing very naughty things.
‘I’m going to need another shower before this wedding,’ he said.
‘Don’t even think about it.’
On the other end of the terrace, Anthony was bouncing off the nonexistent walls. ‘Hate to interrupt!’ he cried out. ‘I’m in crisis here!’
Roman tossed him a look over his shoulder. ‘Get a grip! We’re figuring it out.’
‘He’s right,’ Samantha said. ‘We should get going. Do we synchronize our watches?’
‘Cutie,’ he whispered, and drew her close for a kiss. ‘Just answer my texts.’
‘I’ll do my best.’
Samantha’s phone rang. She had left it on the cocktail table tucked between the lounge chairs. All three of them turned to stare at it. Anthony peeked at the screen. ‘It’s Naomi!’ he cried. ‘Answer it!’
Roman squeezed her waist. ‘Go on.’
Samantha rushed to answer before the third ring. Out of breath and coming across unnaturally chipper, she said, ‘Hey there!’
‘Sam.’ Naomi’s tone was wet. ‘Where are you?’
‘Well, I was at brunch when—’