Skyler walked over to her and swept her up in a tight hug. “You aren’t fooling me, Gigi Martin. I commend you for looking forward and carving out a new life, but pasts don’t just fade away. No one knows that better than me,” he said with a sardonic huff of laughter. “I’m not going to make you talk about it, but just know that I’m here for you and I understand. Got it?”
Tears sprung to Gigi’s eyes. She hadn’t had a friend like Skyler in many years. Not since she and Sebastian had been close back in high school. Sure, she had Grace, Hope, and Joy. They were great and she loved getting closer to them, but they didn’t see through her the way Skyler did. It both warmed and shook her a bit. Still, she clung to him, grateful for his support, and said, “Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me.”
He pulled back and kissed her cheek. “I know what it means to live your life on someone else’s terms. Thank the gods, I’m not in that place anymore. Pete is the first person who loved me for me and supports me in anything I want to do. It’s my fervent wish that you find your own Pete someday.”
She shook her head but smiled gently at him as she said, “I’m not in the market for my own Pete. Not now anyway. All I was looking for with that dating site was someone to flirt with for a while and maybe have some dinner. Too bad I couldn’t even find that much. But it’s okay, because I still have you. And your friendship is more than good enough for me.”
The man who was always ready with a cheeky comeback and a teasing smile blinked back his own tears as he took her in his arms again. “Dammit, Gigi. I told myself I wasn’t going to cry today no matter what I found in your closets, but here you’ve gone and turned me into a weepy fool.”
She chuckled. “Oh, I’m fairly certain there’s something in these boxes of mine that will still make you cry, so you were never going to last anyway.”
Skyler laughed and pulled back. “You do realize that since you’ve moved in, you’ve turned into my favorite person, right?”
“Besides Pete,” she said with a glint in her eye.
“Besides Pete.” He nodded his agreement. “I knew five minutes after we met that we’d be besties.”
“Same here. But that might’ve been because of the cupcakes you brought me as a welcome to the neighborhood gift.” She winked at him.
“Someone had to take those damned things off my hands!” he said dramatically, pressing his hands to his flat stomach. “I was in danger of needing a whole new wardrobe.”
“Like you need a reason to buy more clothes.” They chuckled together and then went to work on collecting the garments he’d be consigning at his new shop.
After a few hours, there was only one trunk left. Gigi rolled her shoulders and then crouched down to open it. There was tissue paper lining the top, making Gigi frown. She didn’t remember using any tissue paper when she’d packed her things. Curious, she moved the tissue aside and found her mother’s preserved wedding dress. Gigi was immediately assaulted with vivid memories from twenty-three years ago.
Gigi stared, open-mouthed as she watched the large policeman escort Sebastian to the back of the car. A scream was stuck in her throat, and her entire body shook uncontrollably. Her life had just spun apart, and everything she’d held dear had shattered.
“You know I didn’t do this!” Sebastian called back to her. “Gigi. Look at me.”
At just eighteen years old, and with no one else in the world she trusted, Gigi met Sebastian’s eyes.
“You know me. Trust your gut. You know in your heart that this isn’t true.” His gaze was steady, but there was no mistaking the pleading in his tone. Sebastian was scared. Of course he was. He was being arrested for the abduction of Carolyn Benson, Gigi’s mother.
When the knock had come at the door, Gigi had thought the police were coming with news of her mother. Instead, they’d come for Sebastian because he was the last person who saw her on the day she’d gone missing.
Gigi opened her mouth to reassure him, to let him know that she knew they’d made a mistake, but nothing came out. Her words were stuck in her throat as she watched them stuff him in the car and take away the only person she trusted.
“Gigi? What’s wrong?” Skyler asked, pulling her from her memories.
She blinked up at her friend, clearing her blurry vision. “It’s my mom’s wedding dress,” she gasped out.
When Gigi was eighteen, her mother had just vanished one day, seemingly into thin air, and had never been heard from again. At first, Gigi hadn’t worried much. Her mother was a photographer, and her job took her out of town often. Gigi had figured her mother had just forgotten to tell her she’d be gone for a few days. But when Gigi hadn’t been able to get ahold of her, and her mother’s employer had confirmed that Carolyn Benson wasn’t on assignment, that’s when Gigi’s world had started to fall apart.
For an entire week, Sebastian, her best friend, had been by her side as the pair searched for Carolyn. They’d found her calendar and had tried to trace her steps the day she’d gone missing. Dentist appointment, grocery store, a meeting with her publisher, and then home where Sebastian had spoken with her for a few minutes when he’d come by to see Gigi. That was it. That was the last time anyone had seen her or her old VW Bug. They hadn’t come up with a single viable lead as to what had happened to her.
Neither had the police, and that’s when they set their sights on Sebastian, the boy from the other side of the tracks who’d admitted to speaking with her within an hour of her disappearance. And since he’d been home alone, he had no alibi. They’d pinned their circumstantial case on him and hauled him off to jail where he’d been berated for three days before a public defender had forced them to either charge him or let him go. With zero evidence against him, they’d had no choice but to let him leave.
But they’d spent the next six months hounding him and even going so far as to try to pin evidence on him. It was then that he decided that he could no longer live in that small town. He’d begged Gigi to go with him, but she couldn’t. She’d been convinced that her mother would return, and she had to be there when that day came.
Only it never did. Instead, James was the one who’d been there for her and convinced her it was time to start living again. What she hadn’t known at the time was that all he wanted was her trust fund. Life hadn’t been especially kind to Gigi over the last two decades, but she was bound and determined to change that.
“Holy shit!” Skyler said as he jumped back and pulled Gigi with him.
A shimmer of light caught Gigi’s eye, and she froze as she watched the dress rise from the trunk seemingly of its own accord. The wedding dress filled out as if a body had slipped into it, then spun around, making the skirt flair out, showing off the pretty beading and delicate lace.
Then the dress floated across the room. One arm rose into the air and then letters started to appear in the dust on the glass window. Once the message was scratched in the dust, the dress suddenly dropped to the floor in a heap of fabric. Gigi moved forward and squinted her eyes as she tried to make out the hastily written message.
Skyler moved to stand beside her, holding her hand tightly in his.